Cannibalism Among the Fore People of Papua New Guinea and the Kuru Disease

The Kuru Disease
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The Fore is a group of individuals that live in the southern part of the Papua New Guinea. The people exhibit a disease called Kuru whereby, it attacks the nervous system of its victims. Once a person has come into conduct with the disease, they begin to lose balance and have poor motor control. This is followed by difficulties in communication and the extreme case, the individuals die. This disease was believed to hereditary because it keeps on attacking the Fore people. However, research shows that Kuru is related to cannibalism. It is believed that the Fore people eat a part of the brain cells of the dead people as a way of showing them respect through a funeral ritual (Lindenbaum, 2015). It is caused by a prion, which i...