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Playing through Tomb of Annihilation, the module features cannibals and I am trying to figure out what exactly constitutes cannibalism in this setting.
I don't think that we can answer the theoretical ethical question "What is cannibalism in a world with many forms of sentient life?" But, can we determine what the cannibals of Chult eat? How does this contrast with non-cannibal diet? For example, would eating one of the terror-folk be considered cannibalism?
The only thing remotely "official" I could find in regards to this is from the Forgotten Realms wiki:
While the Batiri were often considered cannibals, they only ate the flesh of other races and never the members of the Batiri tribe. To eat another Batiri resulted in a punishment of death.
The Batiri seem to be the cannibals in question, as they are native to Chult, and they are goblins. They would eat other races (probably other goblins as well, but not other Batiri) which made them regarded as cannibals.
I think this means that the races viewed sapient creatures eating one another as cannibals, but perhaps higher learned people recognized the technicalities that cannibalism is same-species.
This has real-life parallels as well. People often referred to Giants, Ogres, Cyclops etc. As cannibals, despite not being human (they were human-like). Also we may refer to snake eating snakes as cannibalistic colloquially, but they are not regarded as such scientifically.
At least one group of cannibals in the module
eats zombies (p. 196-197).
I would say that the answer is ambiguous, perhaps intentionally so. We're talking about a module that tells you that dinosaur races happen "weekly" in a world that uses a "tenday" instead of a week.
Or give you detailed instructions about travelling during tropical storms, gathering rainwater, and dealing with extreme heat; but no explicit guidance on how often extreme weather events occur.
So, I'd say that it is intentionally left to the DM to decide
On a subjective note, I'd infer "willing to eat any of the party members" if you're playing it straight. If you are looking to inject more of the humor that gave you goblin stacks, "Nanny Poopoo," "Biff Longsword," and zombie-belching zombie dinosaurs, a tribe of ethical cannibals that only eats zombies could be a fun bit. (Now that I think of it, I might do that in my campaign!)
According to Websters dictionary, cannabilism is a) eating of human flesh by other humans, b) eating of another animal or eggs of the same species as you.
Therefore human eating elves are not cannibals.
Same thing with troll eating humans, they are not cannibals by Websters dictionary.
However drawing on sci fi, and common fantasy tropes eating sentient creatures is considered cannabilism.
