I don't know, I kinda like the odd unrationalised cannibal character. Hannibal Lecter, probably fiction's most famous cannibal, is supposed to have been ruined by Harris providing him with a backstory in "Hannibal Rising", not that I've read it. We just assume "something bad" happened to him at some point rather than needing it overdetermined* by the author. Crock example though, as Lecter is a famously vivid character, so sorry about that.
The Aboriginal cannibal thing is real actually. I recall there's some cannibalism in Patrick White's A Fringe of Leaves although I very much don't recall how it's put across. That book, I think, was based on the historical counterpart of the female protagonist's dubious and widely doubted account of her capture by, and survival with, an Aboriginal group.
* I like this word -- but perhaps more ironically, the WP page for overdetermination is a "disambiguation page".
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The Aboriginal cannibal thing is real actually. I recall there's some cannibalism in Patrick White's A Fringe of Leaves although I very much don't recall how it's put across. That book, I think, was based on the historical counterpart of the female protagonist's dubious and widely doubted account of her capture by, and survival with, an Aboriginal group.
* I like this word -- but perhaps more ironically, the WP page for overdetermination is a "disambiguation page".