When it comes to predatory cannibalism, maybe. We’ve a genre of horror fiction about people who learned from desperation cannibalism (think: The Donner Party snowed in in the Sierra-Nevadas) who realize they get super-powers from eating human flesh. If those were true, we’d culture the bio chemistries that convey the powers and sell them as supplements.
However, the OG cannibals (cannibal is a Taino word, originally referring to a tribe in the Caribbean) had two practices of sacred cannibalism which resonate very close to Catholic sacrament. One is honoring recently deceased elders in their tribe by eating their brains, which was supposed to pass on their wisdom and help them remember the fallen. The other is specific to fighting and defeating a formidable enemy on the field, in which the victorious warrior would harvest and consume the heart of the fallen foe to gain their strength and courage.
I suspect the notions from sacrament and sacred cannibalism might have common origins, or at least come from similar intuitions regarding how spirit magic works.
I wonder if that’s how cannibalisms starts. You are worshipping god by eating him why not eat people in the same way
When it comes to predatory cannibalism, maybe. We’ve a genre of horror fiction about people who learned from desperation cannibalism (think: The Donner Party snowed in in the Sierra-Nevadas) who realize they get super-powers from eating human flesh. If those were true, we’d culture the bio chemistries that convey the powers and sell them as supplements.
However, the OG cannibals (cannibal is a Taino word, originally referring to a tribe in the Caribbean) had two practices of sacred cannibalism which resonate very close to Catholic sacrament. One is honoring recently deceased elders in their tribe by eating their brains, which was supposed to pass on their wisdom and help them remember the fallen. The other is specific to fighting and defeating a formidable enemy on the field, in which the victorious warrior would harvest and consume the heart of the fallen foe to gain their strength and courage.
I suspect the notions from sacrament and sacred cannibalism might have common origins, or at least come from similar intuitions regarding how spirit magic works.