In the 1950s, kuru became the most common cause of death among women in affected Fore villages in Papua New Guinea. The devastating brain-eating disease began with tremors and loss of coordination, then robbed patients of the ability to walk, swallow and speak. It always killed.
Of the 11,000 people belonging to this Papuan community, around 200 died each year. One in every ten people in the tribe was affected.
After a lot of dead ends, Western scientists unraveled the cause. When a person from Fore village died, their friends and family would often cook and eat them. The Fore believed that it was better for the body of a loved one to be eaten rather than becoming consumed by maggots. It sounds gruesome and sick, but for these people, it was an act of both love and grief.
Women most often died of the strange disease and it was women too who would remove the brain, mix it with ferns, cook it in tubes of bamboo, and ultimately consume it. Sometimes, these women would share pieces of cooked flesh with their children.
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