Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History

Content Warning: This section contains references to graphic violence and death.



Chapter 13 explores the origins and evolution of the taboo against cannibalism, tracing its development through literature, religion, anthropology, and psychology. The term taboo itself has Polynesian origins, first recorded by Captain James Cook. Although his body was cooked and distributed among Hawaiian chiefs after his death in 1779, his crew’s fear that he had been eaten was unfounded. This misinterpretation contributed to the Western perception of cannibalism as barbaric. Historian Reay Tannahill and journalist Maggie Kilgore suggest that Judeo-Christian customs reinforced the aversion to cannibalism. The belief in bodily resurrection on Judgment Day and dietary laws created a strong cultural distinction between acceptable and forbidden foods. Cannibalism, viewed as the ultimate violation of these customs, became synonymous with savagery. Kilgore also argues that food choices define cultural identity, and calling a group “cannibals” often served as a way to label them as “savage or primitive” (176).

The passage then examines how early Western literature influenced the cannibalism taboo. Homer’s Odyssey (written in approximately 8th BCE century) features the Cyclops Polyphemus, who gruesomely eats Odysseus’s men, reinforcing the link between cannibalism and monstrosity.