Cannibalism: Where Did It Came From?

In the fifteenth century, Europeans believed that they found a miraculous remedy that would cure all kinds of illnesses such as nausea, hemorrhage, bruising, and even epilepsy. This miraculous remedy was a brown powder that could be consumed in a variety of ways like applying it as an ointment to the bruise or drinking the powder by mixing it with any drink. The perfect cure that they have found was called ''Mumia'' and it could be made by granulating mummified human flesh.

The notion of ''cannibal'' was first put into the literature at the time of Christopher Columbus and the rumor has it he was the one who came up with the word ''cannibal''. During his voyage when he came to an island called Guadaloupe, Columbus encountered indigenous people who he considered friendly and peaceful. Even though Columbus found these indigenous people to be friendly and peaceful and reported to Queen Isabella of Spain just like that way he also mentioned some rumors to the Queen; the rumors of a violent group called the Caribs who were eating the enemies have captured. Upon hearing such blood-curdling tidings, Queen Isabella allowed anyone to capture and enslave those who dare to eat human flesh.

When Columbus' mission to obtain gold from the Guadaloupe island went down the drain, Columbus raided the island and labeled all the island rebels as a Caribe, no matter which tribe they were from. Later on, the word ''Carib'' gradually became ''Canibe'' and it came to its final form as ''Cannibal''. This new word ''Cannibal'' was in the literature of the colonizers who used the word to denigrate the indigenous people. Afterward ''Cannibal'' was used for anyone who was eating human flesh. Of course, cannibalism has a much more complex history than that as this phenomenon of the birth of the word ''Cannibal'' is not based on hard evidence. However, in historical records, there is a notion called survival cannibalism where famine forced people to eat dead bodies in order to survive the hardships of the periods. Another form of cannibalism in the historical records was called filial cannibalism where children offer some of their body parts to their parents in order to cure their sicknesses. Even though there is no concrete date when cannibalism has started, it is known that people have been eating each other, some people even let themselves be eaten by others.