Anthropologists have long distinguished between survival cannibalism, ritual cannibalism (endocannibalism as mortuary practice), and pathological cannibalism (Lindenbaum, 1979; Conklin, 2001). TCCF members often draw selectively on anthropological literature to legitimize their desires, re-framing cannibalism as a culturally relative practice rather than a universal moral atrocity. This “strategic relativism” is a key rhetorical device.
TCCF employs a distinct lexicon designed to aestheticize and de-pathologize cannibalism: the cannibal café forum