islands and
in South America; in earlier days it was a common feature of Indian wars
in North America. Sporadic cannibalism occurs among more civilized
peoples as a result of necessity or as a manifestation of disease (see
LYCANTHROPY).

_Classification._--Cannibalistic practices may be classified from two
points of view: (1) the motives of the act; (2) the ceremonial
regulations. A third division of subordinate importance is also
possible, if we consider whether the victims are actually killed for
food or whether only such are eaten as have met their death in battle or
other ways.

1. From a psychological point of view the term cannibalism groups
together a number of customs, whose only bond of union is that they all
involve eating of human flesh. (a) Food cannibalism, where the object is
the satisfaction of hunger, may occur sporadically as a result of real
necessity or may be kept up for the simple gratification of a taste for
human flesh in the absence of any lack of food in general or even of
animal food, (i.) Cannibalism from necessity is found not only among the
lower races, such as the Fuegians or Red Indian tribes, but also among
civilized races, as the records of sieges and shipwrecks show. (ii.)
Simple food cannibalism is common in Africa; the Niam-Niam and Monbuttu
carry on wars for the sake of obtaining human flesh; in West Africa
human flesh could formerly be seen exposed for sale in the market like
any other article of commerce; and among some tribes it is the practice
to sell the corpses of dead relatives for consumption as food. (b) In
curious contrast to this latter custom is the practice of devouring
dead kinsfolk as the most respectful method of disposing of their
remains. In a small number of cases this practice is combined with the
custom of killing the old and sick, but in the great majority of peoples
it is simply a form of burial; it seems to prevail in most parts of
Australia, many parts of Melanesia, Africa and South America, and less
frequently in other parts of the world. To this group belong the customs
described by Herodotus; we may perhaps regard as a variant form the
custom of using the skull of a dead man as a drinking-cup. This practice
is widely found, and the statement of Herodotus that the skull was set
in gold and preserved by the Issedones may point in this direction; from
the account given of the Tibetans some seven hundred years ago by
William of Ruysbruck (Rubruquis) it appe