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Btw For some reason Kuru is only known to exist is extremely isolated human populations like Papuans. That means that the vast majority of humans alive today are the descendants of humans that acquired a natural immunity to the prions that arise from cannibalism. Kinda freaky to think about.

>In 2003, a publication in Science received a large amount of press attention when it suggested that early humans may have practised extensive cannibalism. According to this research, genetic markers commonly found in modern humans worldwide suggest that today many people carry a gene that evolved as protection against the brain diseases that can be spread by consuming human brain tissue. A 2006 reanalysis of the data questioned this hypothesis, because it claimed to have found a data collection bias, which led to an erroneous conclusion. This claimed bias came from incidents of cannibalism used in the analysis not being due to local cultures, but having been carried out by explorers, stranded seafarers or escaped convicts. The original authors published a subsequent paper in 2008 defending their conclusions

>A team led by Michael Alpers, a lifelong investigator of kuru, found genes that protect against similar prion diseases were widespread, suggesting that such endocannibalism could have once been common around the world

>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. This evidence is found in the 127V polymorphism, a mutation which protects against the kuru disease. In simpler terms, it would appear the kuru disease has affected all humans to the extent we have a specialised immune response to it