By: Jeremy D. Wells
There are few taboos more universal than that against eating human flesh. Even in societies where ritualistic cannibalism was practiced, it wasn’t common. For instance the Fore people sometimes ate their deceased loved ones, finding it more respectful and loving than allowing them to be eaten by insects. Other groups performed rituals that aren’t strictly speaking cannibalism, but still fall under the endocannibalism umbrella, such as the consumption of cremated remains practiced by the Yanomami.
The other type of ritualistic cannibalism, exocannibalism, is often seen as a means of terrorizing or expressing dominance over a defeated group. This type of cannibalism also includes the idea of absorbing the prestige or power of a defeated foe by consuming their body.
Neither of these, though, describe what Russian cannibal Yegor Komarov engaged in when he confessed to taking a “nibble” from a St. Petersburg businessman two years ago after assisting in his murder and setting fire to the parking garage where it happened. The headless body was found when Komarov crashed his vehicle, spilling the body out of the trunk. But it may not have been the first time Komarov sampled human flesh. He told police he had also murdered and eaten a man the previous year, and that he enjoyed killing people and hunted for victims in a local park.
Going to prison apparently wasn’t enough to slake his bloodthirst either, as Komarov is back in the news, two years after his arrest for the St. Petersburg killing, this time for the murder of his cellmate. While reports don’t suggest Komarov ate any part of his latest victim, the incident probably won’t do much to help the 25 year old Russian’s appeal of the 19 year term handed down in his previous trial.