survival cannibalism

SURVIVAL CANNIBALISM
Cannibalism is not the nicest activity humans engage in, and it ranks right there in between infanticide and genocide. This is quite understandable, as in a crises we can expect some to help us and others to try to harm us, but rarely do we expect to be eaten. Being thought of as dinner throws the whole equation into disruption. You can accept someone’s help, and you can fight off attempts to kill you, but being consumed for supper is just plain gross. Even if you aren’t religious, there’s that little nagging voice telling you that it does matter what happens to your body after death. Burial is preferred, cremation is cool in a Viking warrior sort of way. Cannibal consumption of your carcass is strictly off limits. Your remains will be defecated out, and that is as bad as it gets for desecrating a body.
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Now, having said that the concept of cannibalism in general is distasteful, I must also state that in certain survival situations you and I might have no other choice than to eat up on some of that long pork. Sure, it’s gross. So is ramming a bayonet into someone’s gut and twisting it about. I have done neither, but will do either if the situation demands it. Face it, the most foresighted of us can’t see or plan for all situations that can arise. If you must feed yourself, and there is only one source of food, you eat that food. You could have five years worth of wheat stored up, but a fire, a visit by bandits, pests or other situations could wipe it out. Farm land can be invaded by pests or persons, fire can burn your crop, or a blight can strike. Too much can happen to rely on one food source.
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Water and food are your most important necessities in life followed by shelter. Most of us are spoiled rotten in our affluent lifestyle. We are conditioned by running water pipes and a food system that feeds us at the slightest rumblings of our bloated belly. Seeing as how at least half of our nation is arid, and seeing as how our food system is only workable in a well running economy, it seems prudent to assume that disaster can easily strike us where we are most vulnerable. Water can be stored in drums, we can have a solar powered well, and we can always migrate to water. Food can be stored in the form of wheat for least cost/maximum caloric count, we can grow an extensive garden/hunt, and the third source of food will have to be cannibalism.
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Consider the advantages of cannibalism if you are practicing mobile survivalism. There is no need to carry food stores, not even a pan if you cook over a fire using skewers. With one bullet you get a spare firearm with its ammunition, nifty equipment you need and at least a week or two of grub. This of course assumes a total breakdown of society. If you are just lost for a week in the woods, don’t go killing Ranger Rick for his 9mm and a few tasty meals. Society will frown on this.
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This is pure and simple common sense. You can’t store all that much food, it can be lost for whatever reason, and farming is precarious under even ideal conditions. And, you need to eat. I do not suggest you consume the fresh of diseased corpses, or kill innocents just to avoid some hunger pains. Cannibalism is only for emergencies under conditions where the entire fabric of society is violently torn asunder. Sure, there are exceptions. Such as plane crashes in the mountains or if your leaders are attempting to control the populace with deliberate starvation. But just to make it plain, what I am talking about is life after doomsday. After civilization ends. Mad Max scenarios. When the stuff really truly hits the fan.
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Reasons why cannibalism is okay if you really, really have to.1) Sure, it’s disgusting. So is eating monkey brains, escargot, insects or even oysters. To me, meat should be an expectable creature such as cows and pigs, fowl and fish. Hell, even snake or alligator. Also, it should be a muscle meat. The only place guts or organ meat have on my plate is in a sausage, and a well seasoned one at that. If you are forced to eat human, at least it is mammal and has muscle meat. At least it isn’t slimy mucus looking snail. 2) you will not be hunted like a dog or outcast. If the situation is this dire, you will not be alone. The only cannibalism that should be condoned is that of an unnecessary nature. If there are crops or game available, the remnants of society should not allow the practice. Otherwise, you’ll have plenty of company and more than likely it will be a subject not brought up at a cocktail party. 3) You will not catch diseases if you take simple precautions. Avoid the spinal cord or brain and you avoid catching Kuru or Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, the turning of your brain to mush as you laugh uncontrollably in intense pain. Not the way to go. However, this is very rare unless you consume the aforementioned parts or the blood of a multi-generational cannibal. If you take care to avoid blood while butchering ( mainly infecting a cut you already have- a precaution you practice now) and just eat muscle meat, you should be okay.
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Ancient bone findings indicate cannibalism. Enlargement of the brain/spinal socket might suggest brain consumption. Lengthwise splits in bones suggest bone marrow removal. Stone marks ( not animal tooth marks ) on bones say that the flesh was scrapped off and eaten. When you are lucky to make thirty, life can’t be all that great. Predators a lot bigger than today roamed around. Disease was a sure killer. Starvation was not uncommon. So, sure, cannibalism was almost a sure thing. Life that brutal suggests brutal tactics to be fed.
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More recently there was the Donner Party. An untried trail was used, the party was stuck in the Sierras during winter, and after everything possible was consumed, the dead were eaten. Your typical story. What must be mentioned is that were it not for the protein, none would have had the strength to venture out and summon help. Without cannibalism the entire party would have died, among them many children.
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As Fat Bastard said, it is the other, other white meat.
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Taken from my Bison Newsletter e-book, available at www.bisonpress.com
Reprints will be posted every Sunday until I get to writing on a regular basis, hopefully before August.