Among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea, ritual endocannibalism involved consuming deceased relatives as an act of love and respect, believed to aid spiritual transition. The practice, ending in the mid-20th century, transmitted kuru, a prion disease, revealing cultural norms around death and consumption.

This practice influenced anthropological literature and poetry exploring cultural relativism, taboo, and the body. It features in discussions of ritual in global poetry, inspiring reflections on mortality and kinship that parallel themes in Western elegies and non-Western oral traditions.