ADAPTATION

Clear evidence of in Once the human fossil record has been rare, but it is now becoming Were apparent that the practice is deeply rooted in our history BY TIM D. WHITE CAN 86 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN NEW LOOK AT HUMAN EVOLUTION COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. NEANDERTAL CRANIUM from the Krapina rock-shelter in Croatia. Physical anthropologists and archaeologists have recently determined that this specimen and hundreds of other skeletal remains at this site attest to cannibalism. This cranium was smashed so the brain could be removed and consumed.

NIBALS SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 87 COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. It can shock, disgust and fascinate in equal measure, whether through tales of starved pio- methods. In the past several years, the to inherit their qualities or honor their neers or airplane crash survivors eating results of their studies have finally pro- memory. And pathological cannibalism the deceased among them or accounts of vided convincing evidence of prehistoric is generally reserved for criminals who rituals in Papua New Guinea. It is the cannibalism. consume their victims or, more often, stuff of headlines and horror films, has long in- for fictional characters such as Hannibal drawing people in and mesmerizing trigued anthropologists, and they have Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. them despite their aversion. Cannibal- worked for decades to classify the phe- Despite these distinctions, however, ism represents the ultimate taboo for nomenon. Some divide the behavior ac- most anthropologists simply equate the many in Western societies—something cording to the affiliation of the con- term “cannibalism” with the regular, to relegate to other cultures, other times, sumed. Thus, refers to culturally encouraged consumption of other places. Yet the understanding of the consumption of individuals within a human flesh. In the age of ethnographic cannibalism derived from the past few group, exocannibalism indicates the exploration—which lasted from the time centuries of anthropological investiga- consumption of outsiders, and autocan- of Greek historian Herodotus in about tion has been too unclear and incom- nibalism covers everything from nail bit- 400 B.C. to the early 20th century—the plete to allow either a categorical rejec- ing to torture-induced self-consumption. non-Western world and its inhabitants tion of the practice or a fuller apprecia- In addition, anthropologists have come were scrutinized by travelers, mission- tion of when, where and why it might up with classifications to describe per- aries, military personnel and anthropol- have taken place. ceived or known motivations. Survival ogists. These observers told tales of hu- New scientific evidence is now bring- cannibalism is driven by starvation. His- man cannibalism in different places, from ing to light the truth about cannibalism. torically documented cases include the Mesoamerica to the Pacific islands to

It has become obvious that long before Donner Party—whose members were central Africa. ) the invention of metals, before Egypt’s trapped during the harsh winter of Controversy has often accompanied pyramids were built, before the origins 1846–47 in the Sierra Nevada—and these claims. Anthropologists partici- of agriculture, before the explosion of people marooned in the Andes or the pated in only the last few waves of these opposite page Upper Paleolithic cave art, cannibalism Arctic with no other food. In contrast, cultural contacts—those that began in could be found among many different ritual cannibalism occurs when mem- the late 1800s. As a result, many of the peoples—as well as among many of our bers of a family or community consume historical accounts of cannibalism have

ancestors. Broken and scattered human their dead during funerary rites in order come to be viewed skeptically. ); TIM D. WHITE ( bones, in some cases thousands of them, have been discovered from the prehis- TIM D. WHITE is co-director of the Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies of the Muse- toric pueblos of the American Southwest um of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a professor in to the islands of the Pacific. The osteol- Berkeley’s department of integrative biology and a member of the National Academy of Sci- preceding pages ogists and archaeologists studying these ences. White co-directs the Middle Awash research project in Ethiopia. His research interests ancient occurrences are using increas- are human paleontology, Paleolithic archaeology, and the interpretation of bone modifica- THE AUTHOR ingly sophisticated analytical tools and tion in contexts ranging from prehistoric archaeology to contemporary forensic situations. DAVID BRILL (

