Self-cannibalism
Encyclopedia
Self-cannibalism is the practice of eating oneself, also called autocannibalism, or autosarcophagy. A similar term which is applied differently is autophagy, which specifically denotes the normal process of self-degradation by cell
s. While almost an exclusive term for this process, autophagy nonetheless has occasionally made its way into more common usage.
Ingesting one's own blood from an unintentional lesion such as a nose-bleed or an ulcer is clearly not intentional harvesting and consequently not considered cannibalistic.
Catabolisis is also sometimes described as "self-cannibalism."
. Other forms of pica include the compulsion of eating one's own hair (also trichophagia
and Desirae syndrome), which can form a hairball
(trichobezoar
) in the stomach
.
, for example eating their own skin. Others will drink their own blood, a practice called autovampirism, but sucking blood from wounds is generally not seen to be cannibalism. Placentophagy
may be a form of self-cannibalism.
On January 13, 2007, Chilean artist Marco Evaristti
hosted a dinner party for his most intimate friends. The main meal was agnolotti
pasta, which was topped with a meatball made from the artist's own fat, removed in the previous year in a liposuction
operation.
or war crime
has been reported. Erzsébet Báthory allegedly forced some of her servants to eat their own flesh. In the 16th Century, Spanish colonizers forced natives
to eat their own testicles. Incidents were reported in the years following the 1991 coup in Haiti
. In the 1990s young people in Sudan
were forced to eat their own ears.
One famous case of self-cannibalism is the 2002 Armin Meiwes
trial. One of the persons involved, Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes, had wanted his penis to be amputated; after Armin Meiwes amputated, they attempted to eat it together but found that it was too tough.
is known to eat its own wings. There is evidence of certain animals digesting their own nervous tissue when they transition to a new phase of life. The sea squirt (with a tadpole-like shape) contains a ganglion 'brain' in its head, which it digests after attaching itself to a rock and becoming stationary, forming an anemone
-like organism. This has been used as evidence that the purpose of brain and nervous tissue is primarily to produce movement. Self-cannibalism behavior has been documented in North America
n rat snake
s: one captive individual twice attempted to consume itself, dying in the second attempt. Another wild rat snake individual was found having swallowed about two-thirds of its body. Another example is among dogs, where they will sometimes chew on their own skin causing it to bleed.
Cell (biology)
The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
s. While almost an exclusive term for this process, autophagy nonetheless has occasionally made its way into more common usage.
As a natural occurrence
A certain amount of self-cannibalism occurs unwittingly, as the body consumes dead cells from the tongue and cheeks.Ingesting one's own blood from an unintentional lesion such as a nose-bleed or an ulcer is clearly not intentional harvesting and consequently not considered cannibalistic.
Catabolisis is also sometimes described as "self-cannibalism."
As a disorder or symptom thereof
Fingernail-biting that develops into fingernail-eating is a form of picaPica (disorder)
Pica is characterized by an appetite for substances largely non-nutritive . For these actions to be considered pica, they must persist for more than one month at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentally inappropriate...
. Other forms of pica include the compulsion of eating one's own hair (also trichophagia
Trichophagia
Trichophagia is the compulsive eating of hair associated with trichotillomania . In trichophagia, people with trichotillomania also ingest the hair that they pull; in extreme cases this can lead to a hair ball ....
and Desirae syndrome), which can form a hairball
Hairball
A hairball is a small collection of hair or fur formed in the stomach of animals that is occasionally vomited up when it becomes too big. Hairballs are primarily a tight elongated cylinder of packed fur, but may include bits of other elements such as swallowed food. Cats are especially prone to...
(trichobezoar
Trichobezoar
A trichobezoar is a bezoar formed from the ingestion of hair. Trichobezoars are often associated with trichotillomania , are rare, and can be fatal if undetected. Surgical intervention is often required....
) in the stomach
Stomach
The stomach is a muscular, hollow, dilated part of the alimentary canal which functions as an important organ of the digestive tract in some animals, including vertebrates, echinoderms, insects , and molluscs. It is involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication .The stomach is...
.
As a choice
Some people will engage in self-cannibalism as an extreme form of body modificationBody modification
Body modification is the deliberate altering of the human body for any non-medical reason, such as aesthetics, sexual enhancement, a rite of passage, religious reasons, to display group membership or affiliation, to create body art, shock value, or self expression...
, for example eating their own skin. Others will drink their own blood, a practice called autovampirism, but sucking blood from wounds is generally not seen to be cannibalism. Placentophagy
Placentophagy
Placentophagy is the act of mammals eating the placenta of their young after childbirth.The placenta contains high levels of prostaglandin which stimulates involution of the uterus, in effect cleaning the uterus out...
may be a form of self-cannibalism.
