Stomachs on legs are proud to present

Further to our cannibalism debate Erik Davis brought my attention to this via a blog named, what else but anthropophaguous. It sums things up nicely wouldn't you say?

So I was reading the IHT today and came across this rather amusing titbit about shoe throwing and waffles.

Hitting someone with a shoe is considered the supreme insult in Iraq. It means that the target is even lower than the shoe, which is always on the ground and dirty....In France, of course, it's a waffle. Throw a waffle at someone and you have said, in essence: "I loathe you. Your people are donkey traders."

And I was reminded of a discussion I had recently on cannibalism in New Zealand. Some Maori tribes engaged in cannibalism as the ultimate insult to their enemies, the act I was informed was not so much about the ingestion of one enemies as it was about shitting them out the other end as the ultimate insult. Here the French seem positively puerile. Children throw waffles real men eat you and shit you out the end. UGH.

Along with being taboo cannibalism is one of those topics that is deeply misunderstood by most. Although various cultures around the world are purported to practice or once partook in cannibalism - including (according to wiki): Prehistoric Europe, Africa, South America, New Zealand, North America, Australia, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, New Guinea, India, Sumatra, and Fiji - many reports are apparently over-exaggerated as a means by which to label the "cannibals" in question as barbaric and therefore in need of a civilising mission

A case in point is this, also via the wisdom that is wiki

According to a decree by Queen Isabella of Castile and also later under British colonial rule, slavery was considered to be illegal unless the people involved were so depraved that their conditions as slaves would be better than as free men. This legal requirement may have led to conquerors exaggerating the extent of cannibalistic practices, or inventing them altogether, as demonstrations of cannibalistic tendencies were considered evidence of such depravity

Source

Contrary to Hollywood fantasies, the practice cannabalism typically occurs in rare instances and often under highly ritualised circumstances, such as the highest insult offered to ones enemies. Cannibalism also occurs in situations of extreme deprivation (the movie Alive) and/or insanity or sociopathic behaviour. On the flip side, sociopathic behaviour can also be used as reason to eat someone in some societies. My department convenor who has spent the vast majority of his life studying Papua New Guinea every so often likes to joke about the prospects of some particularly socially withdrawn PhD student being eaten during fieldwork, should they continue with their non-reciprocal behaviour.

Overall however, the accusation of cannibalism is far more common than the practice itself and a very useful way indeed to dehumanise the barbaric "other".

Then there's autosarcophagy where people eat themselves....someone some where has had the good sense to exclude sucking a wound and biting your finger nails in this category. Eating your own placenta however is included. I remember seeing a television show once where some weird hippies made pate out of afterbirth and fed it to their unwitting friends. Although I recently had a discussion in Canberra and was informed that human beings are one the few mammals that don't systematically eat their own placenta, I'm so averse to the idea that think this is reason enough to never talk to someone ever again.

In another instance, Wiki reveals that on January 13, 2007, Chilean artist Marco Evaristti hosted a dinner party for his most intimate friends. The main meal was agnolotti pasta, which was topped with a meatball made from the artist's own fat, removed earlier in the year in a liposuction operation.

Again no thank you. If eating someone else against their will is the ultimate insult, fine but I'm not sure the reverse is true, offering a pound of your very own fat, placenta or otherwise is not in most people's book an enduring sign of the deepest level of intimacy, although it may be often the apex of many a porn movie.

God this topic is gross.

However I think the general theme of "food as insult" is interesting. At this time of year a lot of people will be delighted to find mail parcels of christmas cakes and gifts of home made mince pies. A lot is written about food and identity and the sharing of food as a means to social engagement and inclusion, but what about the opposite? What about food as insult? What about poisoning, food sabotage and other forms of misanthropy with food?

Of course cannibalism is the ultimate in anti-social food behaviour but to a much lesser extent, so is refusal to share a meal. And I think this is often what so incenses such vehement dislike by some omnivores of vegans and/or vegetarians, along perhaps with accusations by the latter of barbarianism.

All and all, I am reminded of a quote I read a while back in Jame's Ferguson's Anti-Politics Machine, although he used the concept of money instead of food, the two terms are equally interchangeable.

"There is no such thing as relationships between people and food, rather food mediates relationships between people"

Happy holidays