Huh. Especially interesting because of this SD column by Cecil claiming ritualized cannibalism basically doesn’t exist. (it’s from 1988 though, and may be due for an update)
Some preliminary research on these Aghori folk seems to suggest they do practice routine cannibalism.
Another confirmation on the ‘tastes like pork’.
Except for Papua New Guinea-and the only ones who remember it would be in the 80s-90s by now. (And they only practiced as a funeral ritual, IIRC-well, until they found out what was causing kuru)
There’s a book I have-it’s called A History of Cannibalism. My copy is in the attic, but if you can find it at your local library, you might want to take a look-it’s fascinating.
The Yanomamo of the Amazon also practice funeral cannibalism. They mix the ashes of loved ones into a beverage and drink it. vomit smiley
It looks like Cecil, like me, took The Man-Eating Myth far too seriously. Arens is a clever kid, but he’s contradicted by the evidence (look in the thread I linked to for examples).
And look in the Harris book I cited for more.
I took a basic anthropology course with Arens at SUNY Stony Brook a while back. He was very laid back, and only mentioned the book on the last day.
Could be mistaken, but I seem to recall that a part of his basic thesis was that there is no prohibitive taboo against cannibalism. Yet, despite that, there wasn’t much serious practice of cannibalism either. Am I remember that correctly?