Who encouraged cannibals to eat people?
The word ‘Cannibal’ comes from Caniba or Carib, the name of the West Indian tribe among whom the Spaniards first noticed the practice of eating human flesh. Some of the early North American Indians also practised cannibalism as a part of their religion. Eating of human flesh is a horrible thing even to think about, yet it has existed as a practise among certain people and may still exist among some primitive tribes.
The cannibals eat human flesh because it is part of Sacred rite a kind of religious observance. For example, among certain people of East India a long time ago, it was a custom to eat one’s parents because they respected and Honoured them. Many primitive tribes believe that man is the spirit of whatever he eats. If he eats a lion, he will be lion-hearted, if he eats a fox he will be cunning. So the more one of these men respected his father the more anxious he was to eat him.
Among other primitive people, it was a custom to eat criminal who had been condemned to death but, not a person who died naturally. The reason for this was, they believed that Criminal had offended the gods. Therefore, he had to be sacrificed to the gods to satisfy them. And since it was the practice to eat or taste sacrifices to the gods, it has to be done even if the sacrifice was human.
Nobody is quite sure how many carnival tribes still exist. some authorities think there are some in the interior of New Guinea.