When you think of cannibalism, the first image that pops into mind is usually a starving crowd gnawing on each other’s flesh. Yet, the truth is far more layered: 10 things you probably never learned about this grim practice range from aristocratic apothecaries in Europe to solemn funeral feasts in the Amazon, and even to bizarre rites in China’s distant past. Buckle up for a whirlwind tour through the strange, the shocking, and the surprisingly ritualistic corners of human history.
10 Things You Might Not Expect About Human Eating
10 The Real Cannibals Were the Europeans
Believe it or not, from the late Middle Ages all the way to the Victorian era, Europeans treated human parts as a premium ingredient for medicine. Back in Shakespeare’s day, the pressing question wasn’t whether to eat a person for a cure, but rather which sort of corpse would make the best remedy. The trade began with genuine Egyptian mummies, but by the 1500s merchants in North Africa were fabricating “counterfeit mummies” by baking the remains of lepers, beggars, or even camels to keep the market supplied.
A notorious 1609 recipe even instructed the apothecary to select a fresh corpse of a “red man” aged twenty‑four, who had been hanged or broken on the wheel, and left exposed for a full day and night. The flesh was to be chopped, dusted with myrrh and aloes, macerated in wine, and then hung to dry until it resembled smoked, odorless meat.
Among the elite who dabbled in such grisly pharmacology were Emperor Francis I, the physician to Elizabeth I (John Banister), Charles II, chemist Robert Boyle, and neuroscientist Thomas Willis, alongside countless aristocratic gentlemen and ladies. The poorer classes supposedly drank fresh blood at public beheadings across Austria, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden—a claim that still sparks debate over its veracity. Records suggest this macabre practice persisted from roughly 1500 until 1866, especially among epileptics, and even into the Victorian age when skulls were still smuggled for medicinal use.
9 Famine Cannibalism
Even well into the eighteenth century, Europe witnessed desperate cannibalism sparked by relentless wars. In 1590, when Paris was besieged by Henri of Navarre, a famine committee resolved to grind bones from the Holy Innocents Cemetery into bread. The makeshift loaf appeared by mid‑August, but those who ate it reportedly perished shortly after.
Germany’s own horrors unfolded in late 1636 at Steinhaus, where a woman allegedly lured a twelve‑year‑old girl and a five‑year‑old boy into her home, murdered them, and ate them with a neighbor. Around the same period in Heidelberg, rumors swirled of people digging up graves to feast on corpses, while a woman was discovered dead with a man’s roasted head in her mouth and a rib clenched in her jaws. Historian Piero Camporesi recounts that in Picardy, starving villagers went so far as to gnaw on their own arms and hands, meeting a tragic end in the process.
8 The French Traveler Who Probably Preferred to Live with Cannibals
In the 1550s, French explorer Jean de Léry spent months among Brazil’s ferocious Tupinamba cannibals. Upon his return to France, the brutal reality of European bloodletting likely made him nostalgic for the Brazilian savages. During the infamous St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (August 24 1572), roughly 5,000 Protestants were slaughtered, and Léry later claimed to have witnessed a French Protestant’s heart being plucked, chopped, grilled, and even auctioned for consumption—though the veracity of this lurid tale is disputed.
Later, during the harrowing siege of Sancerre in 1573, Léry described a starving family that sacrificed a young girl, whose grandmother persuaded the parents to eat her. The grandmother was subsequently executed for her role. Confronted with the gruesome sight of the girl’s carcass, Léry’s stomach turned, and he vomited on the spot—a visceral reaction that underscored the stark contrast between the Brazilian rituals he’d observed and the desperate cannibalism erupting in war‑torn France.
7 Warring Christians Were Known to Eat or Drink Each Other
When Spanish troops ravaged the Dutch town of Naarden in December 1572, a hundred fleeing citizens were captured, stripped, and hung from trees to freeze. The marauding soldiers, described as “growing increasingly insane,” allegedly slit open the veins of some victims and drank the blood as if it were fine wine.
French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, in his essay “On Cannibals,” argued that devouring a living person was far more barbaric than consuming the dead, noting that contemporaries witnessed roasted bodies being torn apart while dogs and swine feasted on them. In April 1655, Catholic forces massacred Protestant villagers in the Piedmont valleys; a French officer named Monsieur du Petit Bourg reported soldiers cooking human brains, disguising breasts and genitals as “tripe,” and even skewering a young girl alive on a pike. After killing Daniel Cardon of Roccappiata, the troops fried his brain in a pan and were prepared to fry his heart—only stopping when nearby peasants threatened retaliation.
