Europeans were once 'child-eating cannibals'

"Europeans were once cannibals", because an extinct sub-species of Homo Sapiens located in northern Spain were?

Hello! Where did the "Out of Africa" Theory, Mitochondrial Eve etc go?

Whether or not the first "modern Europeans" were cannibals, we can all agree that the title is deliberately misleading

reply to post by Chaoticar


Not misleading at all.

There is plenty of evidence from much later modern humans in europe were practicing canibalism into the near past 25k years ago.
Sites in france and germany show signs that early modern humans hunted other modern humans and neanderthals as well.

Originally posted by punkinworks
There is plenty of evidence from much later modern humans in europe were practicing canibalism into the near past 25k years ago.
Sites in france and germany show signs that early modern humans hunted other modern humans and neanderthals as well.

Reread the article:
"Europeans were once cannibals" because an extinct branch of the human race located in Europe was?

I'm sorry if there's something here I'm missing, but doesn't "were once" imply some form of continuity from these (extinct) Europeans to modern Europeans?
I "was not once" a firefighter, lawyer, superhero whatever because my brother was at one point in time, nor is any modern bird ground-dwelling "because the Dodo were ground-dweliing".

Of course the earliest "modern Europeans" would have had cannibalistic practices, but we cannot claim or support this by using an extinct group of Europeans that predated them

reply to post by Chaoticar


Were they not living in Europe?

Yes they were, and they were the earliest known homonids in europe

so they were the first europeans.




[edit on 1-7-2009 by punkinworks]

reply to post by Titen-Sxull Actually, from a survival standpoint, it makes more sense to eat children if a group is forced to rely on cannibalism. Adults can always have more kids when conditions improve. Why not eat the elderly? Those hominids didn't get that old.
I'm uncertain of the veracity, but I once read that during the siege of Stalingrad (WW2), starving families swapped children, so they wouldn't have to eat their own.

OK, firstly, ew.

Secondly, what's so shocking? Humans are... humans after all.

Backstabbing had to have its roots SOMEWHERE.

Ugghhh...yeah that does remind me horribly of the cannibalism in Russia WWII. Red Army hoarding food, Nazis taking their farmland...
First the cows were stolen...then the horses started disappearing... then dogs went missing... then children were kidnapped... *shudder*
I know you 'gotta do what you gotta do' but I cant even imagine why anyone would do that, I would rather starve...