CANNIBAL EXECUTIONS TRIBAL CEREMONY.
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In 1979, debate flared up with the publication of The Man Eating Myth about whether any tribe anywhere in the world had ever actually eaten other humans for reasons aside from desperation. The idea behind this historical revisionism was that it was a way to justify European and American imperialism by claiming the lands that were being seized had been inhabited by primitives violating the ultimate taboo. Today it is now well confirmed that the ritualistic eating of flesh is a practice still performed into the modern age by at least one known tribe, the Korowai in Papua New Guinea.
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| CANNIBAL EXECUTIONS TRIBAL CEREMONY. |
This tribe of roughly 4,000 would primarily perform cannibalism as a form of punishment. It was for “khakhua,” which roughly translates as “male witch,” the apparent rationale that warlocks will themselves perform cannibalism. While the body of the executed person is distributed throughout clans, the head is left for the family that put the person to death. Such a practice was officially banned in New Guinea in the early 1970s, though some locals insisted to Smithsonian Magazine that it persisted. Considering that having an entire clan eat a person puts them at risk of a horrible disease called “Kuru,” it would undoubtedly be in their own best interests to abandon the practice matter what sort of punishment they may want to give a warlock.