On January 13, 2007, Chilean artist Marco Evaristti
Marco Evaristti
Marco Evaristti , is an artist who has lived in Denmark since the 1980s.After studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Evaristti gained notoriety for a museum display entitled Helena in 2000 that featured ten functional blenders containing live goldfish...
hosted a dinner party for his most intimate friends. The main meal was agnolotti
Agnolotti
Agnolotti is a kind of ravioli typical of the Piedmont Region, made with small pieces of flattened pasta dough, folded over with a roast beef meat and vegetable stuffing. Agnolotti is the plural form of the Italian word agnolotto...
pasta, which was topped with a meatball made from the artist's own fat, removed in the previous year in a liposuction
Liposuction
Liposuction, also known as lipoplasty , liposculpture suction lipectomy or simply lipo is a cosmetic surgery operation that removes fat from many different sites on the human body...
operation.
As a crime
Forced self-cannibalism as a form of tortureTorture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
or war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
has been reported. Erzsébet Báthory allegedly forced some of her servants to eat their own flesh. In the 16th Century, Spanish colonizers forced natives
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
to eat their own testicles. Incidents were reported in the years following the 1991 coup in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
. In the 1990s young people in Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
were forced to eat their own ears.
One famous case of self-cannibalism is the 2002 Armin Meiwes
Armin Meiwes
Armin Meiwes is a German man who achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a voluntary victim whom he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes killed his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh...
trial. One of the persons involved, Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes, had wanted his penis to be amputated; after Armin Meiwes amputated, they attempted to eat it together but found that it was too tough.
Self-cannibalism among animals
The short-tailed cricketCricket (insect)
Crickets, family Gryllidae , are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers, and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets . They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antennae. There are about 900 species of crickets...
is known to eat its own wings. There is evidence of certain animals digesting their own nervous tissue when they transition to a new phase of life. The sea squirt (with a tadpole-like shape) contains a ganglion 'brain' in its head, which it digests after attaching itself to a rock and becoming stationary, forming an anemone
Sea anemone
Sea anemones are a group of water-dwelling, predatory animals of the order Actiniaria; they are named after the anemone, a terrestrial flower. Sea anemones are classified in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, subclass Zoantharia. Anthozoa often have large polyps that allow for digestion of larger...
-like organism. This has been used as evidence that the purpose of brain and nervous tissue is primarily to produce movement. Self-cannibalism behavior has been documented in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n rat snake
Rat snake
Rat snakes are medium to large constrictors that can be found through a great portion of the northern hemisphere. They feed primarily on rodents and birds and, with some species exceeding 3 m , they can occupy top levels of some food chains. Many species make attractive and docile pets and one,...
s: one captive individual twice attempted to consume itself, dying in the second attempt. Another wild rat snake individual was found having swallowed about two-thirds of its body. Another example is among dogs, where they will sometimes chew on their own skin causing it to bleed.
Cultural references
- King ErysichthonErysichthonIn Greek mythology, Erysichthon can refer to two different personages:-Erysichthon of Thessaly:...
from Greek mythology ate himself in insatiable hunger, given him, as a punishment, by DemeterDemeterIn Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons . Her common surnames are Sito as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society...
. - Stephen King's short story "Survivor Type", about a man trapped on a small island.
- In the novel HannibalHannibal (novel)Hannibal is a novel written by Thomas Harris, published in 1999. It is the third in his series featuring Dr. Hannibal Lecter and the second to feature FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling. The novel takes place seven years after the events of The Silence of the Lambs and deals with the intended...
, Hannibal LecterHannibal LecterHannibal Lecter M.D. is a fictional character in a series of horror novels by Thomas Harris and in the films adapted from them.Lecter was introduced in the 1981 thriller novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer...
recalls psychologically manipulating Mason Verger into eating his own nose and feeding his face to his dog. Lecter also feeds Paul Krendler part of his own brain. - In issue #5 of the Marvel Comic Livewires, Stem Cell ate most of her own skin so that she could use it as base material for constructing her PyronanoPyronanoA Pyronano is a member of an fictional artificial race that consists of a hive mind made of giant, four armed, burning, humanoid robots. This race first appeared in Livewires, a six issue comic book limited series published in 2005 by Marvel Comics....
"babies". Afterwards, she considered adopting "Autocannibal" as her name. - Autopsy'sAutopsy (band)Autopsy is a death metal band, founded in 1987 in the United States by Chris Reifert. They disbanded in 1995, but have reunited as of July 2009.-Biography:...
song "Severed Survival" is about resorting to self-cannibalism after being stranded on a barren island. - The short story "The Savage Mouth" by Japanese science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer Sakyo KomatsuSakyo Komatsuwas a Japanese science fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the most well known and highly regarded science fiction writers in Japan.-Early life:...
deals with self-cannibalism. - In the Japanese horror movie Naked BloodNaked Bloodis a 1996 Japanese horror film directed by Hisayasu Satō. It is a remake of Satō's 1987 film, , and, according to Allmovie, "contains one of the most appalling scenes in Japanese horror." The film is not pornographic and contains only a mild sex scene near the end of the film.- Plot :A scientist...
, a woman eats herself with a knife and fork, after taking pain dulling drugs.