Posted on 10/06/2023 3:53:21 PM PDT by nickcarraway
-Europeans probably ate their dead loved ones instead of burying them 15,000 years ago.
-According to a new study, the consumption of dead people was not essential, but a ritual.
-Researchers also said people used the remaining bones as cups and chewed on them.
Cannibalistic Europeans likely feasted on their deceased loved ones at funerals instead of burying them, according to a new study.
Scientists now believe that cannibalism was widespread among Magdalenian Upper Palaeolithic people, who lived across Europe between 11,000 and 17,000 years ago, according to the study published in Quaternary Science Reviews.
The study's researchers analyzed funerary practices at 25 Magdalenians burial sites across France, Germany, Spain, Russia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Portugal. The study found evidence that these early humans had chew marks on their dead's bones, used their skulls as cups, and extracted bone marrow from the bodies for nutrients.
In some cases, the ancient humans appeared to have combined the human remains with animal remains, per the study.
Scientists had previously known of a few instances of cannibalism among this group, like those at Gough's Cave, where skull cups and other human bones were found, but had not known until now just how commonplace the practice was.
The researchers wrote that it is "undeniable that the frequency of cannibalistic cases among Magdalenian sites exceeds any incidence of this behaviour among earlier or later hominin groups, and suggests that mortuary cannibalism was a method Magdalenian people used to dispose of their deceased."
Dr. Silvia Bello, a paleoanthropologist and co-author of the study, said in a press release that the cannibalistic behavior was "not simply practiced out of necessity," but rather as a "funerary practice."
Study co-author Dr. William Marsh added that their findings offered a contextualization of Gough's Cave.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Well, we’ve evolved a little bit.
If you’d read Heinlein you’d know that’s not what grok means.
Why does everyone say that?
I had some video, but unfortunately it got exposed when I was bringing it back in my time machine.
Did you hear about the cannibal who passed his
Uncle Moishe in the jungle?
Explains the 14K YO fava bean fosssils.
“Let’s eat grandma.”
“Let’s eat, grandma.”
This could have all been a matter of poor punctuation.
If you keep that up, you’ll send me into a comma.
Lol... :)
I wonder if their comedians tasted funny
“My mother-in-law still gives me heartburn”
sure saves on undertaker fees-
And for dessert, lady fingers!
How about a Turkey?
-PJ
Likely. Probably.
“None of the remains seem to reveal any obvious signs of trauma,” Bello added, “suggesting that the ‘consumed’ probably died of natural causes rather than a violent death. If this is the case, it is probable that the consumers and the consumed belonged to the same group.” The practice might then have been endocannibalism, which refers to eating the flesh of a person — usually in a mortuary context — after the individual has died. Different forms of endocannibalism have occurred around the world. The Amahuaca tribe of Peru, for example, would grind human bones with corn, mix them with liquid, and drink the resulting gruel....“The climate warmed up suddenly about 15,000 years ago, and was nearly as warm as today in the UK, with animals like horse and red deer around, and on the menu,” Stringer said....There doesn’t appear to be a connection between the prehistoric Brits and the other global practitioners of endocannibalism.... (https://www.seeker.com/culture/history/prehistoric-brits-ate-people-and-then-turned-their-bones-into-art)
cannibalism (the practice of humans eating the flesh or organs of other humans) can be generally divided into two categories: survival and learned. .. Survival cannibalism is usually the result of being thrown in an extreme situation ...Learned cannibalism is the more ancient form of cannibalism and a relatively common practice among many indigenous tribes around the world...Learned cannibalism is further divided into two subgroups: Exocannibalism and endocannibalism (per HowStuffWorks). Exocannibalism is an aggressive act, done to cause fear or as an act of revenge....Endocannibalism is the exact opposite...It's done as a sign of respect or veneration of the dead or as a spiritual pursuit...consuming a loved one will keep carry on this person's spirit among the living. (https://www.grunge.com/896254/endocannibalism-the-ritual-of-consuming-your-dead-loved-ones/)
the consumption of members within ones own culture, group or tribe is called endocannibalism, which is often associated with ritual burial ceremonies and has been controversially referred to on occasion as compassionate cannibalism....For example, according to anthropologist Beth Conklin in article by Ellie Shick mortuary cannibalism amongst the Wari tribe of the Amazon rainforest had a socially integrative dimension. Upon consumption of the deceased group member, the spirit of the dead was believed to be absorbed by the entire tribe and was considered by them to be one of the most respectful ways to treat a human body.
The ancient Aztecs in Mexico were believed to have sacrificed and cannibalized thousands of humans on an annual basis. The Aztecs were believed to have practiced exocannibalism, as well as endocannibalism and survival cannibalism.... The Aztecs considered the human body to be equivalent to corn... In any source of heat, the Aztecs detected a basic life force in the universe, called tonally...At the beginning of all things, the gods gave their own life force to the sun, so that eating a human being was tantamount to consuming the tonally of the gods,.... According to Peggy Sanday in her book Divine Hunger, cannibalism was a holy act, which allowed men to obtain divine powers through communication with their gods...
Other cultures participated in endo- and exo-cannibalism for similar reasons, such as The North American Indians, known as the Iroquoian. They believed that sacrificing and consuming the bodies of their enemies would satisfy their war god and lead to their spirit being transferred and absorbed into their own bodies. The absorbed spirit was believed to empower the cannibal with the attributes of the dead person...There have also been reports of tribes in Papua, New Guinea, known to have practiced endo- and exo-cannibalism up until the 1960s for ritualistic purposes... the spread of Christianity is believed to have significantly diminished cannibalism worldwide. (https://www.crimelibrary.org/criminal_mind/psychology/cannibalism/2.html; cf. https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/food-for-the-gods/)
In 2012, authorities in Papua New Guinea charged 29 members of one tribe with the deaths of seven witch doctors. The cannibals believed that by eating the witch doctors' organs, they would be imbued with supernatural powers, according to The Telegraph. (https://www.seeker.com/cannibalism-a-history-of-people-who-eat-people-1769840684.html)
By eating witch doctors' organs, the cult members believed they would attain supernatural powers and literally become bullet-proof, he [Madang Police Commander Anthony Wagambie] said. "It's prevalent cult activity," Wagambie said. He said he believes there could be between 700 and 1,000 cult members in several villages in Papua New Guinea's remote northeast interior. All of them might have eaten human flesh, he said. (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/papuanewguinea/9398339/Papua-New-Guinea-charges-29-alleged-cannibals.html)
The Yanomami tribe believe through endocannibalism they preserves the tribe’s unity... according to them ‘ absorbs the soul of the tribe member into the tribe again. (https://www.themirrormedia.com/endo-cannibalism-a-rare-practice-of-absorbing-soul/)
The controversial anti-Christian Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941) reports more on this among Aztecs in chapter 50 of his "Golden Bough" (https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/the-golden-bough-abridged-ed/2-eating-the-god-among-the-aztecs/) though he is held as being of dubious authority, and with his his conclusions being especially attacked.
They were recyclers before it was cool.
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