[3] The Amahuaca Indians of Peru picked particles of bone out of the ashes of a cremation fire, ground them with corn, and drank them as a kind of gruel.
[5] Ya̧nomamö consumed the ground-up bones and ashes of cremated kinsmen in an act of mourning; this is still classified as endocannibalism, although, strictly speaking, "flesh" is not eaten.
A team led by Michael Alpers, a lifelong investigator of kuru,[13] found genes that protect against similar prion diseases were widespread, suggesting that such endocannibalism could have once been common around the world.
[14][15] A genetic study with a range of authors published by the University College London in 2009 declared evidence of a "powerful episode" of natural selection in recent humans.
[16] However, a study drawing from hundreds of resources in 2013 claims further that 127V derives from an ancient and widespread cannibalistic practice, not related to kuru specifically, but "kuru-like epidemics" which appeared around the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals who co-existed with humans.