What comes to mind when you hear the word cannibalism?
When I hear the word, the first image that comes to my mind is the great Goya painting Saturn Devouring His Son. The painting depicts a mythical scenario. One of the great titans knew that one of his sons was going to grow up and replace him so he bit off his son’s head to avert this destiny. Click here to see the great work.
Another image that comes to mind is the horrible scene in the original classic black and white 1968 Night of the Living Dead in which one of the zombies (they are not called that in the film) pull out a man’s intestines and greedily devours them. Technically this might not be an example of cannibalism if you consider zombies a separate species from humans.
Then there is of course the great comic character, The Wendigo created by one of my favorite silver age writers, Steve Englehart. The comic version of the Wendigo (He is primarily a hulk foe) is based on the legend in Algonquin folklore about how when a human eats another person he or she becomes a big hairy monster called a wendigo. In some versions of the story (such as in the horror film The Wendigo) he is also a shapeshifter.
If I am remembering correctly from my pre graduate college days, the great author Michel de Montaigne used cannibals to justify moral relativism in his essay “Of Cannibals.” Michel argued that although cannibals ate people they at least killed their victims quickly in contrast to Christians which often tortured their victims for long periods before death. Therefore, he used this to show how Christians are not always morally superior and morals are relative to the cultural milieus of the person being discussed.
There is also of course the one hit wonder band, Total Coelo, who had a hit single with the dumb but catchy novelty song, “I Eat Cannibals.” The band’s name means “by the whole extent of the heavens.”
So anyway, moving right along, I stumbled upon a new book in the library that I just had to pick up. It was titled Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History. A biologist wrote the book, and it touches upon history, zoology and mythology. Here is some of the wacky, wonderful things I learned about the subject.
Then there is an amphibian called a Spadefoot toad. A male typically fertilizes a harem. However, if there is no male around sometimes one of the females changes gender and inseminates the other females. If the pond is going to dry up the tadpoles begin to eat each other which speeds the growth process so they can survive. Protogyny is the word for natural female to male gender changes (change in the opposite direction is Protoandry.) Tiger salamanders have also practiced cannibalism and their bodies even change so they can feed better on their own larvae (their heads get bigger).
Another type of amphibian that practices cannibalism is the lesser known, caecilians. Apparently, before they are born some of the young’uns eat part of the mom’s belly for nourishment. When they get bigger after birth, some of them sprout fangs and they eat the mom’s skin (she grows another.)
The text also gets into the fact that Pope Innocent III declared that you could not be considered catholic unless you believe that the wine and wafers in catholic ceremonies literally transform into the blood and flesh of Christ. Martin Luthor and some of the other leaders in the Protestant reformation disputed the belief citing the fact that the belief is not mentioned it in the Bible and no known early Christians were known to believe it.
Perhaps one of the most revelatory section in the book deals with the source of The Little Red Riding Hood story, a French peasant tale from around the 10th century. In the older version, the wolf chops up the grandmother in little pieces. He encourages Red to eat her grandmother’s remains (she thinks its animal meat) and drink her blood (she thinks its wine.) Little Red gets into bed with the wolf or werewolf and when she discovers what he is she runs away and escapes. I do not think Disney will be doing that version
The book also discusses cannibalism in the history of China and the Soviet Union. In one horrific example, it says that kids sometimes cut off their own body parts to put in soup in a display of filial piety or showing respect for the family. There was also a modern case In the US in which two people connected online, a man who wanted to be eaten and a man looking for people to devour. They hooked up and the cannibal knocked him out, cut up the other man, and put the parts in the refrigerator. He devoured the parts the next few weeks until he was caught and ended up in jail.
I was doing a radio show on WZRD about the best films of the year and the Oscars (I was a guest on Cathleen Scandelmeier’s regular Saturday night program.) I briefly mentioned the book I was reading and a caller asked to speak to me. Despite the fact that my radio conversation was almost completely about movies he only wanted to talk about cannibalism. He also insisted that wendigoes (which I mentioned before) really exist. We exchanged info and emails and he was supposed to contact me but I never heard from him.
Months ago I ran into a film making friend who had told me in the 70s in Chicago there was a secretive group of people he encountered that consumed human flesh and they often exchanged info on where and how to get it (supposedly they paid off people at hospitals and morgues.) Then I ran into him months later and I told him about the cannibal book, and I reminded him what he had said. He denied he even mentioned that. I might have had him confused with someone else but I do not think so.
It is always a treat to encounter poetry on the not always terribly literate network TV shows. I recently saw a fairly interesting episode of the last Star Trek series Enterprise (even mediocre Star Trek is still pretty entertaining.) Of course, there was a beautiful extraterrestrial woman that Captain Jonathan Archer encountered. She looked familiar to him but he could not recognize her (I think the actress who played her was Stephanie Niznik). It turned out an alien assumed the form of a female figure from a poem that Archer’s mom used to read to him when he suffered from insomnia as a child. The poem was “The Song of the Wandering Aengus” by William Butler Yeats, and it referred to a trout, which had been turned into a “glimmering girl.” The girl calls his name then disappears which might represent unattainable desire. You can read the poem here.
** The asshole of the month has only one nominee this month, Neil Bosarge. He was involved in a famous case in which a trucker was fired against the orders of his supervisor when it was 15 below zero out because he left his truck (which had frozen brakes and no gas) to avoid freezing to death. When he sued the company, Borsage was the only attorney who thought that the company was justified in dismissing him, and this man is the one Trump thinks would be an ideal judge for the Supreme Court because he is a person who is so extreme he places commerce over human life.
Here is a link to the Al Franken grilling him about it in the White House.
