Explaining why human ancestors used to eat each other before evolving into what we are today
Our Paleolithic ancestors ate each other. Homo sapiens did it. Neanderthals did it. Homo erectus and Homo antecessor did it. It is very likely that almost all hominids practiced cannibalism in some form. The only questions are 'why' and 'how much'?
Evidence of the "cannibal" period
From our privileged position today as the dominant species on Earth's food chain, with a relatively abundant supply of plant and animal foods compared to earlier times, cannibalism is almost universally abhorrent. But was this aversion present in our ancestors? Scientists often view Paleolithic cannibalism as the exception, not the norm, but perhaps that's wishful thinking. It's better to imagine our ancestors as benign hunter-gatherers than as opportunistic, brutal cannibals.
In times of famine, did prehistoric people resort to cannibalism?
As Dr James Cole, senior lecturer in archaeology at the University of Brighton, wrote in a 2017 study, 'Given the sparse nature of the hominin fossil record, the fact that we have evidence of cannibalism at all suggests that cannibalism was probably more common in prehistoric populations than the number of archaeological sites suggests.'
Cole described several obvious signs on fossil human bones that were suggestive of cannibalism: 'lack of cranial base (to reach the brain) on complete or near-complete skeletons'; 'virtually absent vertebrae (due to crushing or boiling to extract marrow and fat)'; 'cut and chop marks'; 'comparable butchering techniques of human remains to animal remains (food)'; 'treatment of hominin remains similar to animal remains'; 'evidence of cooking in the form of charred bones'; 'human tooth marks'.
These markers have been discovered at ancient human sites around the world, dating from 10,000 to nearly 1 million years ago. At the Troisìeme Goyet Cave in Belgium, researchers found evidence that around 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals dissected and then ate some of their own corpses, using their bones as tools. And in Gough Cave in the UK, anthropologists discovered bite marks on 15,000-year-old Homo sapiens bones, as if the ancient cannibals were trying to scrape off every millimeter of nutritious muscle. They also found hundreds of fillet marks and ritual incisions on bones, and even excavated skulls that appeared to have been modified for use as… cups.
Why cannibalism?
So, did humans eat each other as a way to avoid 'wasting food' after the death of a group member? Was it necessary in times of famine? Or did humans in rival groups hunt each other like deer or wild boar? Cole attempted to answer that question by calculating the calories gained from 'eating' an adult male. He found it to be about 143,771, enough to feed a group of about 25 adults for half a day.
He argues that this amount of nutrition would not really be worth worrying about, especially compared to hunting horses, bison (wild bison) or mammoths, thereby refuting the idea that ancient humans regularly hunted each other. 'A single large animal would yield more calories without the difficulty of hunting groups of intelligent and resourceful hominins as hunters,' Cole writes.
That means Paleolithic cannibalism was more likely done opportunistically, out of necessity or perhaps for ritual purposes , Cole added. The practice certainly existed in ancient civilizations , but we may have left it in the shadows forever.
The Korowai tribe is one of the last tribes in the world that still practice cannibalism.
The Korowai or Koroway, Kolufo are an indigenous people living in the forests of the easternmost province of Papua, Indonesia. The Korowai were discovered in the 1970s. They live in a tribal society and are one of the most primitive and wild tribes in the world, also known as a unique tree tribe that has lived in isolation from the world for centuries. According to the Indonesian census, this tribe has nearly 3,000 members living scattered throughout the forests of Papua.
The Korowai used to practice headhunting and cannibalism and were considered a wild and reclusive cannibal tribe . The Korowai tribe specializes in living in the treetops with primitive customs in which a group of hunters living in a remote forest in Indonesia has just been officially recognized as the first tribe to live in the trees, this tribe speaks its own language and lives on the animals and plants of the forest.
Ethnologists say that the Korowai tribe was discovered in the 1970s, when they still had bad customs such as headhunting and cannibalism. They ate the brains of people right after killing them. It is not certain that this tribe has stopped cannibalism. However, some opinions say that unlike the terrible stories spread by rumors, the Korowai only do it when punishing a person who has committed a crime. Traditionally, the victim's family is allowed to kill and eat those who have done evil against the tribe. Today, they no longer keep this terrible habit, but the human skeletons - the dark remnants of Papua New Guinea in the past are still kept by the descendants of the tribe, the bones of the victims are kept by their descendants to this day, anthropologists believe that contact with the outside world has ended this practice of theirs in recent years.
In fact, the main food of the Korowai is wild game , they mainly eat wild boar, deer, sago palm and bananas, insects, bugs, some other plants. Sago palm is the main food in their meals, Sago trees are cut down 4-6 weeks before it is processed into food, after cutting, it is left to rot in the swamp where the larvae can develop. After 4-6 weeks, the palm tree will be split open to collect the Capricorn beetle larvae. This is a favorite dish of the Korowai. They can be eaten raw or cooked. The larvae have a fatty taste and very attractive aroma. They are a significant source of fat for the Korowai tree people. Korowai women collect the larvae from the Sago tree, then grind a branch of the sago palm into a small powder, a dish that is included in the Korowai meals.
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