re: #490 goddessoftheclassroom

The two universal taboo are incest (immediate family, anyway) and cannibalism (killing people just to eat them).

Some societies ritualistically eat their deceased defeated foes or elders in order to ingest the admired qualities, but that’s not the same thing as intentionally slaughtering human beings for their meat.

Fijians used to eat their captives piece by piece, so that the captive’s suffering was maximized. They’d often taunt the captive by offering him a piece of his own flesh.

On other South Pacific islands, ritual eating of the brains of deceased relatives (a sign of respect) led to the propagation of kuru, now called Crutzfeld-Jakob’s Disease, the human equivalent of mad cow.

Ain’t no party like a long pig party!