88 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Updated from the August 2001 issue COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. In 1979 anthropologist William Arens critical assessment of these conclusions of the State University of New York at appeared. Archaeologist Lewis Binford’s Stony Brook extended this theme by re- book Bones: Ancient Men and Modern viewing the ethnographic record of can- Myths argued that claims for early hom- nibalism in his book The Man-Eating inid cannibalism were unsound. He built Myth. Arens concluded that accounts of on the work of other prehistorians con- cannibalism among people from the cerned with the composition, context Aztec to the Maori to the Zulu were ei- and modifications of Paleolithic bone as- ther false or inadequately documented. semblages. Binford emphasized the need His skeptical assertion has subsequently to draw accurate inferences about past been seriously questioned, yet he none- behaviors by grounding knowledge of theless succeeded in identifying a signif- the past on experiment and observation icant gulf between these stories and evi- in the present. His influential work cou- dence of cannibalism: “Anthropology pled skepticism with a plea for meth- has not maintained the usual standards odological rigor in studies of prehistoric of documentation and intellectual rigor cannibalism. expected when other topics are being considered. Instead, it has chosen un- Standards of Evidence critically to lend its support to the col- IT WOULD BE HELPFUL if we could lective representations and thinly dis- turn to modern-day cannibals with our guised prejudices of western culture questions, but such opportunities have about others.” largely disappeared. So today’s study of The anthropologists whom Arens this intriguing behavior must be accom- was criticizing had not limited them- plished through a historical science. Ar- selves to contemporary peoples. Some chaeology has therefore become the pri- had projected their prejudices even mary means of investigating the exis- more deeply—into the archaeological tence and extent of human cannibalism. record. Interpretations of cannibalism One of the challenges facing archae- inevitably followed many discoveries of ologists, however, is the amazing variety prehistoric remains. In 1871 American of ways in which people dispose of their author Mark Twain weighed in on the dead. Bodies may be buried, burned, subject in an essay later published in placed on scaffolding, set adrift, put in Life as I Find It: “Here is a pile of bones tree trunks or fed to . Bones of primeval man and beast all mixed to- may be disinterred, washed, painted, gether, with no more damning evidence buried in bundles or scattered on stones. that the man ate the bears than that the In parts of Tibet, future archaeologists bears ate the man—yet paleontology will have difficulty recognizing any mor- holds a coroner’s inquest in the fifth ge- tuary practice at all. There most corpses ologic period on an ‘unpleasantness’ are dismembered and fed to vultures and which transpired in the quaternary, and other carnivores. The bones are then col- calmly lays it on the MAN, and then lected, ground into powder, mixed with CRUSHING adds to it what purports to be evidence barley and flour and again fed to vul- Many different types of damage can be of CANNIBALISM. I ask the candid read- tures. Given the various fates of bones seen on bones left by human cannibals. er, Does not this look like taking ad- and bodies, distinguishing cannibalism When this damage is identical to that vantage of a gentleman who has been from other mortuary practices can be seen on animal bones at the same sites, dead two million years....” quite tricky. archaeologists infer that the human In the century after Twain’s remarks, Scientists have thus set the standard remains were processed in the same archaeologists and physical anthropolo- for recognizing ancient cannibalism manner and for the same reason: for gists described the hominids Australo- very high. They confirm the activity consumption. In these metatarsal (foot) pithecus africanus, Homo erectus and H. when the processing patterns seen on bones from Mancos Canyon in Colorado, neanderthalensis as cannibalistic. Ac- human remains match those seen on the the spongy tissues at the ends were cording to some views, human prehisto- bones of other animals consumed for crushed so that fat could be removed. ry from about three million years ago un- food. Archaeologists have long argued (All the bones on the following pages are til very recently was rife with cannibalism. for such a comparison between human from the same Anasazi site in Mancos.) But in the early 1980s an important and faunal remains at a site. They rea-

