[SunkenCiv]

An artist's reconstruction of Homo antecessor, a hominid species that butchered and ate its own kind. A new study suggests the cannibalism was a form of territorial defense. Image: jlmaral/Flickr

[Revolting cat!]

Let's eat grandpa!

(Before the invention of commas!)

[cripplecreek]

So you’re saying that Jeff Dahmer just didn’t like his neighbors.

[Verginius Rufus]

Cacambo to the Oreillons, who have found Candide wearing a Jesuit habit and are shouting "let's eat Jesuit! Let's eat Jesuit!"

"...you think you're going to have Jesuit today. That's fine by me. Nothing could be fairer than to treat your enemies this way. The laws of nature do indeed tell us to kill our neighbor, and this is the way people behave thoughout the world. If we ourselves do not exercise our right to eat our neighbor, that's because we've got better things to et. But you haven't the same resources as we have. Certainly it is better to eat one's enemies than to leave the fruits of one's victory for the rooks and the crows."

--Voltaire, Candide, ch. 16.

[Pearls Before Swine]

The victims, mainly children, may have been eaten as part of a strategy to defend territories against neighbors

Strategy? "That'll teach the lil' bastids to stomp around in the garden!"

[Pharmboy]

Sure...it was territory...that’s it...NOT that they were hungry and the kids were easy prey...nah...THAT couldn’t be it.

[null and void]

A modest proposal...

[Hardraade]

Intifadians.

[fso301]

The victims, mainly children, may have been eaten as part of a strategy to defend territories against neighbors

Or perhaps they were just hungry.

[Cronos]

I wonder about this. There is a near world-wide revulsion to cannibalism and among primates and higher mammals it is not common.