![Saturn devouring his Son by Giambattista Tiepolo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Saturn_devouring_his_Son_by_Giambattista_Tiepolo.jpg)
Child cannibalism or fetal cannibalism is the
act of eating a
child
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...
or
fetus
A fetus or foetus (; plural fetuses, feti, foetuses, or foeti) is the unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Following embryonic development the fetal stage of development takes place. In human prenatal development, fetal deve ...
.
Ritual practice accusations
Historical accounts
According to 14th century traveller
Odoric of Pordenone
Odoric of Pordenone, OFM (1286–1331), also known as Odorico Mattiussi/Mattiuzzi, Odoricus of Friuli or Orderic of Pordenone, was an Italian late-medieval Franciscan friar and missionary explorer. He traveled through India, the Greater Sunda Is ...
, who gave an account of a place called
Lamuri
Lamuri or Lambri was a kingdom in northern Sumatra, Indonesia from the Srivijaya period until the early 16th century. The area was inhabited by Hindu population around the seventh century. There is also evidence of Buddhism. The region is also ...
(the account was later borrowed by
Sir John Mandeville's in his ''Book of Marvels and Travels''), describing the people Lamuri as cannibals who purchased children from merchants to slaughter them.
Modern cases
China
The performance artist
Zhu Yu claimed that he prepared, cooked and ate real human bodies, including fetuses, as an artistic
performance
A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function.
Management science
In the work place ...
. The performance was called ''Eating People'', and he claimed it was to protest against cannibalism.
It was intended as "
shock art
Shock art is contemporary art that incorporates disturbing imagery, sound or scents to create a shocking experience. It is a way to disturb "smug, complacent and hypocritical" people. While the art form's proponents argue that it is "imbedded with ...
". The
Chinese Ministry of Culture
The Ministry of Culture (MOC) was a ministry of the government of the People's Republic of China which was dissolved on 19 March 2018. The responsibilities of the MOC, which were assumed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, encompassed cultur ...
cited a menace to social order and the spiritual health of the Chinese people, banned exhibitions involving culture, animal abuse, corpses, and overt violence and sexuality and Zhu Yu was prosecuted for his deeds.
Snopes and other urban legend sites have said the "fetus" used by Zhu Yu was most likely constructed from a duck's body and a doll head.
Other images from another art exhibit were falsely circulated along with Zhu Yu's photographs and claimed to be evidence of fetus soup.
Critics see the propagation of these rumors as a form of
blood libel
Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...
, or accusing one's enemy of eating children, and accuse countries of using this as a political lever.
Capsule pills purported to be filled with human baby flesh in the form of powder were seized by South Koreans from
ethnic Koreans living in China, who had tried to smuggle them into South Korea and consume the capsules themselves or distribute them to other ethnic Korean citizens of China living in South Korea. Experts later suggested that the pills had actually been made of newborn placenta for the documented practice of
human placentophagy
Human placentophagy, or consumption of the placenta, is defined as "the ingestion of a human placenta postpartum, at any time, by any person, either in raw or altered (e.g., cooked, dried, steeped in liquid) form". While there are several anecdotes ...
.
Satire
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...
's 1729 satiric article "
A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public" proposed the utilization of an economic system based on poor people selling their children to be eaten, claiming that this would benefit the economy, family values, and general happiness of Ireland. The target of Swift's satire is the rationalism of modern economics, and the growth of rationalistic modes of thinking at the expense of more traditional human values.
See also
*
Albert Fish
Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer, Rape, rapist, child molestation, child molester, and cannibalism, cannibal who committed at least three child murders from July 1924 to June 1 ...
*
Child sacrifice
Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please or appease a deity, supernatural beings, or sacred social order, tribal, group or national loyalties in order to achieve a desired result. As such, it is a form of human ...
*
Filial cannibalism Filial cannibalism occurs when an adult individual of a species consumes all or part of the young of its own species or immediate offspring. Filial cannibalism occurs in many animal species ranging from mammals to insects, and is especially prevalen ...
*
Human placentophagy
Human placentophagy, or consumption of the placenta, is defined as "the ingestion of a human placenta postpartum, at any time, by any person, either in raw or altered (e.g., cooked, dried, steeped in liquid) form". While there are several anecdotes ...
*''
Saturn Devouring His Son
''Saturn Devouring His Son'' is a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It is traditionally interpreted as a depiction of the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus (known as Saturn in Roman mythology) eating one of his offspring. Fearing a prop ...
''
*
Kindlifresserbrunnen
The Kindlifresserbrunnen (, Swiss German for "Child-Eater Fountain") is a painted stone fountain at the '' Kornhausplatz'' (Granary Place) in Bern, Switzerland. It is one of the Old City of Bern's fountains from the 16th century.
It was created ...
*
Traditional Chinese medicines derived from the human body
Li Shizhen's (1597) ''Bencao gangmu'', the classic materia medica of traditional Chinese medicine ( TCM), included 35 human drugs, including organs, bodily fluids, and excreta. Crude drugs derived from the human body were commonplace in the ear ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Photos in South-Korean newspaperItalian Asian articleLJ News
Cannibalism
Child murder