WinkBlog

Can eating a human kill you?

The Korowai tribe of Papau New Gunieau are the last known group of cannibals. According to a 2006 story from Smithsonian Magazine, the practice is still ingrained in their culture:

Using Kembaren as translator, he explains why the Korowai kill and eat their fellow tribesmen. It's because of the khakhua, which comes disguised as a relative or friend of a person he wants to kill. "The khakhua eats the victim's insides while he sleeps," Boas explains, "replacing them with fireplace ash so the victim does not know he's being eaten. The khakhua finally kills the person by shooting a magical arrow into his heart." When a clan member dies, his or her male relatives and friends seize and kill the khakhua. "Usually, the [dying] victim whispers to his relatives the name of the man he knows is the khakhua," Boas says. "He may be from the same or another treehouse."

I ask Boas whether the Korowai eat people for any other reason or eat the bodies of enemies they've killed in battle. "Of course not," he replies, giving me a funny look. "We don't eat humans, we only eat khakhua."

But the practice has declined. 

Many tribes that practiced ritualistic cannibalism began dying en masse from a disease called Kuru, like the human equivalent to Mad Cow disease, which affects the brain and nervous system. Consuming animal or human flesh that contains an infected protein or prion causes brain deterioration, loss of motor control and eventually death.

Even if you don't die from a prion disease, mass consumption of human anatomy doesn't appear to be good for the body. An autopsy was performed on Tarrate, a famous French cannibal from the 18th century, to find that his body was filled with pus, ulcers and an abnormally large stomach, liver and gallbladder. 

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