More Evidence of Cannibalism in Gough's Cave in Southwest England

It was announced in 2011 that the finds there included the first known instance of skull caps. However, continuing research shows a greater degree of human modification than was previously recorded, "including defleshing, disarticulation, human chewing, crushing of spongy bone, and the cracking of bones to extract marrow."

The finds are dated to 15,000 years ago.

http://www.archaeology.org/news/3217-150417-goughs-cave-cannibalism

For those who don't immediately recognize the place name: Gough's Cave is located in Cheddar, Somerset, and is where Cheddar Man was found. Nothing like a side of cheese with your plate of human bone marrow.

It has happened during Ice Age, perhaps in midst of very harsh winter? Remember a movie Alive, plain crash in Andes?
Sometimes cannibalism is due to extreme hunger, sometimes to funerary rituals like in case of Papua New Guinea tribes. I'm yet to learn about true case of human flesh consumption being on someone's regular menu.

LeBrok said:

It has happened during Ice Age, perhaps in midst of very harsh winter? Remember a movie Alive, plain crash in Andes?
Sometimes cannibalism is due to extreme hunger, sometimes to funerary rituals like in case of Papua New Guinea tribes. I'm yet to learn about true case of human flesh consumption being on someone's regular menu.

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I've never heard of that either. It's either starvation or funeral rituals from what I've read...perhaps a way to consume the spirit of the person, the way that eating certain animals in certain cultures is supposed to imbue you with their spirit.

The sucking out of the very marrow of the bones seems too extreme for ritual, but who knows...disquieting, no matter the reason.

This is probably starvation, but eating your enemies is common in certain settings, and mass starvation tends to lead to fighting.

holderlin said:

This is probably starvation, but eating your enemies is common in certain settings, and mass starvation tends to lead to fighting.

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Do we have historical records of it? Do we have fairly recent records when Europeans met local tribes of America, Australia or Africa?
I'm sure it wasn't common in any settings in historical times of Europe and Asia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_cannibalism

Warfare, ritual (consuming and absorbing essence/power), and starvation, the last of which is likely linked to the other two causes. We do in fact eat because we're hungry.

Rare cases would be in psychopathic killers, who are also human, and have surely been present in all other cases.

I think in punishments too. Executed and eaten.

Cannibalism is a recurring feature of severe famine, however not all famines lead to it.
I can think of a few examples ; The Donner Party..[pioneers stuck in snow..1846]

Dudley and Steples...[maybe Staples?] ..shipwrecked in the Atlantic and sent to trial for murdering the cabin boy for food, Richard Parker.

Japanese soldiers in New Guinea during WW2...they were ordered not to surrender position and were cut off from food supply..they resorted to to some cannibalism...they were later executed for it, I think.

The Great Famine of Europe 1315-17. People ate their animals, tree bark, grass..and eventually the dead.

Irish Famine of 700AD. Famine was severe and it is reported to have occurred.

There are probably quite a few incidences that could be listed when people were driven to such measures.

holderlin said:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_cannibalism

Warfare, ritual (consuming and absorbing essence/power), and starvation, the last of which is likely linked to the other two causes. We do in fact eat because we're hungry.

Rare cases would be in psychopathic killers, who are also human, and have surely been present in all other cases.

I think in punishments too. Executed and eaten.

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I looked it over, there is not much about " eating your enemy being a common thing". Mostly ritualistic and starvation cases. However, I would assume that in long history of humankind there were handful of tribes having some tradition of eating humans.
Generally, I think there is a genetic block in our heads, which makes eating humans very unattractive proposition. It doesn't feel right nor pleasant, unless someone is a psychopath. It might be a very old genetic predisposition. Predatory mammals don't eat their own, even from other tribes. They can kill their own but don't eat them. That's why we don't see cannibalism very often.

LeBrok said:

I looked it over, there is not much about " eating your enemy being a common thing".

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Not really interested in debating the semantics of "eating your enemy being a common thing" especially because that's not really what I said. I had another qualifier, which by the way isn't mathematical or even necessarily logical despite what some think.

LeBrok said:

Mostly ritualistic and starvation cases. However, I would assume that in long history of humankind there were handful of tribes having some tradition of eating humans.

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"Handful"

LeBrok said:

I think there is a genetic block in our heads, which makes eating humans very unattractive proposition

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OK <oral sex joke>

15 ka was between last ice age (27-18 ka) and youngest dryas (12,6-11,5 ka)
climate was good then
15,5 ka first tribes arrived at the melting icecaps in northern Germany, these were good hunting grounds, plenty of reindeer
15 ka they were probably among the first tribes to reach England
no reason to think there was food shortage
so was this ritual? were they eating enemies? or was this part of a burial?

LeBrok said:

Do we have historical records of it? Do we have fairly recent records when Europeans met local tribes of America, Australia or Africa?
I'm sure it wasn't common in any settings in historical times of Europe and Asia.

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Yes. Dayaks recently stopped being cannibals and ate their enemies (Very recently, I just found out [2]). Papua's also IIRC, however the majority of eating humans was as funeral practice. A form of Creuzfeld-Jacob [1] exists among the Papua's explicitly connected to eating human brains. I read that there is some evidence of cannibalism among Aboriginals, but none very sure. Whatever the case, the practice wasn't widespread.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)
[2] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/c...-borneo-as-ethnic-conflict-rages-1082690.html