SIX Romanians have been jailed for digging up the corpse of a cancer victim, ripping his heart out and eating it because they thought he was a vampire.
The men, who have each been sentenced to six months in jail, waited for seven weeks after the 76-year-old former schoolteacher died before exhuming the corpse and mutilating it.
After cutting the deceased’s heart out they burned it, mixed it with ash and water to make a "meaty drink". They told the court in the southern Romanian town of Craiova they all felt "much better" afterwards.
The six men all came from the remote village of Marotinul de Sus and told the court it was "well known" that such a remedy was the only protection against the undead.
This might seem to be an item for those Dave Barry and Joe Bob fans out there, but there actually is a serious, fascinating, and fruitful body of historical and anthropological scholarship dedicated to considering these folk beliefs that lie beneath the veneer of formal religious practice. They should be taken seriously because they reveal belief structures that are undreamed of in our philosophy.
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