Rest in Pieces: A Short Genealogy of Cannibal Markets

The possibility of transferring living human organs or tissues from one body to another did not occur before the nineteen forties, when blood transfusion became widely available. As a result, the presence in this publication of a cultural historian specialized in the body over a long time span may seem odd. In order to overcome this apparent paradox, I have taken the very title of our meeting—“a cannibal market”—quite literally, very seriously, and, of course, historically. And I have done th..