MovieChat Forums > Cannibal ferox (1983) Discussion > Eating raw organs..?(spoilers)

Eating raw organs..?(spoilers)

posted 16 years ago by rsin_bassist
6 replies | jump to latest

Wouldn't there be some dangers to consuming something like that-especialy out of an already dead corpse. Or even the crocodile? (if that was real)I mean arent we supposed to have a poison in one of our organs? I wouldn't imagine tring to eat a stomach. Two of them were eating Joes' intestine. You would think they would avoid that on account that intestines are full of s hit.
These guys just hopped in there like they pulled out some candy from a Jelly Belly store. I mean they didn't even cook it or nothing.

[–] malachai_malachai 16 years ago

I thought similar things when I saw it, not about the poison, but about cooking it, it shows them cooking the tortoise, so they clearly know how to cook, why don't they cook the people parts? I'm pretty sure that crododiles are full of really horible stuff because of how they eat, that's why you need to eat a lot of sea food cooked, because they are scavengers so they eat rotten stuff which is fine for them but not so good for people. Plus meat is nicer when its hot anyway.

[–] rsin_bassist 16 years ago

plus the guy was sick. I guess they showed it like that for shock value/gross factor. Some tribes prob still do that with animals. Like a harcore "learn to cope" thing they were hard grained on since childhood-learning to eat raw organs. I once put my mouth on a cleaned out deer's liver when I was younger just to know. It was gross, I didn't even care to bite in, the texture just told me it would be even worse if I were to punture it with my teeth.

[–] mel2000 9 years ago

I doubt that any people around the world regularly eat raw organs.

[–] Tastentier 15 years ago

There's nothing in the body of a dead mammal that would definitely be poisonous. Some parts aren't particularly healthy though.

For example, the large intestine is full of E. coli bacteria, which can (but don't have to) cause food poisoning or an infection of the stomach (gastroenteritis). But a healthy predator can eat a whole prey animal including the intestines without getting sick. After all, most bacteria die in the stomach acid of the predator (or human).

The gallbladder might lead to stomach cramps too, if it contains a larger amount of bile. I know that the gallbladder is the only part of a mouse that a cat won't eat. Aside from the gallbladder, cats eat mice whole, including the contents of the intestines. The mouse excrements even provide them with pre-digested vegetables that cats can't digest on their own.

[–] gabrielh-1 15 years ago

Ive been reading a lot recently about antropophagy, and yes, eating SOME organs in any mammal is usually avoided because of the high content of bacteria (such as stomach, intestines, etc). (except when the "eater" is a predator, as Tastentier says).

In this movie, however, the eating of people is not done because of hunger or because of its delicious flavor, but because of vengeance/power over the defeated.

Its more of a symbolic/religious act, similar to human-sacrifice rituals.

Thats what adds more of a taboo to the act of eating human flesh.

A similar thing is still done in violent areas of africa, where the tribes or human groups that are attacked, have their hearts thorn out and partially eaten.

I think the part that showed this more correctly was when they eat the brains of the blond guy..it was more of a "we defeated and even eat you" act.

However, the way they ate it in most parts of the movie do look a bit over-acted, like if they were starving and enjoying a delicious meal..but that was because of the acting.

[–] Strazdamonas 8 years ago

Yes, there are significant medical dangers of transmission of disease with eating raw human flesh. Societies that were canibalistic usually died out from those diseases. this is why in reality canibalism is usually considered last resort during famines and not standard practice. im not aware of any religiuos community that considers canibalism a ceremony. plenty of human sacrifices, but no eating, "that is for the gods to eat not for humans"

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