Cannibalism NOT?

I just found out a neighbor runs a web site (which must remain linkless lest I get in trouble) devoted to the advocacy of a fascinating old practice:

Human placenta consumption. It is rare, but apparently gaining in popularity:

Modern practice of placentophagy is rare, as most contemporary human cultures do not promote its consumption.^[1] Despite a general cultural avoidance, however, instances of placentophagy have been recorded among certain modern cultures. In the 1960s “male and female Vietnamese nurses and midwives of Chinese and Thai background consum[ed] the placentas of their young, healthy patients” for reasons unspecified, as reported by a Czechoslovakian medical officer in at the Hospital of Czechoslovak-Vietnamese Friendship in Haiphong.^[1] Placentas were stripped of their membranous parts and fried with onions before being eaten.^[2]

A more recent cross-cultural ethnographic study by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Department of Anthropology surveyed over 179 contemporary human societies, and identified only one culture (Chicano, or Mexican-American) that mentioned the practice of maternal placentophagy.^[1] This account, centering on Chicano and Anglo midwifery in San Antonio, Texas, stated, “cooking and eating part of the placenta has…been reported by a couple of midwives. One Anglo mother … was reported to have roasted the placenta.”^[1] This instance, however, may not be indicative of any larger cultural trends, as no other records of placentophagy were found in the Chicano culture. This same study also recorded three references of non-maternal placentophagy:

• Traditional Gullah medicine dictates that when a baby is born with a caul, having a placenta positioned over their face at birth, the placenta is made into a tea and then consumed by the child to “prevent them from seeing spirits that would otherwise haunt [them].”^[1]
• Practice of paternal placentophagy was identified in the Malekula of Melanesia. “In Espiritu Santo, the new father [eats] a pudding made from the cooked placenta and blood.”^[1]
• Oral administration of the placenta was reported in Sino-Vietnamese medicine to aid the recovery of those suffering from tuberculosis.^[1]

In a follow-up study, the UNLV researchers were joined by colleagues at the University of South Florida, who surveyed new mothers, and found that about 3/4 had positive experiences from eating their own placenta, citing “improved mood”, “increased energy”, and “improved lactation”.^{[3] [4]}

Recent examples of placentophagy in the popular media include Time Magazine’s “Afterbirth: It’s What’s for Dinner”,^[5] and USA Today’s “Ingesting the placenta: Is it healthy for new moms?”^[6]

The practice among modern humans is considered controversial:

Many Western researchers remain skeptical of whether the practice of placentophagy is of value to humans. Professor Mark Kristal of the State University of New York at Buffalo, wrote his doctoral dissertation in 1971 on why animals eat their placentas. He stated, “People can believe what they want, but there’s no research to substantiate claims of human benefit. The cooking process will destroy all the protein and hormones. Drying it out or freezing it would destroy other things.”^[6] Nevertheless, a number of midwives, doulas, and mothers who practice placentophagy claim that consuming their placentas has helped recover from childbirth in a variety of ways.

Although human placentophagy entails the consumption of human meat by a human or humans, it has not been labelled cannibalism.

Hmmm. Why not?  Is placenta eating cannibalism or is it not?

Maybe it’s a question of degree.

Perhaps eating a scab is not the same thing as eating the rich.

(Union activists, please forgive me.)