Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt (PDF)

Description

Eating one’s own kind is completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons of famine, burial rites, and medicinal remedies; it’s been used as a way to terrorize and even a way to show filial piety. With unexpected wit and a wealth of knowledge, American Museum of Natural History zoologist Bill Schutt takes us on a tour of the field, dissecting exciting new research and investigating questions such as why so many fish eat their offspring and some amphibians consume their mother’s skin; why sexual cannibalism is an evolutionary advantage for certain spiders; why, until the end of the eighteenth century, British royalty ate human body parts; how cannibalism may be linked to the extinction of Neanderthals; why microbes on sacramental bread may have led to execution of Jews by Catholics in the Middle Ages. Today, the subject of humans consuming one another has been relegated to the realm of horror movies, fiction, and the occasional psychopath, but be forewarned: As climate change progresses and humans see more famine, disease, and overcrowding, biological and cultural constraints may well disappear. These are the very factors that lead to outbreaks of cannibalism. As he examines these close encounters of the cannibal kind, Bill Schutt makes the ick-factor fascinating.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I was glad to find this book covered the story of cannibalism in many animals, so very infromative and fascinating, as well as easy reading. Don’t worry, all those gross human stories are covered too. Maybe even more than I needed to hear…eating your placenta after giving birth??!!

⭐An enjoyable overview of the science associated with cannibalism. The author is sometimes unexpectedly witty, and does a great job of challenging his interview subjects about their conclusions and examining multiple possibilities.

⭐First and foremost – it’s a fun book. Mr. Schutt writes very well and the book manages to be a learning and an amusing reading experience at the same time. What prevented me from giving it the full five star rating was an internal inconsistency in the authors thesis. On the one hand, cannibalism occurs in nature in many species as one of the survival strategies that do work. Obviously, there are non-cannibalistic alternatives that work as well and the evolutionary choice what strategy is eventually adopted by a certain species may be randomal. In any case, since cannibalism gene (or genes) are yet to be identified, a controlled experiment for a given species testing cannibalistic versus non-cannibalistic survival strategies is still science fiction rather than science. Mr. Schutt therefore proposes that cannibalism is neither admirable nor repulsive, just normal and “natural” when it works. On the other hand, when he tries to extend this thesis to higher species, i.e. mammals, primates, great apes, and finally humans, he finds less and less examples of cannibalism. This would indicate that for the highly developed species cannibalism is not a valid strategy except when it is “justified” by external streess (in the case of humans – mostly starvation). Although he attempts to link the human taboo against eating its own kind to social and religious couses (i.e. “unnatural”) and gives as an example the Chinese (who apparently had human delicacies cookbooks!), the fact is that probably at any given period less than one in a million people ever tasted the “long pig”, making cannibalism a very rare aberration indeed, on par with the cannibalism-spread (Kuru for humans and the mad cow for cattle) diseases. Another aspect makes the book delightful to read but greatly dilutes the arguments – Mr. Schutt loves biology and sociology and his numerous digressions like to the gruesome description of the Doner Party cannibalism or the fish that eat their moms from the inside are entertaining but much less in a way of proving the “naturalness” of devouring your own classmate. For a professional biologist, there are some surprises. For example, I had no idea that there is still a question mark over the causative agent (prions vs. virus) of Kuru, CJD, and other transmittable encephalopathies. On the whole, great entertainment and a lot of education of evolutionary survival strategies, but fails to convince that eating the neighbors children might be perfectly natural.BTW, the illustrations seem to mimic Farmer’s Almanach 150 years ago. Could be definitely improved.

⭐Easy-read science book, which discusses cannibalism in many species, including Homo sapiens. I did find new-to-me information on types of human cannibalism. Also, it was interesting to read about Columbus, conquistadors, and the Catholic Church using false accusations of cannibalism to dehumanize, enslave and/or exterminate indigenous peoples of the Americas.I’d read about large-scale, survival cannibalism in China/PRC during the “Great Leap” of 1958-61. But the author glossed over the non-famine, political cannibalism, which took place during Mao’s 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. That is a period rarely spoken about, even in China, and I read only one translated book about those atrocities—best word for said events. Although author avoids the 1960s-70s, he does discuss other rarer types of cannibalism practiced by the Chinese over the past 2500 years.With both Kindle and Audible versions to hand, I was able to read the beginnings of each Kindle chapter, and then I listened to narrator Tom Perkins read the chapters I chose. Author does a journeyman’s-job explaining Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSE) including Kuru, CJD, scrapie, and “Mad Cow Disease.”Note that there are chapters in this book—such as the upteenth retelling of the Donner family—that didn’t interest me.

