From the Archives: Eating People Is Wrong—But It’s Also Widespread and Sacred
Cannibalism is not uncommon. Humans have long enshrined the consumption of human flesh in sacred ritual—not just a few times, but again and again in almost every corner of the globe. Evidence for cannibalistic practices has been found in South America, on many Pacific islands, among some ancient Native American tribes, and in many other regions of the world.
We often think of taboo in terms of proscribed action: It’s taboo to marry your brother or, in certain cultures, to eat pork. But in a much deeper sense, the word “taboo” denotes the very points where the sacred and profane converge: sexual intercourse, the taking of life, childbirth. Many cultures regard these acts as “unclean”—yet at the same time as profoundly holy.
Ritualized cannibalism not only survived well into historical times but was also enshrined in some of the earliest literate cultures—particularly ancient Egypt. In 1881, the French archaeologist Gaston Maspero broke into a tomb in the vast Egyptian burial ground of Saqqara, outside of Cairo. At the end of a long underground causeway, he found a gallery of brightly painted reliefs: harvest scenes, temple ceremonies, battles with enemies. There were also ritual inscriptions.
In fact, sacred cannibalism persisted in the West all the way up to Roman times. Certain Druid clans seem to have practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism in the early centuries, and many Greek and Roman writers make references to tribes with cannibal practices. St. Jerome mentions a cannibal people called the Attacotti; Herodotus refers to a tribe he calls simply “the man-eaters” .
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