The cannibalism is a practice which consists in consuming an individual of its own species. The expression applies at the same time to the animals which devour members of their group ( animal Cannibalisme ) and to the men who consume human flesh ( Anthropophagie ).

Etymology

The cannibalism, when it relates to the human meat consumption with men, is also called Anthropophagie , of the Greek anthropos (man) and phagein (to eat). The two terms can be used indifferently, but the specialists distinguish sometimes the two expressions according to the origin in the practice ( cannibalism being reserved with the “wild” people), according to its methods (the cannibalism would more often comprise an aspect Rituel), or according to the finality of this practice (one would employ one of the terms preferably if it is question of survival, when it is a question of adapting qualities of the victim, or when the objective consists in frightening the enemies, etc).

The term cannibal comes from the word caniba or cariba used by the Taïnos that Christophe Colomb met at the time of its first stay on Hispaniola. It then designated, according to Colomb, the frightening populations of the east of the island which fought other native-born people and ate their victims. While unloading with the Guadeloupe in November 1493, Colomb and its crew discovered human bones which they allotted then to the same people Cariba , Caniba , became Caribales or Canibales . The Caribbean word was then employed to indicate the autochtones Lesser Antilles but also the man-eaters of the Nouveau World, before spreading themselves in Europe and taking to the form cannibal in the direction of “savage” man-eater. In 1572, Montaigne devotes to it part of the first book (I, 31) of its Essais , and Shakespeare is inspired some in 1611 to create the character malefic of Caliban in its comedy the storm.

The text of Montaigne is particularly interesting because it opens on a reflection, which can find an echo in contemporary moral philosophy, on the conditions which would make it possible to regard a certain cannibalism as " juste".

One distinguishes the endocannibalism , which consist in eating the members of its human group, and the exocannibalism , which consists in eating members of another human group.

Illustrated direction

The verb cannibaliser is sometimes used in related directions: in economy (" cannibalization of the ventes" of a product by a new product of the same mark), in Mechanical or electronic, in particular in the Armed , to mean that one takes parts of one or more apparatuses (in general out of use) in order to constitute or repair an apparatus in operating condition. In the familiar language cannibaliser can mean to monopolize work, the resources or the ideas of others.