Cannibalism

Usually defined as "eating your own species" or "eating a creature who, when alive, could carry on a conversation", cannibalism is, while a touchy subject, an occasional feature of /tg/-related media.

History & Biology

Plenty of historical tribes practiced cannibalism; that being said, it was usually banned by just about every group that had enough food (and, importantly, protein) to go around, for fairly obvious moral and hygienic reasons (eating your own species is a really great way to spread disease).

Also of particular interest, as it gets cited in /tg/ related discussions of the subject: the mating habits of certain insects, the females of which may eat the males after mating--although, by most biologists' accounts, many such species do so only when in captivity.

(Further, cannibalism was enough of an occasional feature of nautical life (almost always in fairly extreme circumstances involving a lack of food) to be somewhat regularly discussed when the subject came up. This side of the subject is beyond the nature of this article, save to note that it kept "civilized" people from being too high-and-mighty about the practice.)

The Reasons It's A Touchy Subject

There are three main reasons why most modern media either avoids cannibalism, or downplays it:

1. Primitive tribes were frequently accused or portrayed as cannibals when they weren't, or were mis-attributed as to when they practiced it. Given the subsequent abuse of the charge by blatant racists, most modern works try to avoid such accusations, even by double proxy.
2. There's a very disturbing group of people who sexualize the act of cannibalism. Given that one of the prerequisites for doing so in the real world is killing somebody, most people find the result highly disturbing.
3. That shit's disgusting, yo.

/tg/ Applicability

Given the whole history of racism associated with the charge, you'd expect writers to shy away from using cannibalism in their works, and they generally do.

Exceptions (on the species, cultural, or tribal scale) usually involve Always Chaotic Evil races or monsters; or, alternately, human (or demihuman) flesh disguised as some other meat, usually as an act of especially callus authorities. In mythology, Ogres are categorically man-eaters (with a preference for eating babies), as well as giants on many occasions. Vampires (both classical blood-drinkers and proto-zombie flesh-eaters) might also be classed as cannibals, though since they are undead, we tend to think of them as no longer being human to begin with.

The other main class of exceptions are "horrific magic" situations, where the myth of "gaining the power of what you eat" is played upon, with the caveat that doing so is a very evil act.

The third, and smallest, just involves cannibalism as part of a horrific murder. Basically, there's nothing cultural or ritualistic about cannibalism here. The person in question is just a sick fuck.

Specific /tg/ examples

As a Tribal/Cultural/Species practice:

• In keeping with it's edgelord sensibilities, Warhammer 40k has a lot of examples. Here's just a few:
  • The Dark Eldar feed their slaves with processed corpses of dead slaves.
  • The Kroot need to eat sentient beings in order to remain intelligent.
  • Gretchin are, among other things, a food source for their fellow Orks.
  • The Imperium feed people Corpse starch (made from processed human bodies). While it could be an extreme example of waste not want not, it is a bit grimderp too.
  • The Tyranids. Nothing more need be said.
• Dungeons and Dragons have many "true omnivores"; we won't count them unless they are intelligent.
  • Xanxost the Slaad, a frequent narrator in various Planescape books, would usually discuss the taste of some of the (sentient) species he was discussing. Usually as a punchline.
  • The "Flinds", a tribe or subspecies of Gnoll eat Gnolls, along with just about all the other races.
  • The halflings of Dark Sun eat only other races; but they're called "cannibals" anyway.
• Ghoul usually play on the mythic stereotype.

As "Horrific Magic":

• Diablerie, from Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Requiem, which involves eating another vampire's soul through their blood.
• The Devourers of the Flesh, from Mage: The Awakening, a Left-Handed Path that are more or less exactly what their name claims.