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 89 COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. son that damage to animal bones and the same culture—and checked against dry, mostly intact skulls were then han- their arrangement can clearly show that predictions embedded in ethnohistorical dled extensively, often creating a polish the animals had been slaughtered and accounts. on their projecting parts. They were eaten for food. And when human re- This comparative system of deter- sometimes painted and even mounted mains are unearthed in similar cultural mining cannibalism emphasizes multiple on poles for display and worship. Soft contexts, with similar patterns of dam- lines of osteological damage and con- tissue, including brain matter, was eaten age, discard and preservation, they may textual evidence. And, as noted earlier, at the beginning of this process; thus, the reasonably be interpreted as evidence of it sets the standard for recognizing can- practice would be identified as ritual cannibalism. nibalism very high. With this approach, cannibalism. If such skulls were en- When one mammal eats another, it for instance, the presence of cut marks countered in an archaeological context usually leaves a record of its activities in on bones would not by themselves be without modern informants describing the form of modifications to the con- considered evidence of cannibalism. For the cannibalism, they would not consti- sumed animal’s skeleton. During life, example, an American Civil War ceme- tute direct evidence for cannibalism un- varying amounts of soft tissue, much of tery would contain skeletal remains with der the stringent criteria that my col- it with nutritive value, cover mammali- cut marks made by swords and bayo- leagues and I advocate. an bones. When the tissue is removed nets. Medical school cadavers are dis- Nevertheless, adoption of these stan- and prepared, the bones often retain a sected and their bones cut-marked. dards of evidence has led us to some record of this processing in the form of With the threshold set so conserva- clear determinations in other, older sit- gnawing marks and fractures. When hu- tively, most instances of past cannibal- uations. The best indication of prehis- mans eat other animals, however, they ism will necessarily go unrecognized. toric cannibalism now comes from the mark bones with more than just their A practice from Papua New Guinea, archaeological record of the American teeth. They process carcasses with tools where cannibalism was recorded ethno- Southwest, where archaeologists have of stone or metal. In so doing, they leave graphically, illustrates this point. There interpreted dozens of assemblages of hu- imprints of their presence and actions in skulls of the deceased were carefully man remains. Compelling evidence has the form of scars on the bones. These cleaned and the brains removed. The also been found in Neolithic and Bronze One of the challenges facing archaeologists is the amazing variety of ways in which people dispose of their dead. same imprints can be seen on butchered human skeletal remains. The key to recognizing human can- nibalism is to identify the patterns of CHOPPING processing—that is, the cut marks, ham- Hack marks visible on the left side mering damage, fractures or burns seen of this fragment of a human tibia on the remains—as well as the survival of are testament to the removal of different bones and parts of bones. Nu- muscle and tendon. Tools were also tritionally valuable tissues, such as brains used to make finer slices, to remove and marrow, reside within the bones and tissue or to sever heads from can be removed only with forceful ham- bodies. Archaeologists have to be mering—and such forced entry leaves re- careful in their interpretations, vealing patterns of bone damage. When however, because humans process human bones from archaeological sites their dead in many ways; not all show patterns of damage uniquely slice or hack marks indicate linked to butchery by other humans, the cannibalism. inference of cannibalism is strengthened. Judging which patterns are consistent with dietary butchery can be based on the associated archaeological record— particularly the nonhuman food-animal remains discovered in sites formed by

90 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. Age Europe. Even Europe’s earliest hom- In the past few years, yet another site inid site has yielded convincing evidence has offered evidence. On the banks of of cannibalism. the Rhône River in southeastern France, Alban Defleur of the University of the Early European Cannibals Mediterranean at Marseilles has been THE MOST IMPORTANT paleoan- excavating the cave of Moula-Guercy thropological site in Europe lies in for more than a decade. Neandertals oc- northern Spain, in the foothills of the cupied this small cave 100,000 years Sierra de Atapuerca. The oldest known ago. In one layer the team unearthed the section so far is the Gran Dolina, cur- remains of at least six Neandertals, rang- rently under excavation. The team ing in age from six years to adult. De- working there has recovered evidence of fleur’s meticulous excavation and recov- occupation some 800,000 years ago by ery standards have yielded data every bit what may prove to be a new species of the equivalent of a modern forensic human ancestor, H. antecessor. The crime scene investigation. Each fragment hominid bones were discovered in one of fauna and Neandertal bone, each horizon of the cave’s sediment, inter- macrobotanical clue, each stone tool has mingled with stone tools and the re- been precisely plotted three-dimension- mains of prehistoric game animals such ally. This care has allowed an under- as deer, bison and rhinoceros. The hom- standing of how the bones were spread inid remains consist of 92 fragments around a hearth that has been cold for from six individuals. They bear unmis- 1,000 centuries. takable traces of butchery with stone Microscopic analysis of the Nean- tools, including the skinning and re- dertal bone fragments and the faunal re- moval of flesh and the processing of the mains has led to the same conclusion braincase and the long bones for mar- that Spanish workers at the Gran Dolina row. This pattern of butchery matches site have drawn: cannibalism was prac- that seen on the nearby animal bones, ticed by some Paleolithic Europeans. De- providing the earliest evidence of homi- termining how often it was practiced nid cannibalism. and under what conditions represents a Cannibalism among Europe’s much far more difficult challenge. Neverthe- younger Neandertals—who lived be- less, the frequency is striking. We know tween 35,000 and 150,000 years ago— of just one very early European site with has been debated since the late 1800s, hominid remains, and those were canni- when the great Croatian paleoanthropol- balized. The two Croatian Neandertal ogist Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger ˇ sites are separated by hundreds of gen- found the broken, cut-marked and scat- erations, yet analyses suggest that can- tered remains of more than 20 Neander- nibalism was practiced at both. And re- tals entombed in the sands of the Krapina cently a Neandertal site in France was rock-shelter. Unfortunately, these soft shown to support the same interpreta- fossil bones were roughly extracted (by tion. These findings are built on exacting today’s standards) and then covered with standards of evidence. Because of this, thick layers of preservative, which ob- most paleoanthropologists these days scured evidence of processing and made are asking, “Why cannibalism?” rather interpretation exceedingly difficult. Some than “Was this cannibalism?” BURNING workers believe that the Krapina bones Similarly, discoveries at much The dark and damaged areas on these ) show clear signs of cannibalism; others younger sites in the American Southwest four mastoid regions—that is, the hard have attributed the patterns of damage to have altered the way anthropologists bump behind each ear—indicate that rocks falling from the cave’s ceiling, to think of Anasazi culture in this area. these human skulls were roasted. carnivore chewing or to some form of Corn agriculturists have inhabited the Because the mastoid region is not burial. But recent analysis of the bones Four Corners region for centuries, build- covered by much muscle or other tissue, this and opposite page from Krapina and from another Croatian ing their pueblos and spectacular cliff damage from burning was often more cave, Vindija—which has younger Nean- dwellings and leaving one of the richest intense in this area than on other parts of dertal and animal remains—indicates that and most fine-grained archaeological cranial bone. Burning patterns therefore

