Cannibalism, eating of human flesh by human beings.

The term cannibalism is derived from Canibales, the Spanish name for the reputedly man-eating Carib Native Americans who lived in the West Indies when Christopher Columbus arrived.

The practice of cannibalism has been reported in many parts of the world. Some indications point to its practice as early as Neolithic times. The Greek historian Herodotus and other ancient writers described various cannibalistic peoples. In medieval times Venetian traveler Marco Polo reported that tribes from Tibet to Sumatra practiced cannibalism.

It was practiced among many Native North Americans, especially the tribes of the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Until recent times cannibalism was believed to prevail in central and western Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Sumatra, New Guinea, Polynesia, and remote parts of South America.

Several motives have been proposed for the practice of cannibalism. In some cultures, it was believed that the person who ate the dead body of another would acquire the desired qualities of the person eaten, particularly of a brave enemy.

In a few instances, cannibalism might have been dictated by no other motive than revenge. It was even believed that an enemy's spirit would be utterly destroyed if the body were eaten, thus leaving nothing in which the ghost could live.

Cannibalism was sometimes part of a religious practice. The Binderwurs of central India ate their sick and aged in the belief that the act was pleasing to their goddess, Kali.

In Mexico, thousands of human victims were sacrificed annually by the Aztecs to their deities. After the ceremony of sacrifice, the priests and the populace ate the bodies of the victims, believing that this would bring them closer to their gods.

Among Western peoples cannibalism is rare, although starvation has sometimes driven humans to eat the flesh of other humans. One instance in America involved members of the ill-fated Donner party in the Sierra Nevada in California during the winter of 1846-1847. Another occurred in Chile in 1972, when 16 members of a Uruguayan soccer team survived for 70 days after their airliner crashed in the Andes Mountains.

"Cannibalism," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.