Cannibalistic rites

WHILE last Monday’s front-page report (“Three suspected cannibals arrested for murder”) made chilling reading, I was even more shocked by some of the very judgemental remarks published.

Professor Gerard Labuschagne, of the SAPS specialised investigative psychology section, says that the eating of human flesh is “to do with mental health issues” and that those involved are “in the throes of psychotic episodes … experiencing hallucinations … and having bizarre thoughts”.

Yet throughout history there have been numerous societies in which the consumption of human body parts has been widely practised as part of some ritual or ceremony intended to gain power, to honour the dead or to facilitate union on a higher plane.

As recently as 1970, as an adolescent in the UK, I was initiated into a religious group and every Sunday would kneel in front of an altar to eat a small wafer with a sip of wine. I was taught that, upon consumption, these would be transformed into the actual flesh and blood of the group’s founder.

This is less than 50 years ago mind, the rites were wide open to the public and as far as I know the practice – known as “communion” – still goes on today, also in South Africa.

It is widely accepted that exposure to violent computer games, extreme pornography and gruesome movies may lead to the blurring of fact and fantasy in young minds, so it seems to me that this “communion” business should perhaps also be controlled, if not outlawed altogether. What does Professor Labuscagne think?