A good read:
Monson, Nicholas Michael, The Kinship of Cannibalism: Cosmology and Social Structure Among Two Tupi-Guarani Peoples, 2000.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Assignment 3- Cannibalism
Jonathan Swift's article, A Modest Proposal, was definitely an eye-opener. Ok, I'll be honest...I really haven't sat down and thought about whether or not I'd be a cannibal and eat someone. It's just never been something that's come to mind. This article was strange in the sense that he actually proposed the idea of allowing people to eat young children. It seems so unnatural and so inhuman to do such a thing. I thought about the idea of how certain animals in the animal kingdom practice cannibalism...but then I also realized that many animals do not. Perhaps it is an acceptable thing for one species, but not for another. I feel that humans may be one of those species that just don't practice cannibalism unless in a forced, desperate situation. But the idea of allowing people to eat their young...or grow babies just to be fattened up to eat is just ridiculous, regardless of how economically or financially beneficial it is. It's just not natural at this time of the human race. It obviously was for certain Indian tribes a long time ago, and perhaps in that culture and time, it was acceptable. But at this day and age, it's just disturbing and it's not something I contemplate at all. If I had been socialized to think that cannibalism was ok in my own culture than I probably would practice it, but that's not how our society works. It's gross to think of babies being sold like cattle or chickens to be eaten. If our society is so against abortion and things of that nature, than cannibalism/ eating babies would definitely be a contradiction.
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2 comments:
I do not like the idea of eating humans either. I would if I was in the same eituation, but I would not relish the thought. The religous satyrist's comments of the times though.
--Elizabeth
See you say you are disgusted by the thought of eating a child, but I believe this has come to be because you are a product of your environment. You have been shown throughout your whole life that this idea of cannibalism is evil. We raise animals to be fat and with as much meat on them as possible why not do the same with people? Plus I bet human meat would taste like chicken... haha I gotta state that the last part is a joke...
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