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Early man "butchered and ate the brains of children as part of everyday diet"

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posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 09:15 PM
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Early man "butchered and ate the brains of children as part of everyday diet"


www.dailymail.co.uk

Early cavemen in Europe ate human meat as part of their everyday diet, new research suggests.

A new study of fossil bones in Spain shows that cannibalism was a normal part of daily life around 800,000 years ago among Europe’s first humans.
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 09:15 PM
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Yeah, yeah, my British friends..."Its from the Daily Mail so its trash..." well, perhaps, perhaps not always. Plenty wouldn't accept anything coming off of certain profound but alternative Internet messageboards that will go unnamed, either.

And I know the idea presented is certain to get howls of protest from the ever-vocal crew of those who prefer to look at our ancestors throug a lense of Rosseauian idealism as "noble savages," wise and in everlasting harmony in with the earth. The problem with that pleasant pastoral eyelid dream is that, well, life just ain't like that, when you come right down to it.

As at all points in history, the truth is usually more complex and interesting. Even far back in his evolutionary history, I suspect early man exhibited a mixture of traits and behaviors, some of which are counter to the ethical norms of civilized society and some of which would indeed evoke praise.

One thing is for sure: Anthropophagy has by no means been a novel or even a rare practice throughout mankind's history. And if this article is correct, it may be a far more ancient part of the human journey than previously expected.

www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)


[edit on 9/7/10 by silent thunder]



posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 09:37 PM
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Yes but did they eat the brains with flava beans?

Many cultures practiced cannabilism and human sacrifice and child sacrifice.

Even in mighty Carthage it was considered an honor to have one of your children sacrificed to the Gods.

There might come a day it comes back in style. Like Bell Bottom Jeans.



posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 10:14 PM
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posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 10:46 PM
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Hang on; how can people eat human beings as part of an everyday diet when it takes 9 months for a tiny baby to grow (and those months are some of the fastest times we grow)?
Doesn’t add up, but a “priest” say being given sacrifices by a large community of people would perhaps leave the same evidence.

In which case it would show the human brain was advanced enough for religion, even 800k ago!



posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 10:57 PM
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Interesting. Lots of questions, though.
The article reasons that since the bones were deposited over a period of a hundred thousand years, the cannibalism isn't due to shortages. Surely, shortages could occur often during that length of time.
Couldn't these modern human children have suffered predation by another type of early man?
Thought provoking topic, OP.



posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 11:09 PM
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reply to post by Liberal1984
 


Actually the Aztecs once sacrificed 50,000 captives in just an amazing three days, ritually killing each one by slicing their throat and cutting out their heart.

They would in fact then roll the body down the steps of the pyramids where the crowds would typically butcher them and then barbeque them.

It's usually from other tribes that most of the victims come, with just a select number coming from your own tribe for the most important religious rituals.



posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 11:11 PM
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posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 11:17 PM
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Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
...child sacrifice.


there are still forms of child sacrifice available for study in modern politics.

sacrificing a child to a world where there are more mandatory expectations than any one child can live long enough to learn anyways, is sort of like child sacrafice. neither friends nor family talk to eachother and mandatorily expect eachother to adhere to and conform to more rules to the game than one lives long enoug to learn. so if one is not friend, and is not family, then what are they? in service to the laws is in service to who/what?



posted on Sep, 7 2010 @ 11:39 PM
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The only reason man stopped being nomadic hunters was to grow grains for beer.
so men love baby back ribs and beer for a reason?
i have to stop now-i'm creeping myself out.
i once saw a whole truck load of little piggies.
and they could have easily been a load of toddlers!
the old cave man probably saw them as a threat..
wish i hadnt picked at this thread now..
homer would have eaten bart!



posted on Sep, 8 2010 @ 06:48 AM
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I believe that no longer than a few months ago in Spain a bunch of people were eating a child somewhere near Sitges



posted on Sep, 8 2010 @ 09:16 AM
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Sensationalist crap. First the article says:

"Among the bones of bison, deer, wild sheep and other animals, scientists discovered the butchered remains of at least 11 human children and adolescents."

11 children? That's not many, certainly not something you could consider their "everyday diet".
They then go on to speculate:

"Bones of humans that had been eaten spanned a period of around hundred thousand years, indicating that the practice was not just confined to times when food was scarce."

11children over the course of a 100,000 years now suggests widespread cannibalism? Uh huh, riiiight,


They broke the bones for marrow suggesting to me that they were indeed starving and needed all the nutrients they could get. Nowhere did they state that marks on the bones suggested they were killed for purposes of cannibalism. This is poppycock and absolutely unscientific.

Dailymailco.UK, bite me and my ancestors!




[edit on 8-9-2010 by Asktheanimals]



posted on Sep, 8 2010 @ 11:00 PM
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Must have been expensive meat.

Mod Note: One Line and Short Posts – Please Review This Link.


edit on 9/8/2010 by maria_stardust because: (no reason given)



posted on Sep, 9 2010 @ 08:29 AM
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reply to post by silent thunder
 

For anyone who finds the Daily Mail an unpalatble source (and frankly, I'm one of those), here's National Geographic with the same story, only in more detail and lots of links to other cannibalism stuff.

Cannibalism was pretty common in preliterate societies--in particular, the practice of eating one's enemies. There is an overwhelming quantity of evidence.

I'm not so sure about the 'everyday diet' part. There weren't a lot of people alive in those days.

edit on 9/9/10 by Astyanax because: because I can't spell 'story', apparently.



posted on Feb, 6 2012 @ 01:04 AM
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I wonder if there where any reasons for eating human, maybe eating the adrenal glands to get energy of something



posted on Feb, 6 2012 @ 01:28 AM
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posted on Feb, 6 2012 @ 03:38 AM
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posted on Feb, 6 2012 @ 06:34 AM
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Aha! The Zombie Thread returns to life!

reply to post by Asktheanimals
 


Sensationalist crap.

Though human sexual behaviour is pretty variable, the biological norm for both men and women appears to be serial monogamy: a series of exclusive but temporary sexual partnerships.

When a man enters such a relationship with a woman who already has a child by a previous male partner, that child consumes maternal resources that – from her new boyfriend's point of view – are better devoted to bearing and raising his children. It makes reproductive sense to kill the stepchild, so long as it can be achieved without destroying the sexual partnership.

This chilling evolutionary logic is borne out by the facts we have concerning infanticide, not only in primitive hunter-gatherer societies but even in modern technological ones: to this day, children are statistically more likely to be murdered by their step-parents (especially stepfathers) than by any other caregiver. The phenomenon is so common psychologists have a name for it: it is called the Cinderella Effect.

I'm pretty sure it was operative in the Palaeolithic.


edit on 6/2/12 by Astyanax because: of these bloody kids.



posted on Feb, 6 2012 @ 06:41 AM
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posted on Feb, 6 2012 @ 07:07 AM
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bones of 11 children and adolescents...in a 100,000 year span ?

i guess the people digging take into account that the bones were most likely buried, instead of just piling up in a heap in some corner..
a layer of dirt would have kept the bones from stinking as the residual wet tissue decayed,
then who is to say that yesterdays bone wasn't buried in a 5,000 year old layer of dirt--- giving the impression the bone was there the whole time

Hermits are known for odd habits, perhaps finding the remains of tiger kills were carried back to the hovel and given a good cooking... so much so that human remains would be part of the bone yard and no deliberate cannibalism was involved

i see the young as being the most likely prey in that scenario
hence the 11 youth to adolescents bones found at the site

sensationalism sells so these stories are taken on face value alone instead of actual investigation or alternative scenarios as i have just tried to present here.


thanks




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