Ask HN: Why can’t we eat dead human flesh like we eat dead animal flesh? - jelliclesfarm
======
bediger4000
In general, eating apex predators is pretty bad, because they have (and we
humans have) a high concentration of every bad thing that the less-than-apex
predators and herbivores pick up from the environment.

Eating human flesh can lead to transmitting parasites, as can consuming
animals fed on human feces (pigs or fish). The big example of this is Kuru
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_\(disease\)))

So: avoid human flesh to avoid concentrations of mercury, dioxin, parasites
and prion-related diseases.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
What if we all become vegetarians and the only meat we eat is recycled human
flesh after we die.

This is just an extreme thought experiment.

What if there was a way to sanitize meats of pathogens and parasites?

Imagine we are in a distant planet that can’t sustain CAFOs and there are just
other humans around...and we don’t have resources or energy to raise meat for
protein, nutrients and calories..and can only grow a certain kinds of plants
as food.

Re Apex predators: wouldn’t shark or whales be apex predators of the ocean?
And we consume them..some do anyways.

~~~
endisukaj
Vegans and vegetarians live without consuming meat. There's plenty of plant
substitutes for the nutrients we get from meat (nuts, mushrooms, soy and so
on).

~~~
dawidw
That's quite interesting. I've heard that there are some substances which
human body need and which can be found in animal flesh. I've just googled for
that and it seems there are plenty of articles confirming that. So I don't
know who is right...

Here are just 2 random articles from google search:

[https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-nutrients-you-cant-
ge...](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-nutrients-you-cant-get-from-
plants#section1)

[https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/8-proven-reasons-why-
vegan-a...](https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/8-proven-reasons-why-vegan-and-
vegetarian-diets-easily-ruin-your-body)

------
philonoist
Also for the same reason dead's organs are not reused unless consented by the
person or his closest kith/kin when consent of the person is unknown. Mostly
there is no consent by them because they are humiliated by having the thought
of being valued as a food first by a stranger of their society.

2\. If you have enough poor in your country and human flesh is valued enough,
people will get killed for black market.

3\. Human flesh can be deadly like Kuru. I couldn't watch videos of how they
had tremours! The clan was on the verge of collapsing so they stopped.

~~~
zzo38computer
I think that consent is irrelevant and if you can use it for food it is OK
(they are dead and cannot consent, and also the other plants/animals you also
don't usually consent either). The dead body (human or otherwise) is for
eating (whether by human or others animals) and for recycling. That is how to
do the nature, and it is good.

However, Kuru is good point; since it is not good to eat, so, don't eat,
please (another comment mentions other kind of disease too). There is valid
reason to be careful due to such thing. It is also contrary to the English
cultural that I know, I think.

------
yesenadam
Because "Eating People is Wrong".

Vegan here, my gf had a shirt saying that, with the Goya picture _Saturn
Devouring his Son_ [0] on it. I liked it so much she got me one too. Important
message, I think.

But seriously...we can, see the book/movie _Alive_ [1]. If it's that or starve
to death, we all would. It apparently was (is?) common in many traditional
cultures, e.g. (as I learnt recently) in areas of the Philippines until the
19th C.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Devouring_His_Son)

[1]
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106246/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106246/)

~~~
jelliclesfarm
But if they are not slaughtered/killed for food and are ‘harvested’ just
before their eminent demise, what is wrong with using perfectly good food.

Obviously there are ethical issues/black market abuse etc. but it seems such a
waste to inject a body full of formaldehyde or whatever or burn it or bury it
after the homo sapien organism is considered an empty shell after its organs
cease to function.

Thanks for all that first quote! I love Flanders and Swann! I used to think it
hilarious and fun to start singing ‘The Reluctant Cannibal’ at dinners until I
had to stop doing it because 1. No one got it anymore 2. They didn’t think it
was funny.

I am a vegetarian, but I might be less squeamish about ingesting meat if it
was harvested ethically. Perhaps mere minutes after death or right after
death. We harvest organs after one dies. Why not the rest of the body?

~~~
yesenadam
Such schemes are called 'modest proposals' after Swift's original
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal)

Well yes, I've wondered why people who think factory farming at its worst is
acceptable, with their "The animal wouldn't exist without the farm" and
"painless slaughter is OK" arguments etc, never consider farmed human meat.
One could use a lot of the factory farming arguments in its favour. (Both are
abhorrent to me.)

~~~
jelliclesfarm
I would hazard a guess that while Swift was a brilliant satirist, he likely
drew from what was probably not taboo.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Psalmanazar](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Psalmanazar)
: Psalmanazar was supposedly one of the real life people he borrowed from..he
was an imposter who claimed to be from Formosa(Taiwan) and spun tales about
human sacrifice and priests eating the hearts of young boys.

Now this might not have been entirely untrue because China(definitely not the
same as Formosa as those times..but in the broader geographical region)
definitely had a recipe book for cooking convicts and each crime had a custom
recipe and even which parts of the body was used etc.

In India, thugees regularly sacrificed children because they were pure and
blemishless. Mythology is full of children being killed by the Asuras or the
‘evil kings’ of prophesied enemies by snatching them up as infants right after
they were born and killed.

