The “cannibalism” internet hole is full of all kinds of awful shit. Surprise. Most of it probably won’t actually give much insight into this week’s awful cannibalism story however, that of NYPD officer Gilberto Valle, which appears to be a horrifying, fucked-in-every-imaginable-way sex kind of thing. And that’s considerably more awful than most other avenues toward cannibalism, including not starving, paying respect to the dead, and chowing your enemies to make a point. (You can also get away with it if you’re not human, and thus not subject to human taboos, even though human taboos are usually dictated by evolution in one way or another.) One interesting finding is that it’s possible that human beings are genetically predisposed toward cannibalism.Understand that’s not a predisposition toward thinking that the eating of other humans’ flesh is awesome, but toward a physical tolerance toward its consumption.Dead human flesh (and occasionally cow flesh) can be quite bad for you because of prion diseases such as Creutzfeld Jacob disease (aka kuru) that are spread through its consumption (also: mad cow disease). In 2008, a researcher named John Collinge (et al) published a study (supporting an earlier 2003 study) on a genetic mutation known as M129V that protects against kuru in the Fore people of Papua New Guinea, who were quite fond of consuming their dead relatives, many of whom were taken out by an infamous kuru epidemic in the mid-20th century. Over two-thirds of women who had participated in the cannibalistic fests were found to have had the protective mutation.It would appear that said mutation had been selected for by regularly feasting on dead human flesh (though this has been in dispute). Cannibals without the mutation died, and those with it survived and bred. And it turns out that M129V has a related mutation, E219K. When the 2003 team looked at 2,000 genetic samples thought to be representative of the worldwide population they made the startling discovery that E219K was absolutely everywhere (with a slight decrease in East Asia, save for the Fore people). The good news is that the variation is roughly 500,000 years old, so we’re talking about some very, very distant ancestors.There’s actually only about a 50 percent chance you currently have the protective gene, which might not be all that comforting to a cannibal. But, when the apocalypse comes and we’re all packed into starving hoards, humankind will at least have somewhat of a head-start in reclaiming our old ways.Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.
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