Eating Human.....

[Fonly]

put it like others, bullet to the head before I eat another humen, same goes for the dog.

 

[Pete1977]

In the days of sail, there was what was known as the "Custom of the Sea". Shipwrecked or otherwise desperate sailors would cast lots to determine who in their number would be killed and eaten, and again to determine who would perform the killing. There are several famous and infamous examples of castaway mariners who resorted to cannibalism to survive. Some ate dead members of their parties and some committed what was known as "homicide out of necessity." Most seamen who partook of the cannibalism of their shipmates were absolved of their acts until the wreck of the yacht Mignonette and the subsequent trial R v Dudley and Stephens in 1884. The court determined that necessity was not a justifiable cause for homicide and the two sailors charged were sentenced to death with a recommendation for mercy.

Until then there were several cases of both cannibalism and homicide for that purpose, including probably the most famous case, that of the Essex, a Nantucket whaler that was stove in by a whale, causing the crew to take to the lifeboats and later resort to cannibalism.

There have been numerous fictional accounts written on the subject and the aftermath as well, including Joseph Conrad's "Falk", Stephen King's "Survivor Type" in which the castaway (a heroin smuggling medical student) actually dismembers and eats himself, and the Edgar Allen Poe novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.

Would I do it in the case of shipwreck? The topic has come up on almost every boat I've worked on and I probably would join in the casting of lots. I was told early on to be a survivor and not a victim. Thankfully the risk of being cast adrift in an open boat for any length of time is relatively small. Would I sacrifice myself for my girlfriend or my family, yes. Would I consider eating anyone I really cared about, no.

 

[Bushman5]

put it like others, bullet to the head before I eat another humen, same goes for the dog.

hunger is a powerful motivator my friend - how badly do you want to live? we are used to a certain comfort level in our day to day lives, esp food. When there is no food, one resorts to unconventional means for food - Auschwitz internees often chewed on pieces of leather for days and then would swallow the pulped pieces to stave of the hunger pains. Some resort to plants, or maggots, bugs, worms. Other may, if out there long enough, resort to eating the deceased or killing the weakest so they may eat. And that includes fluffy or fido too....

how bad do you want to live....

 

[Fonly]

hunger is a powerful motivator my friend - how badly do you want to live? we are used to a certain comfort level in our day to day lives, esp food. When there is no food, one resorts to unconventional means for food - Auschwitz internees often chewed on pieces of leather for days and then would swallow the pulped pieces to stave of the hunger pains. Some resort to plants, or maggots, bugs, worms. Other may, if out there long enough, resort to eating the deceased or killing the weakest so they may eat. And that includes fluffy or fido too....

how bad do you want to live....

Thats a good point, really, there is never any need to eat another person, especially in my neck() of the woods. There are soo many edible wilds, game, fishing all of which Im proficient in, so in that sense, If im to the point that I would eat another person, im in pretty bad shape that I cant do the other things, in which case, Im most likely better off dead, at least thats what I'll be thinking.:thumbup:

 

[Bushman5]

Thats a good point, really, there is never any need to eat another person, especially in my neck() of the woods. There are soo many edible wilds, game, fishing all of which Im proficient in, so in that sense, If im to the point that I would eat another person, im in pretty bad shape that I cant do the other things, in which case, Im most likely better off dead, at least thats what I'll be thinking.:thumbup:

I can haz yur firearms then?

 

[stabman]

In an extreme survival situation I'll hunt you, I'll kill you, I'll eat you. I have no reservations about doing what I need to do to survive.

Dude, I am NOT going on any camping trips with YOU.

 

[Mentor]

Very interesting topic. I taught a course module several years ago on the concept (and threshold) of mortality in contemporary western societies. It's amazing how widely perceptions of death vary across cultures (as demonstrated by rituals for the handling of dead bodies, practices for declaring death, and rules regarding 'tissue economies'). It goes without saying that our cultural perceptions of death and dying have a huge impact - consciously or subconsciously - on how we would handle the prospects of cannibalism in a real-time survival situation.

All that being said, I can't imagine a survival scenario that I would run into over the course of my normal outdoors activities where this scenario would seriously arise. It would imply that walking out, signalling for help, and foraging are all either unfeasible or ineffective.

But if the situation arose, I would certainly eat my hiking partner. I try to carry some seasoning in my cooking kit, so I think I would at least do them the honour of cooking them well. I mean, if you're going to feast on your companions, you should try to make it a memorable occasion, right?

Disturbingly yours,

- Mike

PS - there's a neat part in the book 'World War Z' where a woman is reflecting on her time as a child fleeing the zombie apocalypse by 'going north' (along with a significant percentage of Americans and most of us Canucks). She describes what happened when the food ran out and everyone starting getting sick. Then one day her father trades her hand-crank radio for a large pot of ... stew.

 

[stabman]

Disturbingly yours,

- Mike

Disturbingly enough, a guy at work named Mike was talking about eating people, while we were in the lunch room.
Hmmm...

 

[The Government]

I would eat human if I had to, but I would not kill a friend and eat him/her. They would have to be dead already.

