h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

With perfect timing, the BBC come along and post this piece on their news website http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_911000/911633.stm

While I don't deny that it could be true, who knows if they really did find what they claim. After the "Life on Mars" incident, you don't know what to believe.

The BBC article left out two important things. First, there was what's called "pot polish" on several bones. This is a blackened area at the edge of a long bone like a leg or arm bone, typically created when the bone is used to stir food in a pot. It can also be created when food is cooked and the bone scrapes against the side of the pot as the meat is stirred. Archeologists have only seen this on animal bones, but human bones had pot polish on them in the Anasazi camp.

Also important, the fecal matter with myoglobin (an enzymecreated when human muscle tissue is digested) in it was found in the central hearth area of the Anasazi camp. The Anasazi were very clean people, and it is believed that the central camp was used to entertain visitors. An ordinary respectful member of the tribe would not have defecated there. This act, which would have been viewed as cultural desecration, indicates either rebellion from within or a raiding party from without.

I tend to believe the Anasazi were victims. They were relatively peaceful, or else so many tribes would not have traded with them. They would also have been an attractive target, because of the high-end goods going in and out all the time.

Hmm, I simply can´t remember who the Anasazi Indians were, evn though I know I have read several things on them. It really bugs me. But even though you´re saying they were a peaceful ppl, look at what happened on the Easter Island. That shows a society can change pretty rapidly. And that "Life on Mars"-rock was all media-hype, the scientists never lied or was responsible for that.

The Anasazi Indians were based in Colorado, US. There are tours of their settlement's remains near Pueblo, Colorado. Since they did a lot of trading, they were known by Indian tribes throughout the Western and Central US. They died out long before we Westerners arrived, so the American Indian mythology of their greatness already overwhelmed any scientific basis by the time we got there. Legend places them in the realm of wealthy and highly advanced mystics. Some believe they fostered a sort of Renaissance among the tribes of the era. In my other posts, I've covered most of the main elements of their culture that we know about through evidence.

Well, a few days ago the danish TV showed a program about the anasazi Anyways, here´s another link:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/09/000913204822.htm

Heh! Well, Tigerlily, I'm just visualizing you chomping on my ass ... ahhh, a little less teeth, love.

Seriously though, it was indeed a rugby football club (from Uruguay) that resorted to cannibalism in the Andes to survive, and which inspired the movie "Alive." So Cheerful Dragon and Abi are both right.

My friend (U142065) reckons that if you want to eat someone you should be allowed to, as long as they sign a note of consent highlighting any medical or health problems.

~~A~~

Besides Aurora - this is an article about the law, not about morality...

What if you belong to a religion/culture which disposes of it's dead by eating them? I'm sure such exist... is there an entry in UK law for 'religious ceremonies'?

And am I right that the illegal act is giveing your body away to be eaten, not doing the eating? So, it'd be the dead guy who got put in prison? And would it work if you flew in the meat from overseas?

I belive that this has been proposed before. I can't remember the guy's name but he wrote a paper regarding A) reducing the population explosion by the lower class and B) feeding the masses. The basic conclusion was this, human children around the age of 6 months would make very tasty roasts.

I never said I agreed with this idea, I just said the idea was not a new one.

That would be Jonathan Swift, a really cool and really dead Irish guy. The article he wrote was called A Modest Proposal, and was meant as a satirical comment to the society of that time.

One other detail just occured to me. As I understand it (And I don't) practicing Jews have to have their meat blessed by a rabi (sp?) does this apply to human remains? Or would Jewish people not be allowed to eat it full stop?

Good grief. While a rabbi is needed to bless many types of food to make them kosher, I seriously doubt there is a specific rule in place for human remains. I have never heard of a Jewish cannibal, and I certainly don't think someone intent on being one would stop to get the rabbi's permission.

On a related note, read the last entry in the Wierdo-American Community section of this page: http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html

"While communing with his just-deceased uncle's body at the Ketcham-Ripley Funeral Home in nearby Rockford, Hawk allegedly decapitated it with a hacksaw and carried the head away, presumably to fulfill a religious belief that he could bring the uncle back to life by eating the brain."

And he wasn't even polite enough to ask the local priest first!

Most of the laws that are aroung especially the ones from differant centries were written on the notion everyone had to believe in the same morale stand point. One a subject like cannibalism it would depend on the time and the state/city and if they had a problem with people eating each other.

There are societies, for example a tribe in Brazil, where cannibalism is simply a basic part of the society. Everybody is alright with it, and it doesn´t make the whole system unstable. So in that case there´s no need to make it illegal.

It depends who they eat.

~~A~~

If you eat someone with CJD, will you catch it too? What about other diseases?

If so, there could be public health implications...

CJD can be passed on. In some cannibal tribes (I can't remember which), the women had to eat the brains while the men got the "good" bits, and CJD became common among the female members because the brain contained the virus.

~~A~~

I think you´ll catch virtually any virus if you eat a person with it.
The tribe in Brazil only eat their own ppl, since they need to know the name and social status of them for different purposes.