Cannibalism for Reverence: The Fore Tribe's Shocking Ritual of Eating Dead Relatives

• The Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea practiced 'Endocannibalism,' eating deceased relatives' flesh as a sign of love and respect, believing it kept their soul alive.
• Women primarily performed this ritual, cooking and consuming organs, especially the brain, of the deceased.
• In the 1950s, a deadly neurological disease called 'Kuru' (also known as 'laughing death') spread rapidly among the tribe, particularly affecting women.
• Kuru caused severe tremors, uncontrollable laughter, and loss of balance, eventually leading to death, and was linked to consuming infected brains.
• The practice was stopped around 1960, and the Kuru epidemic was officially declared over in 2012, though its pathogens can remain dormant for decades.

Why It Matters: The Fore tribe's ritualistic cannibalism, meant as reverence, led to a devastating Kuru epidemic.