Why Do Cambodians Eat Spiders

WHY DO CAMBODIANS EAT SPIDERS?

by Antonio C. Antonio

January 18, 2014

QUESTION:  Do you know why Cambodians eat spiders?  What drove them to eating spiders? (Professor Janet B. Martires)

What drove the Cambodians to eat spiders?  For those of us who have read the book “First They Killed My Father” (authored by Loung Ung) or watched the movie “The Killing Fields” (an award-winning movie) already know the answer to this question.  “Adaptive survival strategy” was the reason why Cambodians were driven to eat spiders especially during the repressive Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. 

From 1953 to 1970, the ruler of Cambodia was Prince/King Norodom Sihanouk.  When the war in neighboring Vietnam started in the 1960s, Prince Sihanouk labored to make Cambodia a neutral state in the war.  However, in 1970 while Prince Sihanouk was on a tour abroad, an American-back coup happened which installed a rightist-type of government allied with the US in Cambodia.  This dragged Cambodia into the Vietnam war.  The USSR, on the other hand, backed China and North Vietnam in their war against the US-sponsored governments in Cambodia and Vietnam.  Eventually the communist Khmer Rouge triumphed in Cambodia as the US was busy concentrating in the war effort Vietnam.  With a Communist-backed government clearly established, the US included Cambodia in its carpet bombing activities in the area.  These countries, together with Laos, were the most chaotic areas in the ASEAN region at that time.

A fiercely fought civil war in the homefront, a cruel rightist government takeover, an even more cruel communist takeover and bombings runs from the US rendered the economy and life in general very difficult in Cambodia.  I should add that the US and USSR/China supported governments in Cambodia both practiced ethnic cleansing in the mold of Nazi Germany’s massive killing of Jews.  Most Cambodians were in survival mode as some of them tried to flee and migrate to Thailand.  In their effort and hope to survive, they ate anything… including spiders.

Just my little thoughts…