Cannibalism is a chilling reminder of our humble origins in animal kingdom. To cannibal, we are no better and no more than cattle or sheep. Cannibalism confronts us with irreversibility of our death and its finality. Surely, we cannot survive our demise with our cadaver mutilated and gutted and our skeletal bones scattered, gnawed, and chewed on?

IV. Medical Reasons

Infrequently, cannibalism results in prion diseases of nervous system, such as kuru. The same paternalism that gave rise to banning of drug abuse, outlawing of suicide, and Prohibition of alcoholic drinks in 1920s - seeks to shelter us from pernicious medical outcomes of cannibalism and to protect others who might become our victims.

V. The Fear of Being Objectified

Being treated as an object (being objectified) is most torturous form of abuse. People go to great lengths to seek empathy and to be perceived by others as three dimensional entities with emotions, needs, priorities, wishes, and preferences.

The cannibal reduces others by treating them as so much meat. Many cannibal serial killers transformed organs of their victims into trophies. The Cook Islanders sought to humiliate their enemies by eating, digesting, and then defecating them - having absorbed their mana (prowess, life force) in process.

VI. The Argument from Nature

Cannibalism is often castigated as "unnatural". Animals, goes myth, don't prey on their own kind.

Alas, like so many other romantic lores, this is untrue. Most species - including our closest relatives, chimpanzees - do cannibalize. Cannibalism in nature is widespread and serves diverse purposes such as population control (chickens, salamanders, toads), food and protein security in conditions of scarcity (hippopotamuses, scorpions, certain types of dinosaurs), threat avoidance (rabbits, mice, rats, and hamsters), and propagation of genetic material through exclusive mating (Red-back spider and many mantids).

Moreover, humans are a part of nature. Our deeds and misdeeds are natural by definition. Seeking to tame nature is a natural act. Seeking to establish hierarchies and subdue or relinquish our enemies are natural propensities. By avoiding cannibalism we seek to transcend nature. Refraining from cannibalism is unnatural act.

VIII. The Argument from Progress

It is a circular syllogism involving a tautology and goes like this:

Cannibalism is barbaric. Cannibals are, therefore, barbarians. Progress entails abolition of this practice.

(Diego Rivera)

"One calls 'barbarism' whatever he is not accustomed to."

(Montaigne, On Cannibalism)

"Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat flesh of Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."

(New Testament, John 6:53-55)

Cannibalism (more precisely, anthropophagy) is an age-old tradition that, judging by a constant stream of flabbergasted news reports, is far from extinct. Much-debated indications exist that our Neanderthal, Proto-Neolithic, and Neolithic (Stone Age) predecessors were cannibals. Similarly contested claims were made with regards to 12th century advanced Anasazi culture in southwestern United States and Minoans in Crete (today's Greece).

The Britannica Encyclopedia (2005 edition) recounts how "Binderwurs of central India ate their sick and aged in belief that act was pleasing to their goddess, Kali." Cannibalism may also have been common among followers of Shaktism cults in India.

Other sources attribute cannibalism to 16th century Imbangala in today's Angola and Congo, Fang in Cameroon, Mangbetu in Central Africa, Ache in Paraguay, Tonkawa in today's Texas, Calusa in current day Florida, Caddo and Iroquois confederacies of Indians in North America, Cree in Canada, Witoto, natives of Colombia and Peru, Carib in Lesser Antilles (whose distorted name - Canib - gave rise to word "cannibalism"), to Maori tribes in today's New Zealand, and to various peoples in Sumatra (like Batak).

The Wikipedia numbers among practitioners of cannibalism ancient Chinese, Korowai tribe of southeastern Papua, Fore tribe in New Guinea (and many other tribes in Melanesia), Aztecs, people of Yucatan, Purchas from Popayan, Colombia, denizens of Marquesas Islands of Polynesia, and natives of captaincy of Sergipe in Brazil.

From Congo and Central Africa to Germany and from Mexico to New Zealand, cannibalism is enjoying a morbid revival of interest, if not of practice. A veritable torrent of sensational tomes and movies adds to our ambivalent fascination with man-eaters.

Cannibalism is not a monolithic affair. It can be divided thus:

I. Non-consensual consumption of human flesh post-mortem

For example, when corpses of prisoners of war are devoured by their captors. This used to be a common exercise among island tribes (e.g., in Fiji, Andaman and Cook islands) and is still case in godforsaken battle zones such as Congo (formerly Zaire), or among defeated Japanese soldiers in World War II.

Similarly, human organs and fetuses as well as mummies are still being gobbled up - mainly in Africa and Asia - for remedial and medicinal purposes and in order to enhance one's libido and vigor.

On numerous occasions organs of dead companions, colleagues, family, or neighbors were reluctantly ingested by isolated survivors of horrid accidents (the Uruguay rugby team whose plane crashed in Andes, boat people fleeing Asia), denizens of besieged cities (e.g., during siege of Leningrad), members of exploratory expeditions gone astray (the Donner Party in Sierra Nevada, California and John Franklin's Polar expedition), famine-stricken populations (Ukraine in 1930s, China in 1960s), and like.

Finally, in various pre-nation-state and tribal societies, members of family were encouraged to eat specific parts of their dead relatives as a sign of respect or in order to partake of deceased's wisdom, courage, or other positive traits (endocannibalism).

II. Non-consensual consumption of human flesh from a live source

For example, when prisoners of war are butchered for express purpose of being eaten by their victorious enemies.

A notorious and rare representative of this category of cannibalism is punitive ritual of being eaten alive. The kings of tribes of Cook Islands were thought to embody gods. They punished dissent by dissecting their screaming and conscious adversaries and consuming their flesh piecemeal, eyeballs first.

The Sawney Bean family in Scotland, during reign of King James I, survived for decades on remains (and personal belongings) of victims of their murderous sprees.

Real-life serial killers, like Jeffrey Dahmer, Albert Fish, Sascha Spesiwtsew, Fritz Haarmann, Issei Sagawa, and Ed Gein, lured, abducted, and massacred countless people and then consumed their flesh and preserved inedible parts as trophies. These lurid deeds inspired a slew of books and films, most notably The Silence of Lambs with Hannibal (Lecter) Cannibal as its protagonist.

III. Consensual consumption of human flesh from live and dead human bodies