So the other night I was working on my reading. I wanted to see if I could find anymore works that specifically reference medicinal cannibalism. In an effort to find specific works, I looked at one of my all-time favorite books,
Dinner With A Cannibal. Or I tried to at least. Word of advice, Organizing your books is totally worth the time. It took me around a half-hour to find the book. And this morning I was on my kindle and saw that I have a digital copy there as well. Yep, I'm not super organized at all.
The book really is great. It gives a fairly comprehensive look at cannibalism and culture throughout the world. And when searching Amazon for a replacement copy, I found a few more books on the top that I'm really looking forward to reading. You know a book's going to be good when the title is
Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires and it has a picture of a skull on the cover.
This week, I started looking through the primary source documents I've pulled together. It seems as though people really liked preserving food and making cake and water. Can't say that I blame them on the cake part. I may try a few of those recipes at a later time. Can't say that I'm a fan of flavored water, so I'll probably skip that. I have found some medical receipts though, and I'm hoping that they prove worthwhile when I go through them in more depth later.
Are you interested in vampires? Because that could be an interesting topic to explore. Cannibalism is the eating of human flesh and is not viewed favorably. Vampirism is the drinking of human blood and yet is popularized as a teen romance thing. It is associated with many books and movies on vampire fantasy romance (e.g. Twilight) and it'd be cool to understand why.
ReplyDeleteVampirism is a subsection of cannibalism as the consumption of human blood falls under the consumption of human material. Medicinal cannibalism includes the use of human blood as well as flesh and bone.
DeleteI do agree that it would be interesting to look into, but the thing that should be considered is that the teen vampire is 'reformed'. It is presented in such away that the consumption of human blood is rejected by the characters. In Twilight, the characters are 'vegetarians' as they consider their lives to be some sort of curse. Ultimately, the vampire is no longer the original vampire, but a reformed, hippy vampire to the current teenager.
What is the most interesting thing that you have discovered through reading 'Mummies, Cannibals, and Vampires? What is the focus of 'Dinner with a Cannibal'? They sound like intriguing reads!
ReplyDelete'Dinner with a Cannibal' is fantastic! It provides general information about cannibalism around the globe in different cultures, as well as the role of food across the globe.
DeleteFor 'Mummies, Cannibals and Vampires' I was really interested to learn exactly what types of mummy were consumed in Western Europe. Additionally, breast milk is considered a form of cannibalism! Kind of gross, but super interesting! We are all cannibals as infants. As long as you use that reasoning.