⭐Interesting read. Learned a lot.

⭐Global warming leads to cannibalism? I digest it. Ten minutes of human hunger leads to eating each other. I bought this book to learn about cannibalism in nature. In Larry Niven’s book Legacy of Heorot he describes an ecobalance of one top predator. It seems he lives by eating his larval form. When humans kill this top predator, all the larval forms can grow to become apex predators. Also in his book Lucifer’s Hammer, Larry describes the starvation cannibalism caused by a meteor strike. After a recovery, the survivors adopt ritual cannibalism to initiate survivors who join the new society. I feel that all crimes should be punishable by death. These deceased, plus those dead by natural causes, should be fed to hogs and sharks. Humans could then eat these animals to solve world hunger. Cannibalism by proxy? However, if TSE’s can jump between sheep, minks, chimps , humans etc. perhaps I will rethink my solutions to hunger.

⭐If you have any curiosity in regards to taboos or cannibalism, this is the book for you. It’s extremely well researched and provides an insane amount of insight. The author has a beautifully dry humor to keep you engaged. It does start a bit slow but I promise it is mind-blowing and it has not prompted me to dive even deeper into this bizarre, yet “perfectly natural” behavior.10/10 would read again, 10/10 would buy again, 10/10 would zoom meet with the author over tea.I seriously adored it. I cried when I finished it. Looking for more by the same offer and definitely looking into he recommended reading material. (Eat Thy Neighbor was impossible to put down).tl;dr U F-ING LOVED IT AND I HATE READING.

⭐I bought this book initially out of sheer curiosity. Having done some writing about cannibalism and cultural tabboos at university I was interested to find out just how natural it is to eat one’s peers. It turns out, very!From the first page to the last page, this book is filled with genuinely fascinating revelations and surprising facts about cannibalism across a range of species (including humans), providing a balanced and objective consideration of the practice that effectively challenges Eurocentric ideas around nature and morality.By no means is this book encouraging you to eat your co-workers, but it does encourage readers to reconsider their preconceptions around cannibalism and learn some interesting science/history along the way.Honestly one of my all time favourites.

⭐The book has great reviews and the publishers have done a good job to give it a lot of publicity. The books is very much about the author, who makes himself out to be knowledgeable and above the academic arguments that surround the subject.The book fails on every level of analysis. The anthropological, archaeological, and sociological evidence and theoretical approaches that he mentions are well and truly out of date. The author is subjective, and fails to apply any scientific methodology to his analysis – surprising since they guy is meant to have a PhD and works at a natural history museum. The chapter on cannibalism in the future is completely ridiculous. There are far better and more insightful books available. Save your money and buy yourself a good coffee and a donut you won’t regret it.

⭐An interesting read. I bought it expecting more animal related content but the parts about humans were still good. A nice mix of anecdotes, history and biology.

⭐I enjoyed this book for multiple reasons :- It is well researched (facts from the litterature and conversations with scientists)- The writting style of the author is halfway between science paper and casual conversation (easy to read)- And I’ve always had a curiosity associated with zoology (I am extremely biased)Though I must add that I was/am not a big fan of the epilogue, but it didn’t affect my appreciation for the book as a whole.

⭐I quite enjoyed the way that Schutt was able to capture the subject with a sense of humor and light heartedness. Of course, I got a couple of weird looks from people who saw the book title– however it’s not at all violent or gory, as it’s all from a scientific and natural point of view. Lots of cool facts that you can drop in conversation, if it ever comes up!Would highly recommend for anyone who’s interested in expanding their knowledge base.

Keywords

Free Download Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History in PDF format
Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History PDF Free Download
Download Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History 2017 PDF Free
Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History 2017 PDF Free Download
Download Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History PDF
Free Download Ebook Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History