Scientists Reveal Humans Are Smart to Skip Cannibalism

One of humanity's oldest taboos may be less about morals and more about microbes. Researchers in Poland and the Czech Republic used a mathematical model to argue that societies practicing cannibalism long-term were essentially setting themselves up for collapse, reports Reuters. While a human body provides a modest amount of caloric value, the danger lies in disease: Pathogens—and especially prions, the misfolded proteins behind fatal brain disorders—can move easily between bodies with nearly identical biology, even after cooking.

"Taboo acts as an evolutionary safeguard," says Michal Misiak of the University of Wroclaw, co-author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Our results suggest that this was a biologically justified response to the growing risk of epidemics. Communities that didn't curb cannibalism simply didn't survive." The study cites Papua New Guinea's Fore people as a stark example: The neurological disease kuru was once prevalent among them, back when they commonly ate deceased relatives to free their spirits. At Vice, Luis Prada sums up the takeaway on cannibalism: "We might let it slide if your soccer team's plane crashes in the Andes, but we will not abide by nonemergency human consumption."