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Total Members Voted: 32

[weenog]

I would say no, if we are going by viral zombies then zombies arn't even close to related to humans, as they are actually part of a viral infection. .

By that rule of thumb I guess that flu sufferers arent people either...

I sure didn't feel like it the last time I had the flu.

[Sigulbard]

This really seems like something that would be better off in General Discussion, since we tend to use that for the crazy discussions where-as life advice tends to be for more serious help questions.

Oh well, it's too late now.

[Jelle]

What's this topic doing here? 

I say yes: zombies are made of human flesh and bone, and devour human flesh regardless of wether or not any human consciousness remains in the zombie. Unless the virus or whatever caused the zombification is a mutagen that significantly changed the bodies' biology it is still physically human.

[DeKaFu]

This brings to mind another important question:
Are werewolves that eat people cannibals? If you showed me one in wolf form eating a human my instinct would be to say no, but for one doing the same in human form, I'd want to say yes. But they're both the same creature, so...

[Tomcost]

The whole idea of a zombie is to be cannibalistic. A zombie is a human being with inferior intelligence that breaks certain "tacit rules" of our society. Both of this facts make us less likely to feel pity to murder one,and that's the main idea of a zombie movie; feeling pleasure for killing people without feeling guilty for doing so. Or, at least, it was the original concept.

I don't like the "terror" or "blow up the heads of every zed you see" subgenres of the zombie stuff, but i find the survival survival subgenre interesting anyway.

[Gamerlord]

Can someone explain the whole taboo behind cannibalism to me? I DON'T WANT TO EAT PEOPLE, but the taboo just doesn't make sense.

[Parsely]

Because you have to kill someone in order to do it. Its the same as being a murderer, and though actually murdering people yourself isn't necessarily a prerequisite, someone will be doing the murdering.

[Tomcost]

Can someone explain the whole taboo behind cannibalism to me? I DON'T WANT TO EAT PEOPLE, but the taboo just doesn't make sense.

From a rational and cold point of view, we are wasting a lot of food for letting the members of our civilization rot away in tombs.

I think that the origin of the taboo comes mainly from religion, as even "primitive" religions ban cannibalism as they say that by eating the body you eat the soul, and simmilar things (like those head shrinkers who thought that by shrinking a head you prevent the soul form leaving the body).

Disclaimer: I have no idea about what I'm talking about

[Max White]

It is taboo because cultures where it was more acceptable sort of died off, leaving only the prude, non-cannibalistic tribes to prosper.
Humans eating humans isn't healthy, we are fucking biohazards. Eating the dead is a great way to spread very nasty disease, and build up toxins within a food chain.
Normally it is the sick, old and weak that are consumed in a cannibalistic society, because these people are seen to have the least use, but these people are also prone to be the most dangerous to eat.

[Tomcost]

It is taboo because cultures where it was more acceptable sort of died off, leaving only the prude, non-cannibalistic tribes to prosper.
Humans eating humans isn't healthy, we are fucking biohazards. Eating the dead is a great way to spread very nasty disease, and build up toxins within a food chain.
Normally it is the sick, old and weak that are consumed in a cannibalistic society, because these people are seen to have the least use, but these people are also prone to be the most dangerous to eat.

While it is true that nowadays humans have so many weird stuff inside because of our diet and industrialized stuff, in the past things were not the same. Also, cooking wouldn't solve the problem of consuming sick people meat? I assume that cannibals are not animals, just people not afraid of eating other people.

[Max White]

While we now consume a more interesting array of strange chemicals in our diet, we have always been exposed to various toxins in our food chains, and it isn't just us. Pretty much any large predatory animal will be subject to these things, although normally is low enough doses that it doesn't really matter.
As for cooking, while true that it would effectively reduce risk significantly, many cannibalistic cultures died out before cooking was that well understood.

Although I am going off memory here from some discovery channel style program, and therefor unable to produce a source, so doing your own research is encouraged.

[Tomcost]

I see, so the facts that caused our society to ban cannibalism were both cultural and technological it seems. Cultural, beacause of religion adn ethics, and technological, because of the ignorance about the dangers of eating the dead.

[Parsely]

Also instinct normally prevents you from eating your own kind, since its counter productive to every animal's ultimate goal, which is to propagate its species. It just isn't natural for humans, though for some creatures it is.

[lordcooper]

Also instinct normally prevents you from eating your own kind, since its counter productive to every animal's ultimate goal, which is to propagate its species. It just isn't natural for humans, though for some creatures it is.

You could say the exact same thing about homosexuality.

[Parsely]

Also instinct normally prevents you from eating your own kind, since its counter productive to every animal's ultimate goal, which is to propagate its species. It just isn't natural for humans, though for some creatures it is.

You could say the exact same thing about homosexuality.

Oh don't go there. Please don't ruin this thread by doing that. That comment was so inflammatory and unnecessary it hurts.