Michał Misiak of the University of Wrocław in southwestern Poland and Petr Tureček of Charles University in Prague developed a mathematical model suggesting that sustained cannibalism could drive population decline by increasing the spread of fatal diseases.
"We looked at the human body as a potential source of food, analysing both the energy gained and the hidden costs," Misiak said in a statement released on Wednesday by the University of Wrocław.
"From a caloric perspective, a person turns out to be an average meal," he said. "The key problem, however, lies elsewhere: the risk of infection. Pathogens have an easier task because they end up in an organism with almost identical physiology."
The researchers found that disease risk rises sharply when cannibals consume other cannibals because infectious agents—including prions, the misfolded proteins that cause fatal neurological disorders—can survive cooking.
One such disease, kuru, was historically found among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea, whose funeral rituals included consuming deceased relatives in the belief that doing so released the spirits of the dead, the Reuters news agency reported.
The researchers said the health risks associated with cannibalism may have contributed to the emergence of a powerful cultural taboo that helped protect human populations.
"Taboo acts as an evolutionary safeguard," Misiak said. "Our results suggest this was a biologically justified response to the growing risk of epidemics."
He added: "Communities that failed to curb cannibalism simply did not survive."
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Source: Reuters, uwr.edu.pl