cannibalism
cannibalism — noun
1. when any living creature feeds on another member of the same species — used for
when any living creature feeds on another member of the same species — used for humans who consume other humans and for animals that eat their own kind
Archaeologists uncovered evidence of ritual cannibalism among the Ancestral Pueblo people of the American Southwest.
collocation: ritual cannibalism
Female mantises sometimes eat their mates, a form of cannibalism seen in many insect species.
animal subject + of-genitive: form of cannibalism
Historical records from several Pacific islands describe cannibalism as part of traditional warfare.
In some fish species, the first young to hatch practise cannibalism on the remaining eggs.
The documentary explores why cannibalism appears in the historical records of so many different cultures.
- anthropophagy
a formal, technical term used almost exclusively for human cannibalism, especially in academic writing
文法句型
used as a mass noun; often modified by adjectives (ritual cannibalism, survival cannibalism)
用法筆記
Cannibalism is treated as an uncountable (mass) noun; the countable noun 'cannibal' refers to a person or animal that practises cannibalism.