In primitive legends the old mother in the West is often a sort of cannibal, and primitive man eats the flesh of the dead.
He celebrates cannibal feasts as a sort of sympathetic magic, he does what the earth does in order to increase fertility.
That is still practiced in our days.
Just recently there was a case in north Kenya.
They ate a grandmother who was particularly beloved.
You see, they had a grandmother in the family whom they worshipped, so they gave her very good food, they fed her well till she grew quite fat, and when she died the family ate her.
Then all the fools were disgusted and horrified at such a terrible thing, but they ate her in the end out of sheer love in order to give her continuation of life.
It was a supreme act of devotion; they continued her life by embodying her body in theirs, really a very touching idea.
One should not disturb people in such acts of devotion, it is very foolish, it destroys their morality completely. ~Carl Jung, Visions Seminar, Page 517