Society for Classical Studies 157th Annual Meeting
JANUARY 7-10, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO
Call for Papers for an Organizer-Refereed Panel
Cannibalism and Anthropophagy in the Ancient World
Organized by Chris Gipson, Department of Classics and Archaeology, Loyola Marymount University
Over the last decade, scholarly interest in cannibalism (the consumption of one’s own species) and anthropophagy (specifically consumption of human flesh) has grown, with work charting the connections between cannibalism and a bestializing violence (Andò 2014) and the role of emotions (Braund 2003), namely anger, in fueling a desire for human flesh. Cannibalism centers the consumed body as signifying food as matter to be digested and consumed, and the political victim. Consanguine studies of corpse abuse and mutilation complement discussions of cannibalism in that they draw on New Materialist, Necropolitical, and Psychoanalytical/Abject approaches and center the violence of consumption, especially in a martial context (Muller 2014; van der Plas 2020).
Cannibalism elicits feelings of revulsion and disgust, as well as fascination and mystique. “What do people taste like” or “would you ever eat human flesh” are common questions when the topic is broached. In the ancient world, cannibalism was reserved for the beasts, fish, and birds, as articulated by Hesiod in his Works and Days, but anthropophagic episodes and threats of cannibalism frequently surface in myth and historical accounts. This panel aims to interrogate what is at stake when human beings are reduced to food matter. Anthropophagy, whether cannibalistic or otherwise, ultimately dehumanizes, rendering the corpse as a mere thing to be cooked, chewed, digested, and defecated.
While an emphasis on cannibalism initially was closely tied to discussions of raw and cooked meat, or divisions between the “civilized” and barbarian (Segal 1974; Naiden 2013; Bakker 2013), more recent work has focused on the place of strong emotions, namely anger in fueling cannibalistic urges (Braund 2003). This panel, in an attempt to break into newer directions, invites newer theoretical approaches (Muller 2024). Ando’s emphasis on the bestializing violence inherent in cannibalistic acts in epic and tragedy highlights the categorically destabilizing nature of cannibalism. Humans can become nearer to beasts through their anthropophagy, an act more so associated with vultures and dogs (Andò 2010; 2013).
This panel invites further ruminations on what cannibalism can and does signify, as well as questions that interrogate the practice beyond disgust and taboo alone. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
- Approaches to cannibalism or anthropophagy in relation to food studies
- If there is the conceit that anthropophagy reduces a human to food or food matter, what can new materialism say about cannibalism
- The bestialization of those who engage in cannibalism
- Through the lens of postmortem necropolitical violence, what role might famine and siege play in our understandings of cannibalism
- The metapoetics of cannibalism or of a text ingesting another corpus
- The aesthetics of the cannibalized body—what is the synesthetic force of cooked meat—its smell, appearance, taste
- Cannibalism as a violent abnegation of burial rites and retrieval of corpses
- How do humanoid monsters relate to the notion of anthropophagy—is this violence self-same or more in the realm of the bestial ingesting the human
Bibliography:
Andò, V. 2010. “Cannibalismo et antropopoiesi nella poesia iliadica.” In Come bestie? Forme e paradossi della violenza tra mondo antico e disagio contemporaneo, edited by V. Andò and N. Cusomano, pp. 1-18. Caltanissetta and Rome: Salvatore Sciascia.
Andò, V. 2013. Violenza bestiale: modelli dell'umano nella poesia greca epica e drammatica. Mathesis 8. Caltanissetta and Rome: Salvatore Sciascia.. 2008. “L’Iliade poema della forza?” Anabases 7: 117-37.
Bakker, E. J. 2013. The Meaning of Meat and the Structure of the Odyssey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Braund, S. and G. Gilbert. 2003. “An ABC of epic ira: Anger, beasts, and cannibalism.” In Ancient Anger: Perspectives from Homer to Galen (Yale Classical Studies 32), edited by S. Braund and G. Most, pp. 250-85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Muller, Y. 2014. “La mutilation de l’ennemi en Grèce Classique: pratique barbare ou préjugé grec?” In Corps au supplice et violence de guerre dans l’Antiquité, edited by A. Allély, pp. 41-72. Bordeaux: Ausonius.
Segal, C. 1971. The Theme of Mutilation of the Corpse in the Iliad (Mnemosyne Supplements 17). Leiden: Brill.
Segal, C. 1974. “The Raw and the Cooked in Greek Literature: Structure, Values, Metaphor.” The Classical Journal 69.4: 289-308
van der Plas, M. 2020. “Corpse Mutilation in the Iliad.” The Classical Quarterly, 70(2), 459–472.
Please send abstracts for a 15-20 minute paper by February 21, 2025 to info@classicalstudies.org with the subject heading “abstract_cannibalismSCS2026.” Abstracts should be 500 words or fewer (excluding bibliography) and should follow the guidelines for individual abstracts (see the SCS Guidelines for Authors of Abstracts). The abstracts will be judged anonymously and so should not reveal the author’s name, but the email should provide name, abstract title, and affiliation. Decisions will be communicated to the abstracts’ authors by the end of March, with enough time that those whose abstracts are not chosen can participate in the individual abstract submission process for the upcoming SCS meeting.