This picture shows the survivors of the flight F-227. You can see the conditions they were facing, and this helps us understand why they would eat others. During extreme conditions, we change our view on things and their meaning.
This article is very interesting and talks about how the meaning of things changes in different situations. The circumstance one faces has a lot to do with what things represent. For example, if someone is at home, water represents something that we take for granted while if said person was stranded in a desert, water is symbolic of a something needed to survive. In class we talked about symbolic meaning. Things have different symbolic meaning with different situations. We talked about how spit on a spoon is disgusting, and no one would dare to swallow it, while swallowing it in a kiss is perfectly acceptable because it is a sign of affection. The object stayed the same, yet our perception changed. This is similar to the article where people were used as food where before they would be friends, family, and a source of labor and knowledge. Another example in class was when we watched Freaks and Geeks. When the girl gave the boy his jacket, it was a sign that she liked him. In a different situation it would just have been an act of courtesy, not a sign of affection. In my personal life, I have used objects for reasons other than intended. I have used a hanger as a grappling device and books as a source to grow a fire. When people go camping, they use leaves as toilet paper. This is not a use of leaves in common society. In class we talked about how in the U.S. we consider dogs to be pets, while in China they are food. This shows that the intent of materials usage changes depending on culture, location, and other situations. These are all examples of having several uses for objects, even though our society only sees the use in one way.
In our current life, there are many examples that demonstrate the meaning of things in our society. During Valentine’s Day which is coming up, Roses and Chocolate are not used as just decoration and food, but they are a sign of love. The color red in a rose also signifies affection. During the Super Bowl, several fans paid thousands of dollars for a ticket. The ticket itself is useless, yet the value society gives the Super Bowl increased its value by thousands of dollars. Several hundred people also sued the NFL for not letting them in the big game despite having tickets to it. The ticket was an object that showed admission into the sporting event, and when the meaning of the ticket didn’t apply, people got confused and angry.
I was not very surprised by how the people in the crash reacted to the dead bodies. At that point, they needed to do anything necessary for survival. I find it interesting that the people told themselves that it was ok to eat the deceased because God wanted them to. The article states “God wants us to survive, and he has provided these bodies so we can live.” They needed to convince themselves that it was not immoral to perform these acts. In the society they had lived in, eating the deceased was not an acceptable practice. Had these people not have had a concept of how to act in their society prior to the crash, they would have had no problem convincing themselves that their actions were justified. Before societies existed, cannibalism was a common practice, and was expected. I also liked their innovative thinking by using skin as footwear to protect themselves. The only reason these people survived was due to their new societal rules. They gave jobs to everyone so they could survive. The article states “Even the weakest had a job to do.” This is similar to how common societies function with people having different tasks. We have our doctors, mechanics, and food providers. I also wonder what would have happened if all of the bodies would have been consumed. Would the living people kill each other in order to survive, or would they have just accepted their death and starved? Would the situation be like Herbert Spencer’s survival of the fittest? What we have learned from this article is that societies define how we should act. The show Fear Factor which gave people money for consuming “disgusting” animal parts shows why it was so hard to consume the food. Our mind is telling us that this is not a part of our culture, and we have been taught not to eat certain things through society.
you raise an interesting question about what would have happened if food ran out before rescue. What if the rescuers had failed? What do you think would have happened?
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