OTL question: did medical cannibalism happen in America?

[smjb]

So yeah, in the not too distant past, Europeans were cannibals. There's no word in the article about whether the practice of using bits of dead bodies as medicine ever crossed the Atlantic, but I have to imagine that like most European fads it would have.

 

[Derek Pullem]

Seems a leap to suggest many Europeans indulged in medicinal cannibalism. Unless you count the right of transubstantiation where Catholic doctrine believed they were eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ.

 

[smjb]

It was consistent with the four humors system of medicine and homeopathy, and you'd think if people found it objectionable more would have been written about it.

 

[Rakaziel]

Mummies were ground into medicine (and painting pigments) in the 19th century, and the American upper class probably also bought it (the lower classes were too poor)

 

[Raferty]

I would imagine that in early Colonial times, yes, as that was what was being done in Europe at the time. Then again, the Puritans and other dissenter groups might have had a different take on the issue.

 

[Flashman]

Mummies were ground into medicine (and painting pigments) in the 19th century, and the American upper class probably also bought it (the lower classes were too poor)

Certainly not in the 19th century, no. The practice of medical "mumia" began as a mistranslation, with translators confounding mumia (bitument) with mummia, mummies (though they do share a common root, insofar as mummies are named as such because they were preserved with bitumen). For a period, grave robbers ground up and sold mummies, yes, but translators realized their mistake and the practice largely ended by the 17th century so far as I'm aware. I could be wrong on that count, but the 19th century sounds far too far to me.

 

[Lampiao]

I'm not sure that I believe entirely in the history behind the link provided by the OP. After a quick look, I see that the author cites Montaigne's "On Cannibalism" (quite easily accessible online) to prove that it was a real practice in Early Modern Europe, but, if you're familiar with the work, you'll see that Montaigne only speaks about what some Ancient Greek philosophers might have said to make an argument for cultural relativism. IMO the article looks like a mishmash of different anedoctes from different periods trying really hard to make a barely believable narrative.