janelane wrote:

This silent film clip shows several victims of a disease called kuru. They are - or rather were - members of the South Fore, a tribe of approximately 8,000 people who inhabit the Okapa subdistrict of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. In the 1950s and '60s, a kuru epidemic swept through the South Fore, claiming the lives of more than 1,000 members of the tribe. Later it was established that the disease was transmitted by the tribe's practice of ritualistic mortuary cannibalism.

Yuck!

The word kuru means "shaking death" in the Fore language, and describes the characteristic symptoms of the disease. Because it affects mainly the cerebellum, a part of the brain involved in the co-ordination of movement, the first symptoms to manifest themselves in those infected with the disease would typically be an unsteady gait and tremors. As the disease progresses, victims become unable to stand or eat, and eventually die between 6-12 months after the symptoms first appear.

Kuru belongs to a class of progressive neurodegenerative diseases called the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which also includes variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, more popularly known as "Mad Cow Disease"). TSEs are fatal and infectious; in humans, they are relatively rare, and can arise sporadically, by infection, or because of genetic mutations. They are unusual in that the infectious agent which transmits the diseases is believed to a misfolded protein. (Hence, the TSEs are also referred to as the prion diseases, "prion" being a shortened form of the term "proteinaceous infectious particle").
...
Following the outbreak of kuru among the Fore in the 1950s, cultural anthropologists quickly established that the disease was transmitted by the practice of mortuary cannibalism. When an individual died, the female relatives were responsible for dismembering the body. They would remove the brain, arms and feet, strip the muscle from the limbs and open the chest and abdomen to remove the internal organs. Those that died of kuru were highly regarded as sources of food, because they had layers of fat which resembled pork. It was primarily the Fore women who took part in this ritual. Often they would feed morsels of brain to young children and elderly relatives. Among the tribe, it was, therefore, women, children and the elderly who most often became infected.

Double Yuck! Seriously, I know that it's a time-honored ritual and all, but some dude in your family dies of something obvious like shaking accompanied by dementia, perhaps you might think there's something in their body causing the symptoms and just bury them. Could they have been so starved for protein? Or just mindlessly bent on following a ritual despite obvious risks? Or afraid of the consequences of not abiding?

-janelane, using commonsense

Update: Even granting this analysis, could they not have wanted to protect themselves? Or, will we be just as flabbergasted at ourselves in 50 years?

You should really read deadly feasts - its a very interesting read...I agree though...just say no to ritualistic mortuary cannibalism....or any other sort of cannibalism.

RE: Cannibalism & the shaking death: A new form of the disease & a possible epidemic

Check out my new blog about things and stuff:)

Adventures of MKC

Nice....

Piled Higher & Deeper - Powered by PrintMojo

A truck carrying 43,000 pounds of beer caught fire late Monday morning after overturning on eastbound Interstate 20, according to Department of Transportation officials.

I bet that was something to see...

Truck carrying 43,000 pounds of beer overturns | ajc.com

The problem with TiVo is that you never see commercials. So I almost missed that the The Venture Bros. returned for a 3rd season.

If you aren't watching this show you are a fool.

From last night's episode:

Dean: She's the Wereodile!
Dr Venture: I almost f@$&ed a wereodile?
Dean: Don't worry dad [grab chair]... [smacks Dr Quymn] The power of Christ compels you!

and of course:

Henchman 24: Come on! They have one female servicing a large group of males. That implies a species that lays eggs.
Henchman 21: Oh my God, you're crazy! They're so obviously mammals!
Henchman 24: Please! She'd be in estrus 24/7 if she didn't lay eggs.
Henchman 21: Smurfs don't lay eggs! I won't tell you this again! Papa Smurf has a fucking beard! They're mammals!

Clint and I watch this show on a regular basis.

Venture Bros. Season 3

Accompanying the attacks is increasingly tough talk from activists such as Dr. Jerry Vlasak, a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front press office. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said he is not encouraging anyone to commit murder, but "if you had to hurt somebody or intimidate them or kill them, it would be morally justifiable."

wow

The Associated Press: Animal rights protesters torment scientists

And for our friday afternoon light reading enjoyment, an entertaining article about wedding traditions and their bizarre origins. My favorite is about how "best men" used to hide weapons under the church floor, in case they needed to help the groom "steal" the bride. Nice...

Bizarre Wedding Traditions

Over the years, HIV has proved a tricky target. No one could definitively show where in the cell it assembled, or when it was released. Certainly no one knew how long it took a single virus to be born. And so much of what's known about HIV and other viruses has been pieced together through experiments that rely on inference: microscopic and chemical probing of cells frozen in different states of viral infection provide only information about what was happening in that cell at a particular moment in time. Now researchers have been able to watch as hundreds of thousands of molecules assemble inside a cell to create a single particle of HIV.

Wow...this is really neat. Scientists have tagged GAG (a major structural protein of HIV) with a fluorescent tag. Using TIRF microscopy (microscopy in which the microscope is able to observe a very thin slice in its focal plane), they were able to do some live cell imaging and show HIV virons assembling REAL TIME! (Be sure NOT to miss the link to the movie, underneath the still image in the article).

Technology Review: Genesis of a Virus

mmmmm....space beer.....

Thirsty? Try some refreshing 'space beer' - CNN.com

Just for fun. We are amazing.

100 Weird Facts About the Human Body