Stiff (Ch. 10-12)

Chapter 10 is titled, “Eat Me”, and discusses the uses and history of medicinal cannibalism. Roach starts off by talking about 12^th century Arabian process which involved “mellifying” a man so that his body can be used 100 years later to “cure complaints”.  She then discusses the history of cannibalism in China and how ill people would often eat body parts or excrement to help heal their ailments. Before reading this, the only cannibalism I had heard of was from the movies “Silence of the Lambs” and “American Psycho”. For this reason, I never assumed that cannibalism had been used for medicinal purposes. In the chapter, the taste of human flesh is described as being “as good as any beefsteak”. To go into further detail, supposedly the breasts of men were considered “the sweetest meat”. Although this chapter was very disgusting to read, I learned the different perspectives that existed in the past of human consumption. In old Chinese practices, human bodies were considered beneficial if consumed. Nowadays, cannibalism is a social stigma and illegal in many countries. Chapter 11 spoke of another way bodies are often consumed, through cremation, composting, water-reduction, and tissue digestion. When cremation first gained attention, it was looked down upon as method to replace the traditional funeral. However, over time, it has become more popular and is gaining momentum even today. Roach also discusses new methods of disposing of a dead body. These methods involve either reducing a dead body to just 3% of it’s remains and disposing of it or breaking down a body into powder using ultrasound and then disposing it. Although these newer methods are not currently popular, just as cremation was when it was introduced, I can them becoming gaining popularity especially since they are environmental friendlier than older methods.

Prateek Prasad