4 ms·
How a history of eating human brains protected this tribe from brain disease
- sushid 11y agoThe comments on the article address this concern, but what actually happened was eating human brains led to the kuru endemic. This left behind the individuals genetically resistant to various forms of brain diseases including kuru, mad cow disease, and dementia. The title makes it sound as if eating brains led to some health benefit, which is simply not the case.
- msandford 11y agoTo be fair it says "this tribe" which can be read "the collective" and for the collective to survive it is only required that enough members survive. It doesn't specify any particular individuals. Of course this is a fairly nuanced reading of the title and I initially thought the same as you. It's kind-of the same as saying "lions keep the antelope herds healthy" which is technically true, but only because they are the mechanism by which the less healthy antelopes stop being a part of the herd.
- quadrangle 11y agoIt's a lousy title, but the deal is: if a mutation is rare but then everyone without it dies, it will become the norm, and so for the group, the result is a shift to the newly-common resistance, which is what the poorly-worded title was trying to say.
- x5n1 11y agokills the weak, sounds like a health benefit to me.... heh
- xacaxulu 11y agoPrions are the stuff of nightmares. Imagining these folding proteins running haywire in my brain scares the hell out of me. Time to go vegan?