Cannibals in North America

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by Orleander, Oct 4, 2011.

  1. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    Is this the only confirmed socially acceptable case of cannibalism in North America. And in this case, I mean flesh eating, not blood drinking.
    And who are the Xiximes??? I've never heard of them

    It's long been rumored that an ancient, isolated people in what's now northern Mexico ate their own kind, in the hopes that they'd be able to eat corn later.

    Now an analysis of more than three dozen bones bearing evidence of boiling and defleshing confirms that the Xiximes people were in fact cannibals, archaeologists say.

    The Xiximes believed that ingesting the bodies and souls of their enemies and using the cleaned bones in rituals would guarantee the fertility of the grain harvest, according to historical accounts by Jesuit missionaries.

    The newfound bones prove that cannibalism, "was a crucial aspect of their worldview, their identity," said José Luis Punzo, an archaeologist behind the new research....


    link
     
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  3. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    Caribs (natives in the Caribbean) cannibalized othe natives of the region.
     
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  5. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    do you a link to that? I've never heard that
     
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  7. Stoniphi obscurely fossiliferous Valued Senior Member

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    As the drought in the Chaco Canyon area went on, resources got pretty scarce and folks got very desperate. There was a lot of conflict over water and land. One of the tactics of the Chaco defenders was to not only kill the invaders but to then eat them as a warning to others as to the ferocity of the inhabitants.

    This has been evidenced by the remainder of human proteins in cooking/serving ceramic bowls and in human feces left in a family's abode.

    While I don't have a link off - hand, I got my info from research I did there and from the museum in Chaco. Worth a visit, even if it is way off the beaten path and you can no longer get into the back country as we did. That was one of the more memorable expeditions I have been on, gave me some great insights to one of the major Anasazi cultures.
     
  8. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    but was that for survival (needing food) or ritualistic such as what the XiXimes did. I mean, we've have cases of survivalistic cannibals in modern day North America (and some crazies too), but not ritualistic
     
  9. Stoniphi obscurely fossiliferous Valued Senior Member

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    The onsite researchers believe that it was to spread fear and to intimidate other nearby cultures who wished to share in the dwindling natural resources of Chaco Canyon during an extended drought. If they were frightened enough they would not move into Chaco territory. Eventually all of them moved on as the drought continued for a couple hundred years. This partially as the inhabitants had clear - cut the local forest for building purposes and as the river that formed the canyon dried up.
     
  10. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    One wonders: in what way is eating your own dead immoral, practically speaking?
     
  11. mathman Valued Senior Member

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  12. AlexG Like nailing Jello to a tree Valued Senior Member

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    Are you speaking just of cannibalism as a part of the culture and way of life, or are you including 'opportunistic cannibalism', as in the Donner wagon train party?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party
     
  13. Me-Ki-Gal Banned Banned

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    I always wondered why the Donner Party did not just slip back down into Nevada were the game had to be plentiful . Shelter and over all living conditions could have been easier than the high country around Truckee . The thought is the early snow hampered there movements to survive . It can snow 12 ft. in a matter of days and I suspect that is what happened . Heavy snow. I seen it in 96 I think it was . Snowed 8 ft. in less than 8 hr. But down around Reno that don't happen . I think they thought that all they had to do is get over the next ridge and all would be good . Not knowing the trek across the Mountains from Truckee to Sacramento was a huge force to deal with in the winter . They would have been smarter to drop back down into Nevada . Killed deer and caught fish . Anyway there are bone chilling after maths were some of the people are claimed to have developed a taste for human flesh after the event . One Guy is said to have taken a woman's baby and when she came in he was frying human baby brains on the wood stove . There was one account of one of the guys, when he got to Sutter Fort in Sacramento he started eating from his hunger pains and didn't stop until his belly exploded and he died right there at Sutter Fort from gorging him self . Yeah the stories abound . Being raised in Sacramento you learn all cyna stories about the Donner Party . Legends big time
     
  14. KilljoyKlown Whatever Valued Senior Member

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    I don't care how it happens, it's unacceptable under any conditions in any part of the world.

    Cannibalism in China Acceptable… If For Health

    http://www.weirdasianews.com/2007/04/02/cannibalism-in-china-acceptable-if-for-health/

    The pictures at the end are a bit unsettling. Consider yourself warned.
     
  15. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    that was for survival.

    I'm talking about socially accepted part of teh culture as the Xiximes did it
     
  16. mathman Valued Senior Member

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    My understanding of the Donner party was that no one was killed for food. They only ate someone after death. This is quite different from the other situations where someone is murdered to be eaten.
     
  17. Me-Ki-Gal Banned Banned

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    That is the big mystery . As there was suspect that one of the Indian guides was killed , but just to eat maybe not . I think there was conflict about what to do . So then after that they waited for each other to die , but the initial eat is suspect. That is how I learned it yet the official report is like you say. The story was a favorite of group camps in the California mountains
     
  18. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    As a mom, I'm telling ya, they killed someone to eat. I would have to feed my kids
     
  19. Me-Ki-Gal Banned Banned

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    some of the Donner Party it is said that they wouldn't eat human flesh and well they died and got aten
     

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