A peculiar new case of cannibalism in Pakistan has shocked lawmakers into pushing for legislation against the act.
Earlier this year, two brothers were arrested in Darya Khan, a small town in Pakistan’s Punjab province, for exhuming and consuming the body of a three-year-old boy, according to The Washington Post.
After finding the toddler’s head at the brothers’ house, authorities arrested Mohammad Arif Ali and Mohammad Farman Ali, who admitted to using the body to make curry, reported The Post.
This was not the brothers’ first cannibalistic act. In 2011, the brothers were arrested when police found them cooking the body of a 24-year-old woman who died of throat cancer, according to The Washington Post. The brothers, who had admitted to exhuming and eating at least five other bodies, were sentenced to two years in prison for desecration of corpses, as Pakistan had no laws against cannibalism, reported The Post.
This time around, the brothers were convicted under the anti-terrorism statute and received 12-year sentences each in June, according to The Post.
Junjie Liu, a freshman letters and sciences major, found the act “disgusting,” but said it was hard to define a punishment given that the brothers were exhuming the bodies rather than killing people.
“They didn’t take the life of others, just destroyed their dignity and had a bad influence on society,” said Liu.
Given the recent incidents, Pakistan’s National Assembly introduced two new bills assigning mandatory minimum life sentences, one for eating human flesh and the other for exhuming bodies with “intent to cook, eat, sell or to use for magic purposes,” according to The Washington Post.
Both brothers were at one point married with children, but both their wives left them a few years before their arrest, according to BBC News. When questioned, the women said they left because their husbands would beat them and lock them in the house.
While no exact reason was given for their macabre tendencies, speculation surrounding the events suggests they had to do with witchcraft and power. According to BBC News, the brothers had been in touch with a man accused of being a sorcerer who told them they had to eat human flesh to cast spells.
“[Beliefs] perpetuate themselves from placebo effects and confirmation biases,” said Dr. Scott Roberts, a psychology professor who teaches a course on deviant behaviors. “It’s not surprising to hear that people will believe anything.”
Historically, cannibalism has been used for rituals, displays of power and even survival purposes. In Mexico, the Aztecs were believed to have sacrificed and eaten humans to appease the gods and, during times of famine, to survive, according to archaeologist and anthropologist Michael Harner in “The Enigma of Aztec Sacrifice.”
Some Native American tribes in early Jamestown that practiced cannibalism used it as a war tactic to terrorize colonists, said Holly Brewer, a specialist in cultural and legal history, in a lecture.
Punishment of cannibalism varied in places that found the practice taboo, but currently in Pakistan, as is the case with the United States, there are no explicit laws against it.
“[Cannibalism is] repugnant,” said Julio Cerón, a junior economics and government and politics major. “I think nation-states should enact laws that outlaw cannibalism outright.”
Despite Pakistan’s new anti-cannibalism legislation, Roberts believes that laws can’t prevent all crimes, especially if those committing the crimes believe in what they are doing.
“You can legislate all you want,” Roberts said. “But if they believe it to be true, the behavior will persist.”
Photo courtesy of Sally (via Flickr Creative Commons)
