Cannibalism for Dummies Quiz | Thematic Fun

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Cannibalism refers to the act of eating a member of the same species. What is the term used to describe humans eating humans?

Answer: Anthropophagy

The word cannibal is a corruption of caribal, the Spanish name for the natives they found on their voyages to the West Indies. Anthropophagy comes from the Greek anthropos for human and phagein meaning to eat.

2. Legend has it that lurking in the hills of Scotland during the 16th and 17th century there lived an entire clan of cannibals. This family robbed and murdered their victims, taking away the bodies to feed upon. Over 25 years, so the legend goes, they were responsible for the murder of 1000 people. The head of the family was known as the Cannibal King. What was his real name?

Answer: Alexander Bean

There is considerable doubt as to the veracity of this story; many believe it is no more than urban myth. The legend states that the family was eventually discovered when horsemen stumbled upon them as they ambushed a young couple. A search of the area ensued and the families hideaway, a cold wet cave, discovered. So horrified was the king that he refused the family a trial by jury.

The men were dismembered alive, while the women and children were burnt at the stake.

3. In what 1973 movie, set in the year 2022, does tough cop Thorn discover that the miracle foodstuff feeding the world's hungry population is in reality recycled people?

Answer: Soylent Green

Charlton Heston plays Thorn in the movie based on Harry Harrison's novel. The Soylent Corporation has produced Soylent Green to feed the people on an overpopulated world where food production has been crippled by the Greenhouse Effect.
The movie seems to demonstrate the theory that fashion is cyclical as 2022 bears a striking resemblance to the early 1970s.

4. What is the name of the disease also known as laughing sickness that is associated with cannibalism?

Answer: Kuru

Kuru was first discovered by western science in the early 1900s. It reached epidemic proportions amongst the South Fore tribe of New Guinea. The Fore practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their dead relatives. Kuru victims were considered especially mouthwatering due to the corpse resembling pork! Kuru is one of a number of prion diseases also known as spongiform encephalopathies (that means they make your brain go spongy), mad cow disease is the most well known of the prion diseases.

5. On Friday 13th 1972 an aircraft crashed into the Andes Mountains. Trapped in the cold and snow the survivors of the crash resort to cannibalism when their minimal supplies run out. Over two months later the survivors are rescued. This tale was famously recounted in a best selling book, what was it called?

Answer: Alive!

The Old Christians Rugby Team from Uruguay had chartered the plane with some family and friends making up the numbers on a trip to play in Santiago Chile. After consuming the small supply of chocolate, crackers, jam and wine the crash survivors had little choice but to consume the dead. Of the ten corpses, the survivors decided three were not to be touched.

They being the relatives (mother, sister and nephew) of some of the survivors. As for the others Pedro Algorta said they choose to think of it as a form of communion, "From their friends' deaths, the others would live."

6. Name the famous film doctor with a penchant for human flesh?

Answer: Hannibal Lecter

Most famously played by Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs", a performance that earned him an Oscar for Best Actor despite only appearing on screen for twenty minutes.
Hannibal Lecter also appeared in the movies "Red Dragon" and "Hannibal".

7. A German man's advertising on the Internet for "young, well-built men aged 18 to 30 to slaughter" bore fruit and in March 2001 he stabbed to death a 43-year man, recording the act on film. He later carved up and ate some of his victim, freezing the leftovers for later consumption. What was the name of this cannibal?

Answer: Armin Meiwes

Despite the willingness of the Bernd Juergen Brandes to be killed and eaten Meiwes was sentenced to eight years and a half years in prison for manslaughter.
Meiwes said he regretted the killing. "I had my big kick and I don't need to do it again," he said. "I regret it all very much, but I can't undo it."
Karl Denke, Fritz Haarmann and George Grossmann were all cannibals active in Germany in the years following World War One.

8. Which of the following was another name for human beings as a form of food?

Answer: Long Pig

Titus Coan, son of a Hawaiian missionary, claimed in 1888 that the native cannibals called human meals as long pig and the smaller four-legged animal was known as short pig. After a battle with nearby enemies Titus witnesses cannibalism at work "Almost before they knew what they were doing these forgetful pagans had devoured all of their enemies except a few very tough old warriors, whom they reserved to put into the fish-ponds."

9. English legend tells of Sweeney Todd who murdered his victims and with the help of his girlfriend had them made into delicious meat pies. What did this barbaric man do for a living?

Answer: Barber

The legend tells us that Sweeney Todd cut the throats of his victims with a razor and sent them to his lover with the aid of a trick chair and trapdoor.
Stephen Sondheim created a musical version of the Sweeney Todd story, an adaptation of a much earlier tale by George Dibdin-Pitt.

10. In 1874 a party of men, on there way to Breckenridge Colorado set out through the Rocky Mountains, only one was seen alive again. The survivor was accused of murder and cannibalism. After evading the law for a number of years he was finally captured and convicted of murder on the 13th April 1883. When this sentence was reversed, he was again charged and received a 40 year sentence. He was paroled in 1901 and was said to have died a vegetarian at the age of 64. He was pardoned in 1981. What was this man's name?

Answer: Alfred Packer

He was arrested when earlier members of the expedition met him at Los Pinos Indian Agency and questioned him to the whereabouts of the missing men. Alfred Packer claimed that upon returning from a scouting mission he discovered one of the party roasting human meat.

He was forced to kill the man in self defense when he was attacked with a hatchet. He was arrested but escaped and for a number of years lived under the name John Schwartze until he was recaptured in Wyoming.

Source: Author quogequox

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
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