Who were Cannibals? Some Surprising Facts About Cannibalism

Have you ever heard of humans eating humans? Certainly not, but this act or practice used to take place in the past, known as cannibalism, and a person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The name cannibalism was introduced by Christopher Columbus. Once the sailor Columbus returned to his home Spain after exploring Guadalupe island, where he informed the Spanish queen Isabella that there is a tribal group called Kariba, who eat the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. On hearing this, the queen got scared and informed in her state that if anyone found guilty for eating the flesh of a human being, he will be directly put into prison or enslaved. After which people came to know about this concept, till then they did not even know that it actually happens. 

Columbus wanted to collect gold from different continents, and for such an act, he began to use the Queen's instruction as a tool of oppression. Columbus regularly looted the houses of locals when he found that there is not much gold on the island. But when local residents created obstacles to do so, they were unjustly enslaved according to the Queen's sentence, and even some were oppressed and killed. Subsequently, this Karib word entered Europe with the form of 'Kaniba' which then turned into ‘Cannibal’. Even if, the word cannibal is linked with the brutal history of the island of Guadalupe, but after that, ​any human group that found to have eaten human flesh started to call as "cannibals".

The term cannibalism is also very prevalent among the people in different cultures since ancient times as there are many myths and legends associated with it. According to folklore, in the Native American mythology of the Athabascan people, there exists a creature named wechuge, who has a half-demon and half-human-like appearance that always seeks out human flesh.

The Aztecs, the people who ruled a large empire in central and southern Mexico in the 15th and early 16th centuries, apparently practiced cannibalism extensively as part of the religious sacrifices of war captives and other victims.