# Let's talk about cannibalism **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 1, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448 "2009-01-01T06:34:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/21 "2009-01-01T19:29:26Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > I’m another 1. I wouldn’t want to live in a world where eating humans was acceptable, or neccessary. Johnny L.A. might have a lamp shade you could use. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/22 "2009-01-01T19:30:19Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > I’m another 1. I wouldn’t want to live in a world where eating humans was acceptable, or neccessary. Agreed. Though I am curious: surely there have been survival situations where stranded people could have turned to cannibalism–what generally happens in such cases? ---
**Author:** ![dre2xl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@dre2xl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dre2xl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/23 "2009-01-01T19:31:02Z")
Probably close to a 1 for two reasons… 1. I think if I got hungry to the point where I’d be a cannibal, I’d probably be too weak physically to be able to digest unfamiliar meat without throwing up. 2. Psychological reluctance manifests physically. I had these sea snails from a Japanese restaurant once (came with omakase). It wasn’t normal escargot, it was these large sea snails that had these cute colorful cone shaped shells. It took all of my willpower to eat it, but I ended up throwing it up from the squeamishness. I can only imagine it’d be far worse with long pig. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/24 "2009-01-01T19:34:59Z")
How about the maggots that might appear on the corpses? Who would eat those? ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/25 "2009-01-01T19:37:07Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Agreed. Though I am curious: surely there have been survival situations where stranded people could have turned to cannibalism–what generally happens in such cases? Don’t tell me you’ve never seen “The Hills Have Eyes”? 😃 Imagine the psychological problems involved in dealing with eating even a total stranger? I’m sure an inventive chef could make it look good on a plate, but still? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/26 "2009-01-01T19:37:56Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Agreed. Though I am curious: surely there have been survival situations where stranded people could have turned to cannibalism–what generally happens in such cases? Never heard of the Donner Party or Alferd Packer? It definitely happened in the American west in the pioneer days; that couldn’t have been the only time. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/27 "2009-01-01T19:39:29Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Never heard of the Donner Party or Alferd Packer? It definitely happened in the American west in the pioneer days; that couldn’t have been the only time. I’m not doubting it’s ever happened–I’m trying to see if we can perhaps gauge how an average person may react based on perhaps more than 2 incidents, interesting as they may be. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/28 "2009-01-01T19:43:15Z")
Well, it never happens to the average person. It happens to people like the Donner Party and the Packer Party. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/29 "2009-01-01T19:54:33Z")
> [@BarnOwl](#): > > How about the maggots that might appear on the corpses? > > Who would eat those? I’d eat the meat before the maggots appeared. I’d smoke, if possible, what I couldn’t eat right away, or at least cut it thin and dry it before the flies got to it. Two reasons - one, the higher up the food chain you go, the less calories you’ve got. You can get more food energy out of grain than cattle, more food energy out of cattle than wolves, etc. Every step in the process uses some of the food energy for it’s own metabolic processes. The second reason is that maggots are icky. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/30 "2009-01-01T20:19:01Z")
What about cannibalism during epic sieges such as the Battle of Stalingrad? It is reputed to be the bloodiest battle ever and lasted almost 7 months. I would’t be too surprised if both sides ate human meat. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/31 "2009-01-01T20:26:29Z")
Are Zombies cannibals, or just a little misunderstood? ---
**Author:** ![InterestedObserver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@InterestedObserver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InterestedObserver)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/32 "2009-01-01T20:57:04Z")
Hmmm, as a vegetarian (aside from fish) I’d eat damn near anything but meat of any kind before resorting to carnivorous behaviour. But the survival instinct is very strong, and if it came down to it, I would certainly eat or kill an animal to eat it. I probably would consume the flesh of an already dead human if it got REALLY gnarly. I’d like to think I wouldn’t kill them to do it. But this is not a question of what one prefers to eat or ones usual ethical reasoning, but of survival. (Stephen King wrote a lovely little story once called “Survivor Type” about a man driven, after being stranded on an island, to eat HIMSELF, bit by bit. Very disturbing:eek:) I guess I’d be around a 10 or so on that scale. One case in more modern times of cannabilism among stranded survivors was “Alive” (both a book and a film). The soccer players whose plane crashed in the Andes. A very disturbing read, but lots of insight into the physcological process involved. These people held out a LONG time before resorting to eating the dead (they were trapped in a frozen environment, so the bodies didn’t decompose as they would have in balmier climes. But even if they had, I think they would still have eaten them eventually) They did everything they could to avoid cannabilism, to the point of eating all the toothpaste and everything else which was even remotely edible. When it was finally suggested that they consume the dead, it was not a popular option. Some of them did choose to continue starving rather than partake. Those who partook did so with extreme revulsion. After they’d been eating the flesh for a while, the side effects were not pretty…these people probably kept themselves alive, but only just barely. The emotional aftermath was pretty disturbing, with many of the survivors having long-term issues as a result, both crushing guilt and self-loathing and eating disorders. I think this has to be one of the best documented cases of its kind. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/33 "2009-01-01T21:03:35Z")
My guess we’ll never know what we’ll do until we are put into the situation. I’d guess that a lot people who think they’d have no trouble eating human flesh would actually starve to death when their friend’s flesh are in front of them, and a lot of folks who think they’d never do it would be like “Is it white wine or red with Francis?”. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/34 "2009-01-01T21:28:17Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > My guess we’ll never know what we’ll do until we are put into the situation. I’d guess that a lot people who think they’d have no trouble eating human flesh would actually starve to death when their friend’s flesh are in front of them, and a lot of folks who think they’d never do it would be like “Is it white wine or red with Francis?”. I was thinking the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/35 "2009-01-01T21:40:12Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Could you use a boob as a hat? Or maybe just a yarmulke? Uhh, sure, I suppose. But how would it help, exactly, in the cannibal survival scenario? Using absurdist humor to distract your survival mates from the fact that you’re eating human beings, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/36 "2009-01-01T21:44:16Z")
> [@Khampelf](#): > > Uhh, sure, I suppose. > > But how would it help, exactly, in the cannibal survival scenario? > > Using absurdist humor to distract your survival mates from the fact that you’re eating human beings, maybe? And thereafter, whenever you laugh… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/37 "2009-01-01T21:46:29Z")
> [@Khampelf](#): > > But how would it help, exactly, in the cannibal survival scenario? Probably not at all. I’m just a fan of absurd images. 😛 Hey look! A boob beanie! ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/38 "2009-01-01T21:58:41Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Probably not at all. > > I’m just a fan of absurd images. 😛 > > Hey look! A boob beanie! I’d put the tit on the victim’s head, then pretend I was eating a London Bobbie. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/39 "2009-01-01T22:00:41Z")
> [@Khampelf](#): > > I’d put the tit on the victim’s head, then pretend I was eating a London Bobbie. If you cooked him, he’d be Robert Browning. If you overcooked him, he’d be Bobbie Burns. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-cannibalism/479448/40 "2009-01-01T22:01:42Z")
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