Fore Tribe's Endocannibalism: A Ritual of Respect Led to Deadly Kuru Disease

• The Fore people of Papua New Guinea practiced endocannibalism, consuming deceased relatives as a mortuary rite to honor them and keep their 'essence alive'.
• This ritual, primarily performed by women and children, was seen as an act of love, believing it better for loved ones to consume the body than worms.
• The consumption of infected human tissue led to Kuru, a fatal neurodegenerative disease causing tremors and ataxia, disproportionately affecting women and children.
• Kuru, meaning 'trembling', devastated the Fore population, particularly women, and was linked to ritualistic cannibalism by D. Carleton Gajdusek, who won a Nobel Prize for his research.
• Though the practice ended over 50 years ago, Kuru cases persisted due to the long incubation period of prions, with the last known case dying in 2009.

Why It Matters: Endocannibalism by the Fore people, a ritual of respect, inadvertently caused the deadly Kuru disease.