Human cannibalism

Human cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The meaning of "cannibalism" has been extended into zoology to describe animals consuming parts of individuals of the same species as food. Anatomically modern humans, Neanderthals, and Homo antecessor are known to have practised cannibalism to some extent in the Pleistocene..^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Cannibalism was occasionally practised in Egypt during ancient and Roman times, as well as later during severe famines.^[6][7] The Island Caribs of the Lesser Antilles, whose name is the origin of the word cannibal, acquired a long-standing reputation as eaters of human flesh, reconfirmed when their legends were recorded in the 17th century.^[8]

1. ↑ Culotta, E. (October 1, 1999). "Neanderthals Were Cannibals, Bones Show". Science. 286 (5437). Sciencemag.org: 18b–19. doi:10.1126/science.286.5437.18b. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 10532879. S2CID 5696570.
2. ↑ Gibbons, A. (August 1, 1997). "Archaeologists Rediscover Cannibals". Science. 277 (5326). Sciencemag.org: 635–637. doi:10.1126/science.277.5326.635. PMID 9254427. S2CID 38802004.
3. ↑ Rougier, Hélène; Crevecoeur, Isabelle; Beauval, Cédric; Posth, Cosimo; Flas, Damien; Wißing, Christoph; Furtwängler, Anja; Germonpré, Mietje; Gómez-Olivencia, Asier; Semal, Patrick; van der Plicht, Johannes; Bocherens, Hervé; Krause, Johannes (July 6, 2016). "Neandertal cannibalism and Neandertal bones used as tools in Northern Europe". Scientific Reports. 6 (1) 29005. Bibcode:2016NatSR...629005R. doi:10.1038/srep29005. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 4933918. PMID 27381450.
4. ↑ Davis, Josh (October 4, 2023). "Oldest evidence of human cannibalism as a funerary practice". Natural History Museum – Science News. Archived from the original on September 17, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
5. ↑ Carbonell, Eudald; Cáceres, Isabel; Lozano, Marina; Saladié, Palmira; Rosell, Jordi; Lorenzo, Carlos; Vallverdú, Josep; Huguet, Rosa; Canals, Antoni; Bermúdez de Castro, José Marı́a (2010). "Cultural Cannibalism as a Paleoeconomic System in the European Lower Pleistocene". Current Anthropology. 51 (4): 543. doi:10.1086/653807. JSTOR 10.1086/653807. S2CID 1311044.
6. ↑ Thompson, Jason (2008). A History of Egypt: From Earliest Times to the Present. American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 978-977-416-091-2.
7. ↑ Tannahill 1975, pp. 47–55. sfn error: no target: CITEREFTannahill1975 (help)
8. ↑ Myers, Rovert A. (1984). "Island Carib Cannibalism". Nieuwe West-Indische Gids / New West Indian Guide. 58 (3/4): 147–184. ISSN 0028-9930. JSTOR 41849170. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved April 21, 2026.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Human cannibalism.

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Cannibalism

• The Straight Dope columns:
  • Is there really such a thing as cannibalism? (1988) – argues, largely based on Arens's The Man-Eating Myth, that "routine" cannibalism may turn out to be nothing but is myth
  • Eat or be eaten: Is cannibalism a pathology as listed in the DSM-IV? (2004) – discusses the case of Armin Meiwes and notes that sexual fantasies of cannibalism are not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, presumably because they are rare
  • Does PCP turn people into cannibals? (2005) – answers that while using phencyclidine occasionally turns people violent, only in the case of Antron Singleton it led to cannibalism
  • Did a mob of angry Dutch kill and eat their prime minister? (2005) – answers that the corpses of Johan de Witt and his brother indeed seem to have been partially eaten after they were lynched by an angry mob
  • Cannibalism — yea or nay? (2016) – discusses whether it is ethical and practical to eat dead humans in famine situations
• Víctor Montoya, Cannibalism (2007, translated by Elizabeth Gamble Miller) – a look at representations of cannibalism in art and myth, and why we tend to be so horrified by it
• Rachael Bell, Cannibalism: The Ancient Taboo in Modern Times (2015) – from Crime Library
• Alisa G. Woods, Cannibalism and the Resistant Brain (2015) – on how studies of kuru might lead to a better understanding of other diseases
• Shirley Lindenbaum, Cannibalism (2021) – article from the Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology
• Terry Madenholm, A Brief History of Cannibalism: Not Just a Matter of Taste (2022) – from Haaretz