# Necrophagia and Cannibalism = Insanity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 13, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220 "2004-01-13T02:44:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bhb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ab992/32.png) [@bhb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bhb)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/1 "2004-01-13T02:44:33Z")
I’ve heard that the practice of cannibalism or human necrophagia, as practiced in New Guinea, leads to insanity. Can anyone refer me to a study which supports these claims or perhaps give a brief explanation why this occurs? Is this a unique trait for humans or does it apply to other mammals? Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/2 "2004-01-13T02:54:53Z")
maybe it works like mad cow disease _L_ Seriously, anyone who eats other humans (whether already dead or ones they killed) outside of emergency situations is near crazy anyway, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![NotBob13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e19b73/32.png) [@NotBob13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotBob13)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/3 "2004-01-13T04:47:21Z")
It does work like Mad cow disease. You eat infected nerve tissue, and you get mad cow. I’m sure other similar infections work this way also. ---
**Author:** ![Zaphod7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/df788c/32.png) [@Zaphod7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zaphod7)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/4 "2004-01-13T04:49:49Z")
cite [http://whyfiles.org/012mad\_cow/6.html](http://whyfiles.org/012mad_cow/6.html) Basically it was observed that when cannabilism started this “parasite” (not at all a parsite more a tissue) was also passed on. Recently the first ever observed transmission from blood was observed between a sheep and a cow in England. But anyways basically it is thought that eating the meat of your species was the original cause of this and the reason animals got it was because they were fed ground up left overs of their peers and family 🙂 However this is only what i have read and am not in any position to 100% confirm this but the evidence i have seen does in fact point toward this. It was first observed in humans in new guinea though. Zaphod ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/5 "2004-01-13T06:15:51Z")
[Kuru, the Laughing Sickness of Papua New Guinea](http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_epidemic) – It did decimate some rather remote peoples in Papua New Guniea. Specifically the Fore, who practiced necrophagia. It’s called the Laughing Sickness, due to the uncontrollable laughter that is one of the symptoms. Victims would routinely die with fixed grins on their faces. It is, of course, a degenerative disease that attacks the CNS (Central Nervous System, or the brain and the spinal cord). It is spread via the consumption of infected brain tissue. It is caused by a prion, an infectious particle composed of protein. Prions are extremely hard to track and hard to fight, and all diseases caused by prions (neurodegenerative disorders, all of them) are currently incurable and invariably fatal. ---
**Author:** ![bhb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ab992/32.png) [@bhb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bhb)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/6 "2004-01-13T17:49:19Z")
> [@](#): > > It is spread via the consumption of infected brain tissue. Is it safe to say that the consumption of your own specie is safe as long as the infected tissue (in this case the brain and spinal cord) are discarded before consumption? The USDA claims that in the case of Mad Cow, humans have close to no chance of getting Mad Cow since the brain and spine are not (or indirectly) consumed by humans. Does the same apply to humans? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/7 "2004-01-13T20:31:22Z")
Actually, The Master has delved into [this topic](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_054.html). From the above column: > [@](#): > > Many now believe, for instance, that New Guinea natives are not cannibals and that kuru is spread by contact with corpses during funeral preparations, although there is still some argument about this. OTOH, didn’t some Rockerfeller disappear in PNG, and wasn’t he assumed to have been the victim of cannibals? ---
**Author:** ![z1221z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ee7513/32.png) [@z1221z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/z1221z)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/8 "2004-01-13T20:36:44Z")
> [@bhb](#): > > The USDA claims that in the case of Mad Cow, humans have close to no chance of getting Mad Cow since the brain and spine are not (or indirectly) consumed by humans. Sorry if this is a double post. Well, in Austria (and I guess in most european countries, but I´m not sure) the brain and spine of cattle, esp. of calves, IS consumed by humans, and it tastes great. I´m a bit surprised that this apparently isn´t common in the USA. I woud have thought that anywhere cattle is raised, at least the farmers would eat most innards, esp. if it tastes as good as spine and brain. And yes, I´m serious, scrambled eggs and brain is a delicacy. ---
**Author:** ![mischievous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mischievous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mischievous)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/9 "2004-01-13T20:56:50Z")
> [@bhb](#): > > Is it safe to say that the consumption of your own specie is safe as long as the infected tissue (in this case the brain and spinal cord) are discarded before consumption? The USDA claims that in the case of Mad Cow, humans have close to no chance of getting Mad Cow since the brain and spine are not (or indirectly) consumed by humans. Does the same apply to humans? I wouldn’t bet on it. Experiments in mice have shown that prion diseases pass through a phase where blood, spleen and gut tissues have detectable amounts of prion protein (I know that humans don’t normally eat these parts of the cow either). The vast majority of the prion protein is in the central nervous system, as that is where the normal protein is made. However, there seems to be a rather large minimum dose required for prions to cross species. This would indicate that a rather small amount of diseased human brain would get another human sick, but a relatively large amount of diseased cow brain would be necessary to infect a human. Therefore, an even larger amount of cow meat (which is comparitively poor in prion protien) would be required. I know I’m continuing to eat beef. The corollary to the above is that it takes very little infected cow carcass to pass Mad Cow on to many other cows, and if you have enough infected cows, eventually you end up with infected humans. Hence the tight controls on feeding carcasses to members of the same species. And yes, the disease the OP heard of is kuru, a prion disease in humans. Now that people are looking for them, prion diseases are being found in a growing number of farmed and wild animals (sheep, cow, mink, deer…). Prions also exist in yeast, where they appear to be functional and helpful, not disease proteins. mischievous ---
**Author:** ![Matchka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Matchka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Matchka)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/10 "2004-01-13T21:22:33Z")
Is this prion business what is causing chronic wasting disease in the ungulants of the Rockies? These critters are not know for cannibalism–if it is the same kind of thing how is it transmitted? ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/11 "2004-01-13T21:25:20Z")
> [@](#): > > Experiments in mice have shown that prion diseases pass through a phase where blood, spleen and gut tissues have detectable amounts of prion protein (I know that humans don’t normally eat these parts of the cow either). I don’t know about blood and spleens, but I eat menudo and tripas (stomach and intestines) several times a month. (Well, not anymore. Stupid USDA…) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/12 "2004-01-13T21:35:26Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > OTOH, didn’t some Rockerfeller disappear in PNG, and wasn’t he assumed to have been the victim of cannibals? [Michael Rockefeller](http://www.paraarchives.com/wots/1999/1999-11-15-09.htm), son of Nelson, disappeared in PNG in 1960. Although his fate is not definitely known, he is widely believed to have been killed and eaten by some of the locals. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/13 "2004-01-13T21:44:28Z")
> [@Matchka](#): > > Is this prion business what is causing chronic wasting disease in the ungulants of the Rockies? These critters are not know for cannibalism–if it is the same kind of thing how is it transmitted? Yes, [Chronic Wasting Disease](http://www.cwd-info.org/index.php/fuseaction/about.overview) is also though to be a prion disease. However, it is not evidently transmitted directly through food. (It is possible that the prion is deposited on grass or other vegetation via urine or feces and ingested that way.) Scrapie, a disease of sheep that is the best-known prion disease (and the possible origin of “Mad Cow” disease) is also not transmitted through food. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/necrophagia-and-cannibalism-insanity/224220/14 "2004-01-14T00:50:13Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > Actually, The Master has delved into [this topic](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_054.html). > > From the above column: > > OTOH, didn’t some Rockerfeller disappear in PNG, and wasn’t he assumed to have been the victim of cannibals? Yeh…that was Michael. He rowed his boat ashore. Hallelujah. 🆒