Endocannibalism is a practice of cannibalism in one's own locality or community.[1] Endocannibalism has also been used to describe the consumption of relics in a mortuary context.
As a cultural practice
Herodotus (3.38) mentions funerary cannibalism among the Callatiae, a tribe of India.[3]
It is believed that some South American indigenous cultures, such as the Mayoruna people, practiced endocannibalism in the past.[4] The Amahuaca Indians of Peru picked particles of bone out of the ashes of a cremation fire, ground them with corn, and drank as a kind of gruel.[5] For the Wari' people in western Brazil, endocannibalism was an act of compassion where the roasted remains of fellow Wari' were consumed in a mortuary setting;[6] ideally, the affines would consume the entire corpse, and rejecting the practice would be offensive to the direct family members.[6] Ya̧nomamö consumed the ground-up bones and ashes of cremated kinsmen in an act of mourning; this is still classified as endocannibalism, although, strictly speaking, "flesh" is not eaten.[7] Such practices were generally not believed to have been driven by need for protein or other food.[4]
References
- Vilaca, Aparecida (2000). "Relations between Funerary Cannibalism and Warfare Cannibalism: The Question of Predation". Ethnos. 65 (1): 83–106. doi:10.1080/001418400360652. S2CID 143616841.
- Metcalf, Peter (1 January 1987). "Wine of the Corpse: Endocannibalism and the Great Feast of the Dead in Borneo". Representations (17): 96–109. doi:10.2307/3043794. JSTOR 3043794.
- cowie, ashley. "Bizarre, Brutal, Macabre And Downright Weird Ancient Death Rituals". Ancient Origins. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
- Dorn, Georgette M. & Tenenbaum, Barbara A. (1996). Encyclopedia of Latin American history and culture. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. pp. 535–7. ISBN 978-0-684-19253-6. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
- Dole, Gertrude (1962). "Division of Anthropology: Endocannibalism Among the Amahuaca Indians". Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences. 24 (5 Series II): 567–73. doi:10.1111/j.2164-0947.1962.tb01432.x.
- Conklin, Beth (2001). Consuming Grief. University of Texas Press.
- "Endocannibalism of the Yanomami". Users.rcn.com. Retrieved 31 March 2010.