Re: Cannibal gene? law of the jungle

"John Gilmer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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> > I have difficulties imagining that anybody could not distinguish
> > between ape and human. I don't believe this.
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> Believe what you want.   But I have been told by more than one source that
> once you take off the skin, (and the head) a BEAR looks a LOT like a
human.
> I would say that an ape would be at least close!

I can't go along with you on this one, John.   Because
few people know jungle animals as well as do denizens
of the same jungle, it seems completely illogical to
conclude that the cannibals  don't consider the pygmies
to be human beings.   Of course, since the pygmies are
not members of the cannibals' tribe, it may be far easier
for the cannibals' to justify their actions (only among
themselves, of course).  Even so, I think it is a rather
big stretch to go from a sociopathic, tribalistic view,
to a suggestion that somehow the cannibals confuse
the  pygmies for monkeys.

One thing I am curious about is whether or not
the civilized nations of Africa have been funding any
research aimed at curing cannibalistic tribes of their
flesh-eating propensities.   Governments may have
concluded that is is a far too large and deep-rooted
problem to deal with.    How do you cure a cannibal?

As far as what might be discovered by such
research, I would wonder whether if one's ancestors
have engaged in cannibalism from time immemorial,
there might not be some sort of genetic problem in the
mix, in the same vein that an "alcoholic gene" has
been identified.  Is there a "cannibal gene"?
Perhaps research will be done on this in
the future.

By the way, since Usenet remarks on any
sensitive issue are notoriously easy to misunderstand
and/or deliberately distort, I hasten to add that I am
well aware that a great many African tribes have no
history of cannibalism whatsoever, and consider such
behavior as utterly reprehensible as anyone else does.
Further, there have been horrifying cases of Caucasian
cannibals,such as Dahmer, Albert Fish, and Ed Gein,
so no one can reasonably make this into any sort of
racial problem.

Even so, that would not necessarily preclude
the presence of a cannibal gene, because among
races, almost no one will dispute the fact that
some races (and even ethnic groups within races)
are more prone to certain diseases than others are,
so perhaps  Dahmer, Fish, Gein, etc., had a genetic
mutation which produced the cannibal gene (IF such
a gene exists, and no one knows at this time, since
apparently no research has been done on this).
It would certainly be of benefit to human society
if the  governents of nations wracked by this
horrible affliction would fund some research
into the matter.



the alt.genius.bill-palmer
--firing posts at random from the window of the
office upstairs from rec.arts.prose
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