Child sacrifice in Pre Colombian cultures were not uncommon either. Incas
certainly offered children as sacrifice but likely didn’t rely on children for
sustenance. Do you see the theme of religion seeking children as sacrifice?
Which meant the priests likely ate them first...prior to becoming pastoral
settlers and farmers, children were a burden to hunter gatherer communities.
They held them back and the women were occupied with the raising of children.
They had as few children as they could...as they settled down and started
farming and owning properties and the concept of inheritance occurred wrt new
‘wealth’, then having a lot of children not just for labour but also for
insurance became a desirable necessity.

Let’s not forget the filial sacrifice in the Old Testament..the very first
Abrahamic lore starts with a father sacrificing his son on the mount. It
occurs again and again in many of the stories of offering burnt sacrifices of
children to God in the many stories. Later, there are many prohibitions
against child and human sacrifice which means that it was a common practice
earlier...likely with the cannonites and who worshipped Baal and Moloch as
idols. I wouldn’t forget the Assyrians either...

Having said that, the Spartans were known to have exposed their
infants..especially the sickly ones. Don’t know if they consumed them
tho’..but these were a warrior people and not by those conducting religious
priestly activity. But once again it’s a form of euthanasia/eugenics because
they only wanted strong future warriors. And of course, Cato’s plea for
Carthago Delenda Est because they were child sacrificers.

Time and again, we see sacrifice of humans ..and especially children..in our
history. The more I think about it, every single culture in myth and lore has
child sacrifice. It’s actually remarkable...agriculture probably changed that
because more hands means more land could be cultivated which meant there would
be enough food from the land.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sacrifice](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sacrifice)
: there seems to be more!

Even Grimm’s Tales was pretty with Hansel and Gretel being caught by the witch
and readied for the stew pot. The original fairy tales definitely wasn’t meant
to be a metaphor or satire.

Altho..this..in our modern times with its illustrations and witticisms offers
a gentle reminder to children and adults alike as to who we really are:

[https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Children-Grisly-
Recipe/dp/18...](https://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Children-Grisly-
Recipe/dp/1862057710)

Phew!

~~~
gyaniv
I think you're mixing sacrifice with eating/consuming.

In most cases of human sacrifice, it was done for religious reasons, and the
meat wan't eaten (or if it was then in small quantities, like eating the
hearts as you mentioned). even back then, the consumption of human body parts
wasn't considered healthy or nourishing, it was done only to appease the
gods/give us their favor/make us stronger/etc.

I think that thoughts and stories of eating people, and especially kids that
is pretty common in many societies and myths, comes as a warning or as
something to fear, both because human sacrifice was common enough at a certain
point, but also because it helped to easily scar people (whether the parents
or the children themselves).

I think that one of the problems with eating dead humans, even recently dead
people, is that those are even worst "parts" then the livings parts. What I
mean is the even in the conventional meat eating industry they usually don't
eat meat from animals that died naturally (and i'm assuming you're not talking
about mass murder), and the reason for that is that the animal (or in our
case, the human), died for a certain reason, more likely then not, from health
reasons, so the chance of the meat containing disease, sickness, or even just
being super weak is a lot higher then when they take a supposedly healthy
animal, kill it, and harvest it.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Re religious sacrifices, they were certainly eaten. Again and again, there is
prohibition of sacrifices and the very Isaac story was a religious edict that
permitted substitution of goat/sheep(?) to human child.

Indian lores of dacoits and thugeee seeking infants was likely because they
were to be consumed before they got sick or had infections. Babies get a slew
of infections as to develop immunity. A ‘blemishless’ baby was important.

In India, we pierce babies ears when they are mewling infants. It makes them
imperfect sacrifices. In some rural parts, they dab the baby’s face with
charcoal paste and it’s supposed to ward off the ‘evil eye’. But now that I
think about it, it likely served to make a child look pockmarked or just ‘not
perfect’ and hence less risk of being kidnapped for cooking.

In more organized religions with a priest(pre Colombian), the priest always
‘tasted’ the prized organs(heart for instance ..of a warrior because he was
brave) and distributed the rest of the body.

If you see how African tribes hunt and eat..they have one hunting trip and
they eat well and the rest of the time, they just subsist on fish or foraged
greens and root vegetables.

Meat was never eaten in quantities like we do now. It was unheard of...so for
any tribe or community, it’s a lot of food. Likely an addition with ceremonial
significance to their kill.

This isn’t about the original query re humans eating other dead humans (and if
I can reword it: “self synthesizing human food from humans”)...but wrt the
side discussion re children and human sacrifice and cannibalism.

------
siruncledrew
What I wonder is how castaways lost at sea that ate their dead crew managed to
survive without getting some kind of crazy infection/disease. Especially if it
was uncooked flesh.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Perhaps prion diseases were rare.

------
simonblack
Where do you think Soylent Green comes from?

Incidentally, 2022 is not very far away at all.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Haha! “Soylent..it’s made out of people!!!”

I was so tickled when the beverage people picked the name Soylent for their
product.

------
lexda15
I'm vegan and still alive.

