Eating People: Understanding Cannibalism

Eating People: Understanding Cannibalism by David Lester reviews current knowledge about cannibalism. The book details examples of cannibalism in order for groups to survive after shipwrecks and airplane crashes, and in times of famine during wars. Examples of cannibalism during World War Two and in the German concentration camps is presented. Lester described his recent research on efforts to provide empirical data for a typology of cannibals and on serial murderers who have engaged in cannibalism of their victims. Other topics include: cannibalism in ancient mythology, cannibalism in animals, body parts used for medicinal purposes, and modern fads such as drinking urine and eating the placenta after childbirth. Lester also reviews current debates about cannibalism such as whether primitive societies ever incorporated cannibalism as a cultural custom in their societies and whether anthropological reports of cannibalism in these societies can be believed since anthropologists have never witnessed cannibalism. Arguments that children like cannibal fairy stories because those stories satisfy their unconscious desires are criticized, and the onus placed on their parents who choose to read such stories. Finally, cannibalism in the culture with the best documentation of cannibalism over the last 2,000 years (China) is detailed, and this provides evidence for different types of cannibalism including survival cannibalism and revenge cannibalism.