Cannibalism and Symbolism

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Symbolism plays an important role in religious ceremonies because people cannot have the divine being where they want him all the time. So they start creating ways to be in touch with God. Such as in Christianity, eating bread is symbolized to be eating God-made flesh. There are similar rituals in Judaism where they eat the food of God.

A big difference between taste and the other senses is that the object that is being sensed is internalized, whereas all the other senses use an external sensation. Taste cannot extend anywhere like the other senses can. This allows the humans to have no barrier between the divine (symbolized as food) and themselves. This is the closest they can get to God, but internalizing Him. 

This thought of getting the closest they can to someone by ingesting and gaining power from it led my mind to wander to the thought of serial killers that also happen to be cannibals. I know that it might be a stretch, but there are some similarities. I also do not want to make generalizations about all religious people.


1. Gaining power 

By eating the God-made flesh or God’s food a person hopes to gain some purity or some sort of power that God can give them. The serial killers who are also cannibals eat their victims for a variety of reasons, but one of the common ones being the need to feel power. They crave the need to feel more powerful than others. Psychology Today states, “To himself, he has demonstrated mastery over another human being. The victim is now part of him as a trophy.” 


2. Control 

Having the need for power taken care of, the killer cannibals are able to have more control over other aspects of their lives. A big part of religion is having control of your life, so there could be an argument for some people that going to a religious service helps them have control over their life.




Schurman-Kauflin, Deborah. “Why Cannibals Love Eating People.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 30 Aug. 2011, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/disturbed/201108/why-cannibals-love-eating-people.

Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausMarch 5, 2018 at 8:24 AM

    You're not wrong in noticing the relevance of the symbolic power of cannibalism to religious rituals of eating. According to R. Bahya in Shulhan Shel Arba, we humans were originally vegetarian, but because of our blood-thirstiness, God conceded to humans permission to eat animals, provided that they themselves weren't egregiously bloodthirsty carnivores - no lions and tigers and bears. You are what you eat...

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