# We're all literally cannibals? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053 "2003-05-23T16:05:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/21 "2003-05-24T04:34:04Z")
So, are we all cannibals in times of necessity? Napoleon’s captains having eaten their corporals at the gates of burned Moscow? The Donner party? Mountainous plane crash survivors? Is the prohibition on cannibalism solely cultural, or are there evolutionary pressures acting as a human species disincentive (diseases like kuru, etc.)? Can cannibalism be compared with incest on a morality scale? I have much to think about. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lodrain \* > **Donner, party of fifty; your table is waiting!** Thanks! But there’s 47 of us now. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/22 "2003-05-24T04:43:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lodrain \* > \*\*Donner, party of fifty; your table is waiting! > > 😃 > > [d & r] \*\* Donner, party of forty-nine, your table is waiting! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/23 "2003-05-24T05:07:09Z")
Self-cannibalism, or _autophaghy_ in the perhaps not so distant future might be an matter of personal preference - if you have a supply of your own tissue growing in a vat somewhere, consuming nothing but synthesised nutrients, you could have it cultured into a reasonably wide range of edible types… the artificial reconstruction of meat would need an original to copy from, and why not use the cells from your own body rather than inconvenience those of another species? * * * Sci-fi worldbuilding at [http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html](http://www.orionsarm.com/main.html) story ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/24 "2003-05-24T05:09:28Z")
that’s autophagy by the way ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/25 "2003-05-24T18:50:28Z")
**FordPrefect** > [@](#): > > UnwrittenNocturne that just makes us godivores. **Jomo Mojo** : > [@](#): > > The term you’re looking for is theophage. 🙂 I think the first board use of the concept was George ( **HpstrDufuz** ) who coined the term “Deophagy” on the old AOL board. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/26 "2003-05-24T18:58:26Z")
[ul]😃 [sup] **Does oral sex count?** [/sup][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/27 "2003-05-24T19:03:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kniz \* > \*\*[ul]😃 [sup] **Does oral sex count?** [/sup][/ul] \*\* Of course it does, if you swallow. For nourishment. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/28 "2003-05-24T19:20:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Exapno Mapcase \* > \*\*General rule: never go to a dictionary for technicalities of usage. > > The dictionary definition **Ethilrist** is technically true, but in practice no good writer would ever refer to eating a flap of skin from one’s body as cannibalism, except in the most ironic or jokey of senses. Even eating larger parts, like an arm, would have a qualifier of some kind, as in self-cannibalism, to distinguish it from the standard usage. \*\* Actually, there’s probably a term for this, since there was a Greek myth about a king who repeatedly sold his daughter into slavery (for some reason she kept escaping and coming back to him), eventually she falls in love with someone and runs off with him, leaving her father for the last time, as he watches her go, he shakes his fist at her, only to notice how meaty it is. He then proceeds gnaw away and eventually all that’s left is a pair of gnashing teeth. No idea of what the names of the central figures in this were. I imagine one of medical or mythological types could provide the answer. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/29 "2003-05-24T21:16:10Z")
“Does oral sex count?” When I meet someone & they say they are vegetarians, I always say 'so, no oral sex?" 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/30 "2003-05-24T21:23:50Z")
Boy, some of you people’s idea of oral sex scares the hell outta me. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/31 "2003-05-25T01:05:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\*“Does oral sex count?” > > When I meet someone & they say they are vegetarians, I always say 'so, no oral sex?" 🙂 \*\* And I, as a vegetarian say, “Well not with a cow! Yuch!” ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/32 "2003-05-25T01:38:27Z")
How about that guy who _sought nourishment_ in The Grapes Of Wrath? ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/33 "2003-05-25T03:51:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Joe K \* > \*\*How about that guy who _sought nourishment_ in The Grapes Of Wrath? \*\* Well, **Joe** , he got it didn’t he? ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/34 "2003-05-25T03:57:52Z")
Do high school boys still get titillated at that passage? ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/35 "2003-05-25T04:07:03Z")
Do high school boys still get titillated at that passage? ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/36 "2003-05-25T04:47:42Z")
Not if they stay abreast of the plot. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/37 "2003-05-25T14:59:50Z")
That was a borrowing of an old, old theme in art and literature: [_Caritas Romana_ or “Roman Charity.”](http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/r/rubens/3allegor/03simonp.html) Guy de Maupassant also wrote a short story with this theme. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/38 "2003-05-25T15:22:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\*“Does oral sex count?” > > When I meet someone & they say they are vegetarians, I always say 'so, no oral sex?" 🙂 \*\* > [@](#): > > Deadeye Dick sings _New Age Girl_ > \*\*She’s a vegitarian > Mary Moon, Mary Moon > … > She loves me so, she hates to be alone > She don’t eat meat, but she sure like the bone \*\* ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/39 "2003-05-26T13:37:14Z")
I was speaking to the maitre d’ of a restaurant in MD; I explained to her that I didn’t eat meat, she replied, “why should you, you’re a man?” (This put me on the back-foot, the idiomatic usage of _eat meat_ was new to me, as the meaning dawned upon me I found it to be such an ickily off-colour comment that I ate somewhere else. Since then I have considered that maybe it was a come-on (the English accent, and all, gets 'em evertime). Damn!) The OP’s auto-cannibalism is clearly cannibalism _technically_, if not in spirit. I pulled a thorn from my gf’s finger last week and kissed away the drop of blood that flowed – does that make me a hypocritical vegetarian? ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053/40 "2003-05-26T16:38:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*“Does oral sex count?” > > When I meet someone & they say they are vegetarians, I always say 'so, no oral sex?" :-)\*\* Vegetarians can eat semen, just as they can eat milk and hens’ eggs and other animal secretions. However vegans cannot. Especially not the semen of animals. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-all-literally-cannibals/177053.md?page=3)