Cannibalism: Myth or Reality
Cannibalism. Myth or reality? Discuss.
Cannibalism is the practice of eating the flesh of one’s own species. It can happen among many animals, and also humans. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. Cannibalism can be classified as endocannibalism and exocannibalism. Endocannibalism can further have different reasons including mourning for the dead like the Wari’ people and Melanesians, and need of protein like the Aztec. In this essay I am going to talk about cannibalism in general, and endocannibalism only in some cases because in my opinion, exocannibalism is more understandable than endocannibalism because I think eating enemies’ dead bodies make more sense than eating one’s family members’ bodies. I’m more interested in the reasons why endocannibalism happens and whether it is myth or reality. It is important to learn this because it will help us study cannibalism, think about cannibalism, and understand cannibalism.
I believe that endocannibalism is mostly believable according to all the evidence and materials recorded by many anthropologists and in some circumstances, scientists, but some little bits need more proof, like the Aztec, which I will discuss later in more detail in this essay. However, there are also some people disagree with the existence of cannibalism completely, which I consider some part convincing, some part not so reasonable, which I will also discuss.
First of all, there have always been many mythologies about cannibalism in various forms of documents from different parts of the world since thousands of years ago or even tens of thousands of years ago. The ancient myths of the Greeks, for example, have many parts involving cannibalism, including the stories of Dionysus in the Orpheus tradition, and Hesiod’s Theogony. There must be a reason for cannibalism being described in so many stories. I don’t believe that the Greeks come up with the stories just by their imagination. Actually some anthropologists suggest
Cannibalism is the practice of eating the flesh of one’s own species. It can happen among many animals, and also humans. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. Cannibalism can be classified as endocannibalism and exocannibalism. Endocannibalism can further have different reasons including mourning for the dead like the Wari’ people and Melanesians, and need of protein like the Aztec. In this essay I am going to talk about cannibalism in general, and endocannibalism only in some cases because in my opinion, exocannibalism is more understandable than endocannibalism because I think eating enemies’ dead bodies make more sense than eating one’s family members’ bodies. I’m more interested in the reasons why endocannibalism happens and whether it is myth or reality. It is important to learn this because it will help us study cannibalism, think about cannibalism, and understand cannibalism.
I believe that endocannibalism is mostly believable according to all the evidence and materials recorded by many anthropologists and in some circumstances, scientists, but some little bits need more proof, like the Aztec, which I will discuss later in more detail in this essay. However, there are also some people disagree with the existence of cannibalism completely, which I consider some part convincing, some part not so reasonable, which I will also discuss.
First of all, there have always been many mythologies about cannibalism in various forms of documents from different parts of the world since thousands of years ago or even tens of thousands of years ago. The ancient myths of the Greeks, for example, have many parts involving cannibalism, including the stories of Dionysus in the Orpheus tradition, and Hesiod’s Theogony. There must be a reason for cannibalism being described in so many stories. I don’t believe that the Greeks come up with the stories just by their imagination. Actually some anthropologists suggest
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