cannibalism
gregladen | February 21, 2017Biologist and author Bill Schutt has a new book out: Cannibalism: A perfectly natural history.
He and I talked about cannibalism on Ikonokast: Click here to check it out! It is was a fun interview, and Bill's book is excellent.
See also:
You Come From Cannibals
Among Cannibals
Cannibal, Native, Indigenous
On Cannibalism and Jameson
So, what do you think, are all mammals cannibals, or is it mainly the Sicilians? Check out the podcast.
gregladen | February 17, 2015A recent twitter conversation prompted me to dig up some old posts on cannibalism, and maybe a few memories of my time in Central Africa.
The twitter conversation concerned a story in which it is claimed that James Jameson, heir to the Jameson Irish whiskey empire, bought a slave girl (for the price of six handkerchiefs) in order to watch her be eviscerated and eaten by cannibals, and in particular, so that he could make some nice watercolor painting of the event. Apparently this is going around the internet.
If this is true, which as I will argue in a moment is not actually the case, then…
oracknows | October 17, 2013Over the years, I've not infrequently noted that there is a serious disconnect between what most people would think of as "natural" and what is considered "natural" in the world of "complementary and alternative medicine," or, as I like to call it, CAMworld. I started thinking about this again after yesterday's post about Jessica Ainscough's decision to treat her rare sarcoma with the quackery that is the Gerson therapy and how her mother's decision to use the same quackery, instead of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, resulted in her untimely demise. Reading over Jessica Ainscough's blog…
tsmith | June 20, 2013Student guest post by Bradley Christensen
No, this isn’t a clip from a science fiction movie. Although dramatic, this does occur in the brains of some people and animals around on our home planet. What is a prion you ask? Prions are almost as mysterious to the scientists that research them as they are to me, you and the neighbor down the street. Prion is a term used to describe an abnormal and particularly destructive strand of protein found in the brain. Proteins are the building blocks of the muscles and tissues of our bodies that work combine together to perform different functions. …
gregladen | November 19, 2012A man "lies crumpled on the sand ... Behind him a dark trail leads back to the spot from which he has just been dragged. Looking closer, we notice something slightly odd about the figure crouching over the wounded man. His posture does not suggest a doctor attempting to staunch bleeding, or even to check heartbeat or pulse. Look a little closer still, and you may be inclined suddenly to reel back or to close your eyes. The man sprawled at such an odd angle beside the injured [man] has his face pressed against a gaping tear in [his] throat. He is drinking blood fresh from the wound..."…
gregladen | November 19, 2012I have lived among Cannibals, according to a lot of people who claim to know. The number of times that the "tribal" people of the Congo have been called cannibals is too great to be counted, most notably in great literature like The Heart of Darkness but most commonly, I suspect, from the pulpit or soap box by those raising money to spread this or that word. Most Europeans and Americans don't know it, but many people who live in the Congo are quite convinced that the bazunga ... the white foreigners ... are cannibals. I've listened closely to these assertions, made by many individuals, and…
gregladen | September 28, 2011A man "lies crumpled on the sand ... Behind him a dark trail leads back to the spot from which he has just been dragged. Looking closer, we notice something slightly odd about the figure crouching over the wounded man. His posture does not suggest a doctor attempting to staunch bleeding, or even to check heartbeat or pulse. Look a little closer still, and you may be inclined suddenly to reel back or to close your eyes. The man sprawled at such an odd angle beside the injured [man] has his face pressed against a gaping tear in [his] throat. He is drinking blood fresh from the wound..."…
razib | November 23, 2009Cannibalism is a controversial topic. It is routine for particular societies to accuse "barbarians", enemies, or evil mythological figures, of cannibalism. When it comes to the archaeological record some skeptics have claimed that like "sacred objects" too often human remains found in peculiar circumstances are ascribed to human sacrifice or cannibalism. In Did Adam and Eve Have Navels? Martin Gardner lays out the skeptical case for why cannibalism is rare to non-existent, and rather something which emerges from the imaginations of ethnographers and archaeologists, or is rooted in…
zooillogix | May 2, 2007Polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea have begun to cannibalize one another according to a recent study in the online publication Polar Biology. The polar bears' main food source in the area, ringed seals, are accessible only across ice shelves. Global climate change has melted these shelves, cutting off the bears from their food and forcing them to turn on one another.What would you do for a Klondike Bar?
Polar bears often kill their own kind as a form of population control, territorial dominance and reproductive advantages, but killing each other for food had rarely been witnessed…
zooillogix | April 16, 2007Researchers recently discovered a most unusual parenting method in Boulengerula Taitanus, a blind, worm-like amphibian called a caecilian. It feeds its young by letting them tear off its own skin with hooked white teeth. Scientists say this behavior has never been witnessed in any land-based animal.
Unlike most caecilians, B. Taitanus lays eggs. The skin of the female parent actually becomes thicker and nutrient rich when the eggs are about to hatch, preparing a delicious meal for her cuddly worm-lizard babies. Apparently in live-bearing caecilians, the fetuses feed on the womb-like oviduct…