Comments on: Technically It’s Not Cannibalism If They’re Not the Same Species

By: daniel

daniel — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:58:58 +0000

Hilary @ 62 – Of all the ways to want to eat your wife…

Dry rub can be painful; definitely marinate.

D – “I go there so y’all don’t have to.”

By: LizardBreath

LizardBreath — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:43:37 +0000

One thing about the ‘people taste like pork’ thing — AFAIK that comes from Polynesian accounts of cannibalism, and the Polynesians of the time only ate one mammal, pig. (Well, dog as well on some islands, but mostly pig). They didn’t have beef or mutton as a comparison. So I’m not sure that means more than “Tastes more like pig than it tastes like fish”.

My sister the surgeon describes the smell from an electrocautery device that sears human flesh as appetizing, but I seem to remember her saying it smelled like burgers rather than particularly porky. (Also, exposed human fat laced with blood vessels? Apparently, if you went into surgery hungry, looks surprisingly like cherry cheese danish filling.)

By: Rowena

Rowena — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:55:24 +0000

Soylent purple is Barney! :D

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 19 May 2009 03:00:55 +0000

This might be akin to Bush Meat, where humans eat other great apes, like chimps and gorillas. It’s in that gray area of not really cannibalism but still squicky enough to be taboo, except in certain regions where they clearly don’t read enough science fiction.

Also, Bush Meat is one of the theories as to how HIV was first transmitted from chimpanzees to humans. Tainted meat from jungle poachers.

By: Hilary

Hilary — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:31:58 +0000

During my wife’s c-section closure the unmistakable smell of steak on the barbie pervaded (cauterizing needle). I have had disturbing thoughts ever since…tsk tsk, dry rub or marinate.

By: JustaTech

JustaTech — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:28:12 +0000

Once, I had a job in a lab where we worked with a large volume of HeLa cells. That’s about 100L of cervical cancer cells, which are by definition, human. We used the cells to make viruses and… it’s complicated.

On Fridays we would empty the 100L of dead cells though a large paper filter. It was then my job to steam-clean this filter. It had a very peculiar smell; hot paper and something vaguely savory, but not a bad smell.

Friday evening I go out to dinner and am halfway through a BLT when I realize what that savory smell in the filter was. I very nearly threw up my sandwich right there in the restaurant. It took weeks for me to be able to eat bacon again.

So yes, people taste like pork.

By: Cicada

Cicada — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:37:50 +0000

So, if you encounter a species that is likely sentient but which shares very few, if any, cognitive structures or moral imperatives with humanity, is eating it cannibalism? In short, something likely sentient, but too alien to communicate in any manner?
How about an individual non-sentient member of a sentient hive-mind? Cannibalism, or no more odd than drinking human milk would be? (I.e, odd but not abyssmally odd)

By: African Al

African Al — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:22:20 +0000

Since the Chinese believe that they are descended from Homo erectus which left Africa 2 million years ago, rather than from Homo sapien which left 70 thousand years ago, they would technically be a separate species. So it’s not cannibalism to eat a Chinese person?:-)

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:54:08 +0000

I’d be inclined to say that yes, that was cannibalism. You can either define cannibalism as Homo sapiens sapiens eating Homo sapiens sapiens, or as humans eating humans. I’d be inclined towards the latter definition, since both “cannibalism” and “human” are words that pre-date the scientific binomical “Homo sapiens.”

Whether Neandertals were a separate species of Homo or a subspecies of H. sapiens, they were clearly human by all but the most narrow definitions of the word.

I’m not surprised that evidence of cannibalism has been found, since H. sapiens sapiens will eat pretty much anything that holds still long enough. Occasional cannibalism is a long way from systematically eating them to extinction, though.

By: Lizzie

Lizzie — Mon, 18 May 2009 13:08:52 +0000

I think I heard or read somewhere that the reason why we smell (and supposedly taste) like pork is that both pigs and humans eat…. everything!

Don’t know how I feel about that…