Posted on 09/10/2012 6:08:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The earliest known instance of cannibalism among hominids occurred roughly 800,000 years ago. The victims, mainly children, may have been eaten as part of a strategy to defend territories against neighbors, researchers report online in the Journal of Human Evolution. The new study shows how anthropologists use the behavior of modern humans and primates to make inferences about what hominids did in the past -- and demonstrates the limitations of such comparisons.
The cannibalism in question was discovered in the Gran Dolina cave site of Spain's Atapuerca Mountains. Eudald Carbonell of the University of Rovira and Virgili in Spain and colleagues found evidence of butchering on bones belonging to Homo antecessor, a controversial species that lived in Europe as early as 1.2 million years ago. Because no other hominid species has been found in the region at the same time as the butchered bones, the victims must have been eaten by their own kind, the team concluded in 2010 in the journal Current Anthropology (PDF).
Today, human cannibalism occurs in a variety of contexts: for nutritional value (often in times of starvation), as part of funerary rituals or during warfare. The different purposes of cannibalism can leave different patterns in the archaeological record. When humans consume other humans for purely dietary reasons, the victims are often treated just like any other prey. This is what the researchers found at Gran Dolina. Eleven individuals were butchered in a manner similar to that of deer and other mammals: Bones had cut marks in areas of muscle attachments and the skulls had signs of defleshing.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.smithsonianmag.com ...
Cabeza de Vaca is said to be the first European to mention the bison. He also mentions at one point of one group of Indians, "during the time I was among them I saw something very repulsive, namely, a man married to another. These are impotent and womanish beings who dress like and do the work of women." He would not be welcome in today's Democratic Party.
One of the four survivors was a Moroccan slave, Estevanico, whom he sometimes refers to as "the Negro." Not long ago I caught Henry Louis Gates talking about Estevanico's great explorations (greatly exaggering the number of miles he walked) but totally ignoring the others as if he either was alone or was the leader of the group.
I wonder about this. There is a near world-wide revulsion to cannibalism and among primates and higher mammals it is not common.
Or perhaps those kids just ate altogether too much.
:’D
Thanks!
Some years ago I saw a film called How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman, about a Frenchman who was shipwrecked on the coast of Brazil in the 16th century, kept for a year by the Indians of the area, who then had a feast where they killed him and ate him. Local custom.
They were quite friendly to him during the course of the year (he is aware of their plans for him). At one point one of the pretty young women of the tribe has sex with him. So at least he was laid before he was sauteed.
They were quite friendly to him during the course of the year
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Of course they were...just fattening him up and we all know that ‘nervous donors’ make for stringy meat while contented, massaged and overly happy donors make prime cuts..
Not uncommon at all among chimpanzees. Jane Goodall was appalled when she first encountered it, but it is well-described.
"Eat me, Old Man."
***hours later***
"Daddy, are there more barbecue pork chops?"
" Sure, baby, all you want... no, not that one Honey, the pork chop with the tattoo on it is for Daddy..." :^O
more information that I didn’t know earlier! thank you
that’s the idea behind kobe beef :)
that’s the idea behind kobe beef :)
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I was more into taking a ‘shot’ at moochies favorite, Wagyu Beef....<: <:
Come to think of it someone that has earned a PERMANENT WIDE LOAD tatoo on her beam instructing the rest of us on diet/nutrition is tantamount to Jeffrey Dohmer publishing a cook book.
But, alas, in todays world it would probably be a best seller.
come
You’re most welcome. Infanticide is even more common among a wide range of animals (hippopotamuses, many monkey species, lions, cheetahs, gorillas, and many many more). It is accomplished by males who—after chasing off or killing any adult males around the females and offspring—then proceed to kill the young. This allows the mothers to ovulate again and get pregnant by the new males. How often they actually eat the youngsters I do not know (hippos, as you likely know, are vegetarians, and do not eat the ones killed).
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