6 Much Supposedly “Savage Cannibalism” of the Americas Was Entirely Consensual
The classic European narrative of “savage cannibalism” often highlights violent, external eating (exo‑cannibalism). Yet many indigenous societies practiced internal, consensual cannibalism as a solemn funeral rite. The Wari’ of Brazil, for example, performed endo‑cannibalism well into the 1960s, only ending when missionaries intervened. Their ritual involved painting the corpse with red annatto, adorning the firewood with vulture and macaw feathers, and singing mournful songs while the deceased’s house was burned.
These ceremonies were far from gluttony. When an elder’s body was finally consumed, it could be putrid from the long mourning period, forcing participants to gag or even vomit, yet they persisted out of reverence for the spirit. Ironically, the Wari’ found Christian burial—where a body lies cold and sealed in earth—deeply disturbing, labeling it a polluting practice.
5 Like the Mafia or Academics, Savage Cannibals Only Killed Their Own
Exo‑cannibalism among rival tribes was a ritualized act of domination, but it was executed with elaborate religious symbolism. French traveler André Thevet documented the Tupinamba’s practice: a captive would live among the enemy for a year, marry, father a child, and then be ritually clubbed, roasted, and shared piece‑by‑piece among the tribe. The victim’s flesh was meticulously harvested, leaving only a clean skeleton after the ceremony, emphasizing “incorporation” of the enemy into the community’s very being.
Anthropologist Peggy Reeves Sanday noted that while the captors howled with fury, their faces often displayed a gentle, humane demeanor toward the condemned. The ritual was carefully staged, with the captive periodically revived to ensure he survived until the appointed moment, underscoring a paradoxical blend of cruelty and compassion rooted in shared spiritual beliefs.
4 Chinese Cannibalism (I): How Much Do You Love Your Mother‑in‑Law?
China, too, has its own eerie chapter of cannibalism, both consensual and violent. Scholars Daniel Korn, Mark Radice, and Charlie Hawes describe ancient customs of filial piety called “ko ku” and “ko kan.” In “ko ku,” a daughter‑in‑law slices a piece of her own arm or thigh and mixes it into soup for an ailing mother‑in‑law, allegedly prompting miraculous recovery.
The more extreme “ko kan” involves the donor opening their own abdomen, extracting a portion of their liver, and feeding it to the sick relative. The liver’s famed regenerative ability supposedly allowed the donor to survive, while the recipient remained oblivious to the true nature of the “medicine.”
3 Chinese Cannibalism (II): How Much Do You Hate Your Class Enemies?
During the Cultural Revolution’s violent climax in the late 1960s, cannibalism surged as a weapon of class warfare. In Wuxuan Province, students turned on teachers, brutally murdering the Chinese Department head Wu Shufang, then cutting out her liver and cooking it over a schoolyard fire. The foul scent of simmering human flesh soon permeated the campus.
In another gruesome episode, a young man, son of a former landlord, was bound to a telegraph pole, his stomach opened, and his liver removed while still barely alive. The still‑hot cavity forced the attackers to douse it with river water before cooking. Estimates suggest around 10,000 participants partook in such cannibalistic acts, with roughly 100 victims consumed, as recounted by former Red Guard Zheng Yi, now living in exile.
2 And the Prize for the Nastiest Cannibals in the World Goes to…
Two particularly chilling examples emerge. Seventeenth‑century French writer César Rochefort described the “Country of Antis” in South America, claiming its inhabitants stripped a high‑status victim naked, tied him to a post, and slashed his flesh, focusing on thighs, calves, and buttocks. They then doused themselves in his blood and devoured the meat raw, like cormorants, without chewing, while the victim watched his own demise.
Yet even this barbaric tableau held a twisted sense of honor: a person of “quality” received the worst treatment, yet the Antis supposedly showed respect if the victim remained silent throughout.
Perhaps the most unsettling contestants were the Solomon Islanders, as recounted by Earle Labor. In the early 1900s, islanders would stake live victims up to their necks in running water for days, “tenderizing” them before cooking. The practice, devoid of ritual or religious significance, treated humans as mere “long pig,” a term for meat, showcasing a stark, unembellished appetite for human flesh.
1 Cannibal Myths
One of history’s greatest distortions is the European portrayal of “savage” cannibals, which conveniently obscured the continent’s own industrial‑scale consumption of human parts. Historian William Arens attempted to deny any tribal cannibalism, a theory now largely discredited. The myth persisted, painting indigenous peoples as barbaric while Europeans feasted on corpses under the guise of medicine.
These myths also acted as a vortex, pulling in other lurid tales. In 1688, the Peruvian Chirihuana were said to devour enemies and indulge in rampant sexual promiscuity, even shouting for an old woman to be tossed from a basket for a live feast. Earlier, Francis Bacon reported that during the 1494 French siege of Naples, merchants allegedly barrelled fresh human flesh and sold it as tuna.