A tribe known for practicing cannibalism as a post-death ritual reportedly consumed the victim’s “entire body” except one part, which was deemed “too bitter”.
The Fore people, who reside in Papua New Guinea’s Okapa District, practiced cannibalism until 1960. However, this act wasn’t viewed as grim women would consume their deceased sisters and mothers, considering it preferable to letting them be “eaten by worms”.
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Regrettably, in the 1950s, the neurological disease kuru was identified. Anthropologist Shirley Lindenbaum established the connection between the Fore’s tradition of ritual cannibalism and the disease epidemic.
“We asked them, ‘What did you do with the bodies? ‘ And then we knew,” Shirley shared with the Daily Star. “They replied, ‘We ate them!’, so then we worked out that was what made them ill.”
Kuru is an incurable, fatal neurological condition causing tremors and the shutdown of the nervous system. It was believed to have been transmitted by consuming the brains of an infected person.
Lindenbaum, an Australian residing in the US, revealed to the Star that the Fore people would eat “the entire body and all body parts…except one.”
She revealed: “There was one part that they didn’t eat that was too bitter to eat. All body parts were eaten, except the gallbladder, which was considered too bitter.”
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“Only the women were eating other women. Their sisters and sisters-in-law, who were dying they were grieving them, as they ate them. It was woman-to-woman, empathetic.”
Lindenbaum further said, “If you didn’t want to be eaten by your family, you could say so. Most of them did want to be eaten, because they said ‘we don’t want the worms to eat our bodies’. It was a very interesting consumption of their relatives.”
In the course of her studies of the Fore people during the 1960s and 1970s, Lindenbaum successfully convinced them to discontinue their cannibalistic practices after discovering the transmission of kuru disease was due to cannibalism.
“I still have friends from my time with the Fore people,” Shirley added. “Some even send me emails occasionally.”
* Original Article:
https://www.the-express.com/news/world-news/142750/cannibal-tribe-ate-humans-whole-except-one-bitter-part-came-tragic-cost/amp