Important Safety Notice: Don't Eat The Brains!
Kuru is an incurable degenerative neurological disorder (brain disease) that is a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, caused by a prion found in humans. The term "kuru" derives from the Foreword "kuria/guria", 'to shake', a reference to the body tremors that are a classic symptom of the disease; it is also known among the Fore as the laughing sickness due to the pathologic bursts of laughter people would display when afflicted with the disease. It is now widely accepted that Kuru was transmitted among members of the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea via cannibalism.
Beginning in 1961, Australian doctor (now Professor) Michael Alpers conducted extensive field studies among the Fore, which were supported by the work of anthropologist Shirley Lindenbaum. Their historical research with the Fore suggests that the epidemic may have originated around 1900 from a single individual who lived on the edge of Fore territory, who is thought to have spontaneously developed some form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). Alpers and Lindenbaum's research conclusively demonstrated that kuru spread easily and rapidly in the Fore people due to their endocannibalistic funeral practices, in which relatives consumed the bodies of the deceased to return the "life force" of the deceased to the hamlet, a Fore societal subunit. The dysmorphism evident in the infection rates — kuru was 8–9 times more prevalent in women and children than in men at its peak — is because while the men of the village took the choice cuts, the women and children would eat the rest of the body including the brain, where the prion particles were particularly concentrated.
Beginning in 1961, Australian doctor (now Professor) Michael Alpers conducted extensive field studies among the Fore, which were supported by the work of anthropologist Shirley Lindenbaum. Their historical research with the Fore suggests that the epidemic may have originated around 1900 from a single individual who lived on the edge of Fore territory, who is thought to have spontaneously developed some form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). Alpers and Lindenbaum's research conclusively demonstrated that kuru spread easily and rapidly in the Fore people due to their endocannibalistic funeral practices, in which relatives consumed the bodies of the deceased to return the "life force" of the deceased to the hamlet, a Fore societal subunit. The dysmorphism evident in the infection rates — kuru was 8–9 times more prevalent in women and children than in men at its peak — is because while the men of the village took the choice cuts, the women and children would eat the rest of the body including the brain, where the prion particles were particularly concentrated.
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