A five-category risk assessment and proposed legislative framework for community protection, prepared by the Interagency Working Group on Anthropophagic Risk (IWGAR-2026-07).
Categories covered
- Famine / Survival — consumption of the already-deceased under acute food deprivation
- Ritual / Cultural Practice — consumption sanctioned by cultural or religious norms
- Medicinal Consumption — ingestion of human remains for perceived pharmacological benefit
- Sexual / Psychological Disorder — consumption arising from paraphilia or psychiatric drivers
- Warfare / Terror / Coercion — cannibalism as an instrument of terror or domination in conflict settings
Key findings
- Peak documented participation rate in a survival event: 48.5% (Andes Mountains, 1972)
- Largest epidemiological footprint: >2,700 deaths from kuru, Fore people, Papua New Guinea (1957–2004)
- Jurisdictions with a unified statutory framework addressing all five categories: 0
Dataset
Ten documented cases spanning the 14th century to 2009, across five continents. Evidence tiers range from forensic/physical trial evidence (Dahmer, Meiwes) to 55-year epidemiological surveillance (Fore/kuru) to documentary records (European corpse medicine).