After deciding I was going to eat human, I dont know what part would be best first. Do we have a tenderloin? Butt meat maybe? (Sorry had to put a little humor into eating human)

-anyone seen "Cannibal the Musical" ???

 

[kgd]

I've euthanized and killed a lot of things in my career (no humans of course). It is pretty easy to flip the switch in your head to objectify what is going on. People, sit there and say how murder is an insane act, yet we train troops to go to war and commit sanctioned forms of murder. They've learned to flip that switch, well some better than others. We can all do it. I tend to agree with the person who said that it is hard to say sitting at home in your living room what you would and wouldn't do in dire circumstances.

Personally, seeing humanity as it is, even having some inkling of what I think I'd be capable of (that objectify/rationalization thing), I think the real question is how many people wouldn't eat human meat under any circumstances.

To the person who said humans aren't nutritious. Poppycock - we're full of fat from our luxury living. Our bodies contain all the stuff of life that we need in the right proportions that we need it in. We're nutritious - far more so than a poptart!

 

[Fiddleback]

How annoying is the particular human were talking about?

 

[mikeal]

Just sayin'....

 

[Duzzy]

To the person who said humans aren't nutritious. Poppycock - we're full of fat from our luxury living. Our bodies contain all the stuff of life that we need in the right proportions that we need it in. We're nutritious - far more so than a poptart!

I think his point was that by the time you start considering eating someone else, most of that fat and nutrition is long gone.

e.g. Eating someone who, like you, hasn't eaten anything in two weeks.

(Assuming of course that you wait until it's absolutely necessary to eat someone and you have exhausted all other possibilities.)

 

[kgd]

The person will lose calories, but there will be plenty of protein left in them. Crack them bones for marrow, lots of phospholipids in the brain, liver might be a bit shoddy.

 

[Skimo]

Human liver is BAD juju unless they never smoked drank ate meat etc.

I've heard cannibals say hands and feet taste the best.

I'd be extremely cautious about... err.... dressing a human, I'd say anything that filters is the last to eat.

Stewing would be best I think, long term high heat to get rid of the microbial/viral crap along with tenderizing the meat.

IF you can't eat anything else but humans, it leads me to believe that there are no tree's, since trees mean birds squirrels etc, even a water source.

no fuel means no fire, no fire means raw meat, definitely not an appetizing prospect.

As far as dogs go, they're the first to die, meat + pelt +bones for structure/tools, in a cold environment you can bet that fido will be keeping me warm and fed... too bad blood is salty.

 

[Mentor]

Some day, not too long from now, someone is going to ask about that precise minute when the W&SS forum officially went sideways, and the answer will surely contain a link to this thread.



- Mike

 

[kgd]

Some day, not too long from now, someone is going to ask about that precise minute when the W&SS forum officially went sideways, and the answer will surely contain a link to this thread.



- Mike

ohh, this ain't the first cannibal thread....They will link to one of the earlier ones...

I used to hate dissecting domestic cats. Them fat cats was a pain in the butt to find their organs. Just spooning out the globs and globs of yellow adipose tissue.....There was no end to the fatty, lumpy globules. Then the organs themselves were just swimming in fat. Got the liver out, the damn thing would just slip out of your latex glove onto the floor. Every try picking up a greased liver off of linoleum with greasy latex gloves? Its like playing shuffle board....

 

[SamuraiDave]

A bunch of the German Soldiers who survived Russian captivity during and after WWII had to suffer conditions like those of the holocaust. Those that did not die figured out how to do things like pick corn kernels out of Russian latrines and make them edible again.
Supposedly the ringleaders of the people who "reprocessed" this food for consumption made some good pay amongst the prisoners.

In the book "Enemy at the Gates", (totally different than the movie BTW) the author speaks of Russian guards going up to his captives fire to get warm. Only to realize one of the Germans has his comrades trachea's cooking on a stick.

There are also stories of how the Germans would take frozen bodies, thaw them out, put them in a chair and set them outside to freeze again. The Russians would add a ration of bread to that barracks not knowing that the guy in the corner playing cards was literally frozen stiff. And some of the Germans were having conversations with dead guys that were posed for authenticity.

If you are not willing to survive, someone else will. If you have no use for your corpse, someone else will find a use.

 

[Fonly]

I can haz yur firearms then?

If I croke, you can haz them.:thumbup:

 

[sasha]

I dont know what i would do.. As i never been in that position before. But i like to think that i would eat human with no problems. Mind you human meat does taste like pig. To eat human or not has nothing to do with it except in our heads. You do want to start with the shoulders and the butt. There was an article about a tribe in papa new guinea. When the English had some plantations on the island they had chinese workers. They did notice that some of them would just disappear. They always thought that they ran away. Then when a group of the english were riding horses they came on a war party of the natives. When asked what they are doing the answer was hunting. No one thought about it much. i dont remember how they found out. But they found out that the war party was a hunting party for chinese workers. When asked why they never hunted english men the answer was that they dont taste good. The reason was that the english eat alot of meat...

.

But as a guy that carry spices with him.... Im sure i can make even some of you meat eating slobs taste good over some coals with paprika and garlic and sprinkle some olive oil cook slow till the meat falls off the bones. Heck im sure some of you would ask for seconds when im done with cooking



Sasha