“The best way is to get the body of a red-haired man of about 24 years old who died a violent death,” wrote the German physician Johann Schroeder in the 17th century. "Redheads have lighter blood and healthier flesh." Cannibalism was more developed in Europe than it once was in South America or New Guinea. And for medical reasons. Until the 19th century.
The faces of cannibalism
Cannibalism is the last century. Quite past - stone. It was then that cannibalism flourished. Both Homo sapiens and our "cousins" - the Neanderthals. Well, the maximum is entertainment for the savages. Inhabitants of some of the Marquesas Islands who called human flesh nothing more than an "elongated pig." Or the famous warrior of the Kiowa Indian tribe, who was called the Eater of Hearts. Still - in his life he made 27 "ku" only on the Pawnee people (an Indian tribe hostile to the Kiowa), that is, 27 times ate a piece of the heart of each of the enemies he killed. For civilized Europe, cannibalism is unthinkable. Most people think so. And he is wrong. Because there are three main types of cannibalism: hungry, medical and ritual. They were engaged in the latter (and there is information that they continue to study,although very rare) wild tribes.
"Ayu, not kse peee remiurama!" - the German Hans Staden, who was in the Portuguese military service, was forced to shout to the savages in December 1533. Translated from the Tupinambi (an Indian tribe hostile to the Portuguese), this meant: "Meet me - your food!" After which he began to cry and beg for mercy. It is not surprising that when Staden escaped, he was not very caught: why, in fact, eat a cowardly enemy? Being eaten in traditional communities is not a ram sneezing. It's an honor.
The same Staden noticed how well the Tupinambans treated the captives who were prepared for special feasts. They cherish them, cherish them. They put a woman on everyone who lives with him and pleases in every way. They even allow to have children! And at this time they organize a celebration: they prepare various vessels for drinks, paint and decorate the prisoner. And they do. After all, he still has to prove that he is worthy to be eaten. And then how. The victim is eaten solely in order to adopt its strength and courage. This is ritual cannibalism. So the hysterical Hans Staden was hardly a lucky find for the Tupinambians. Therefore, he remained alive.
And this is also a "noble" cannibalism. The same cannot be said about medical cannibalism. They were engaged in it in Europe. Long and widespread.
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Bloodsuckers
Medical cannibalism is also based on the idea that a dead body retains all the dignity of a deceased person. For example, health. True, the Europeans did not kill anyone. They just ate the corpses of those executed or killed (just not those who died of blood loss - the doctors of those years believed that the soul leaks out of the body along with the blood).
The trade in corpses, and even better - in mummies (especially Egyptian), has become a profitable business in Europe since the 16th century. And most importantly - legal.
However, the corpse is a perishable product. As well as its healing properties. Three or four days - and that's it, the soul is gone. So you need to use it "straight from the tin". And generally choose those who are younger.
This was what the Aesculapians were guided by in 1492, when they soldered the dying Pope Innocent VIII with blood just taken from three boys. All three, unfortunately, died. But dad, fortunately, too. What made the main ideologist of medical cannibalism, the famous Swiss alchemist Paracelsus, make a "clarification": "The flesh and blood of executed criminals is most useful."
The trade in corpses, and even better - in mummies (especially Egyptian), has become a profitable business in Europe since the 16th century. And most importantly - legal
And this, alas, is not connected with considerations of humanity (if at all it is appropriate to talk about it here) - they say, it is easier to get the corpse of an executed person and you don't need to kill anyone. According to culturologist Anna Bergman, author of The Lifeless Patient, a book on medical cannibalism, this is associated with Christian execution rituals. By the way, the inquisitors tortured people so that they were "cleansed" of their sins. The logic is simple: torture is an analogue of Christ's torment. Therefore, the bodies of such "purified" ones were especially appreciated. But the most valuable thing is blood (the soul of the executed). So, when someone's head was cut off (any execution, even if it was not carried out by the Inquisition, was already considered torture), people with bottles immediately resorted to the executioner. They are epileptics. It was believed that the cause of epilepsy is "soul drain" from the body. The blood of the executed will return their souls.
And this is not some Dark Ages - this is 1858 (specifically - the city of Göttingen in Germany)! At this time, the electromagnetic telegraph had already been invented. Faraday discovered his principle of electromagnetic induction, and the first railway was launched in England.
Mumiemania
But the matter was literally not limited to little blood. The most valuable thing, no matter how awful, is the corpses. Doctors get them through the executioners, common people steal from their graves at night.
Subcutaneous fat is especially appreciated. The 1739 German Encyclopedic Dictionary of the bookseller Zedler describes many recipes for making a healing ointment from it at home. Mummy powder is even more valuable. It is desirable, of course, Egyptian ones, but you cannot find enough of them at all, so pharmacists do not hesitate to dry the corpses of vagrants, victims of epidemics and even stillborn children.
German pharmaceutical company "Merck" offered in its catalog "real Egyptian mummies" up to 1912!
German pharmaceutical company "Merck" offered in its catalog "real Egyptian mummies" up to 1912! The use of powder from the rubbed parts of mummified bodies is not the lot of crazy occult servants, but the everyday life of the nobility. Is it any wonder that the renowned medical historian Richard Sugg believes that cannibalism flourished much more luxuriantly not in wild tribes, but in "civilized" Europe.
King Hunger
But there is still a third type of cannibalism - hungry. It has existed (and probably will be) everywhere and always. And in Europe, and in Africa, and in Russia. Even in those cases that were caused by the notorious good intentions.
For example, during the first crusade. The crusaders then did not disdain the corpses of enemies from the captured Arab city of Maarra. Chronicler Ralph Cohen wrote: "Some people said that they, with limited food, had to cook adult Muslims in cauldrons, and put the children on spits and fry."
In his book The Time of Troubles, the Polish historian Kazimierz Waliszewski tells about the Poles and Lithuanians besieged in the Kremlin in 1612: “… They dug up corpses, then began to kill their fellow tribesmen. … The lieutenant and the hayduk each ate two of their sons; another officer ate his mother!.. Quarreled over corpses …"
A similar picture is drawn by eyewitnesses to the retreat of Napoleon's army in Lithuania in 1812. From the book of the historian Eugene Tarle "Napoleon's Invasion of Russia": "… We often met the French in some shed … sitting near a fire on the bodies of their dead comrades, from which they cut out the best parts in order to satisfy their hunger. … They themselves immediately fell dead to be, in their turn, eaten by new comrades who barely reached them."