Food in American Culture and Literature: Places at the Table, Carl Boon,Nuray Önder,Evrim Ersöz KOÇ, Editör, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle Upon Tyne, ss.209-221, 2020
The Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary define the term
cannibalism as “the practice of eating human flesh,” “the usually ritualistic
eating of human flesh by a human being” or “(among animals) the fact of
eating other animals of the same type.” These definitions are made in the
sense of physical and biological approaches. On the other hand,
cannibalism includes a more sophisticated and psychological entity. The
habit of eating human flesh is considered disgusting behavior and is
strictly forbidden in many cultures, but there is a reality that once (and
sometimes still) there were/are communities taking the cannibalistic
practice as acceptable (Knauft; Sanday and Godelier; Schutt). So it can be
claimed that just like being an omnivore, cannibalism can be called
acceptable in some instances. Here stands the primal question of what
caused an acceptable practice to become an unacceptable behavior. This
study questions the concept of cannibalism in the basis of matriarchy and
patriarchy and presupposes that the cannibalistic praxis has been banned or
rendered taboo in opposition to nature and matriarchy through time. In
order to scrutinize this presupposition, two movies, Alive (1993) and
Ravenous (1999), will be analyzed.