Rituals of Cannibalism and Modern Warfare

It was a horrific and detestable scene, that is, what occurred just before European crusaders conquered Jerusalem in 1099. After capturing Ma'arra, Frankish chroniclers recorded how knights slaughtered every man, woman and child throughout the city, including the sick and elderly. But this ethnic cleansing was not enough to quench their thirst for unholy blood. As days turned into weeks, there was no plunder nor foodstuffs to be had. Therefore, and to satisfy their insatiable hunger, Frankish knights ripped up the bodies of the dead and then cut and sliced them into pieces to be cooked in boiling pots of water. Babies too were impaled and roasted, their flesh devoured.

Scattered around the world are caves filled with evidence that primitive humans split open the bones of their fellow humans to extract the marrow. Some sites reveal that they even extracted and presumably ate the brains of their victims. Modern humans have trained themselves to recoil from such thoughts, or cannibalism, and to see it as treason against others, a form of subhuman savagery. But cannibalism is not a peculiar act. Human bones snapped and sucked lie under the stones of every civilization. Compared to other mammals, humans have practiced cannibalism so regularly or on such a large scale that some anthropologists have suggested it did come "naturally" to ancient humanoids.(1)
Uncovered remains also reveal that primitive humans thought about cannibalism, planning and scheming how to entrap and kill their victims. Elaborate rituals then surrounded their acts of cannibalism. While some cannibals ate people for nourishment or to survive a famine, in most cases cannibalism concerned a more reflective aim. Rituals show a moral, mental, aesthetic, and socially self-transformational aims. There is an intricate relationship between the eater and the eaten, a kind of appropriation of power. Whereas some societies ate humans to "capture" their victims spirit, other cultures practiced cannibalism to guarantee fertility or to revive one's necessary fluids by consuming certain body parts.(2)
For the crusading knights at Ma'arra, cannibalism became not only a symbolic act of dominance over the defeated, but it was a kind of psychological warfare, a shock-and-awe campaign to spread fear. In other words, eating and devouring human flesh was used to strike holy terror into Muslims and pagans living in the region. It also showed how crusaders were willing to do anything, and risk everything, to accomplish what they believed to be a divine political and economic mission. Finding cannibalism to be so repugnant and abhorrent, and fearing the crusading knights might start eating them alive, Muslims and pagans surrendered in mass. Cruel necessity had achieved its goal.
Much like ancient cannibalism and its ritualistic performances, warfare devours human flesh. Ceremonial aggression and institutionalized violence extracts the very life of their victims. Through cannibalistic armies, leaders mirror an intricate relationship between the eater and the eaten. They appropriate the power of their sufferers, capture collective spirits of conquered nations, and believe they are revived and enhanced by consuming their victims fluids and bodily resources. This power-taking ritual was observed Ma'arra. It can also be seen in more modern times, specifically how crusading empires and predominately militant democratic states preemptively invade and dominate weaker nations.
Although seemingly insulated, presidents and prime ministers, with their advanced weapons technologies, devour and consume humans. Through cannibalistic campaigns and violent ceremonies, obedient soldiers too feel their powers and strengths enhanced. Like most ancient rituals surrounding cannibalism, great thought and planning is intricately linked to killing and then eating and consuming human flesh. And like primitive cannibalism and the war crime at Ma'arra, most modern wars and military campaigns are not about survival, but the need to dominate others and then extract their resources. Still, insatiable economic systems and deadly economic blockades devour young and old alike.
Jeffrey Dahmer, a notorious serial killer who ate his victims, left the army and worked in a chocolate factory. He was unable to distinguish between murdering men and the labor he performed. At work, Dahmer stirred liquid chocolate in large drums. At home, he dismembered his victims and dissolved their body parts by stirring them in a fifty-gallon liquid-filled drum. Dahmer treated his victims as he treated the commodity he produced at the factory.(3) Those who produce war and death consume humans. Their war-making factories turn humans into another commodity. Those who control violent institutions and advertise shock and awe through advanced weapons technologies devour human flesh.
Some nuclear and contemporary humans have produced the worst cases of mass cannibalism in the history of the world. To satisfy their carnivores urges and dominating impulses, modern and aggressive tribal groups have even eaten people alive through their preemptive wars, technologically superior weapons systems, and shock and awe campaigns. It appears ritualistic cannibalism is not such a peculiar act after all.