Evolutionary Roots of Cannibalism
Research Topics
Cannibalism is one of the most emotionally charged topics of human behaviour, and the reasons behind this behaviour is a serious evolutionary problem.
While researching human evolutionary past, I came to a conclusion, that for our distant ancestors cannibalism had a completely different practical function and meaning. It was to deter predators, and also was the expression of complete dedication to each other and deep respect to the deceased.
In this section from my 2014 book Tigers, Lions, and Humans: History of Rivalry, Conflict, Reverence and Love, I discuss the reasons for this ancient ritualistic behaviour, and how this ancient behaviour survived in our habits and expressions. Here you can read the section "Cannibalism, Religion Rituals, Love and Violence".
[...] There are several options on how to deal with the remains of dead
human bodies. You can bury them, burn them, you can put them on a boat
and let it go sailing, you can mummify them and put them into a specially
built sarcophagus, you can feed them to vultures, keep them in coffins
hanging from rocks, etc. Burning bodies and scattering the ashes is quite
popular, although burying is probably still more widespread in the
contemporary world. Throwing bodies to the sea, or putting them on a boat,
was traditionally an option for sailors and some tribal cultures. Apart from
the above mentioned ways of disposing human bodies, there is also another
option – to eat the dead bodies. Of course, this last option is the least
acceptable for us, but unfortunately our early ancestors did not have many
options. To be precise, they had only two options on how to deal with the
dead bodies: (1) to eat them, or (2) to leave them. All other options came much
later with the development of new technologies [... Continue reading]