TIM D. WHITE ( cannibalism was practiced at both sites. records on earth. Christy G. Turner II of provide clues about culinary practices.

www.sciam.com COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. Arizona State University conducted pio- Historical Accounts neering work on unusual sets of broken and burned human skeletal remains ETHNOHISTORICAL REPORTS from Anasazi sites in Arizona, New of cannibalism have been Mexico and Colorado in the 1960s and recorded for centuries in 1970s. He saw a pattern suggestive of many corners of the globe. cannibalism: site after site containing Although some involve human remains with the telltale signs. well-documented accounts Yet little in the history of the area’s more by eyewitnesses—such as recent Puebloan peoples suggested that the Donner Party cannibalism was a widespread practice, expedition—other and some modern tribes who claim de- accounts by explorers, scent from the Anasazi have found the missionaries, travelers and idea disturbing. soldiers often lack The vast majority of Anasazi burials credibility. For example, involve whole, articulated skeletons fre- these two artists’ portraits quently accompanied by decorated ce- depict cannibalism ramic vessels that have become a fa- catalyzed by starvation in vorite target of pot hunters in this area. China in the late 1800s But, as Turner recorded, several dozen and a European view of sites had fragmented, often burned hu- cannibalism in the New man remains, and a larger pattern began World (based on a woodcut to emerge. Over the past three decades from 1497). Such ethno- the total number of human bone speci- historical accounts do not mens from these sites has grown to tens carry the weight of of thousands, representing dozens of in- archaeological and dividuals spread across 800 years of pre- forensic evidence. history and tens of thousands of square They may, however, serve kilometers of the American Southwest. as rich sources of testable The assemblage that I analyzed in 1992 hypotheses, guiding future from an Anasazi site in the Mancos archaeological excavations. Canyon of southwestern Colorado, for instance, contained 2,106 pieces of bone from at least 29 Native American men, women and children. These assemblages have been found

in settlements ranging from small pueb- ) los to large towns and were often con- bottom

temporaneous with the abandonment of ( the dwellings. The bones frequently show evidence of roasting before the Corbis flesh was removed. They invariably in- dicate that people extracted the brain and cracked the limb bones for marrow after removing the muscle tissue. And some of the long bone splinters even ); LEONARD DE SELVA top show end polishing, a phenomenon as- (

sociated with cooking in ceramic vessels. Corbis The bone fragments from Mancos re- vealed modifications that matched the marks left by Anasazi processing of game animals such as deer and bighorn sheep. The osteological evidence clearly demonstrated that humans were skinned

and roasted, their muscles cut away, HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION

92 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN NEW LOOK AT HUMAN EVOLUTION COPYRIGHT 2003 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC. their joints severed, their long bones bro- ken on anvils with hammerstones, their HAMMERING spongy bones crushed and the fragments It is clear from the circulated in ceramic vessels. But articles archaeological record outlining the results have proved con- that meat—fat or muscle troversial. Opposition has sometimes or other tissue—on the seemed motivated more by politics than bone was not the only by science. Many practicing anthropol- part of the body that was ogists believe that scientific findings consumed. Braincases should defer to social sensitivities. For were broken open, and such anthropologists, cannibalism is so marrow was often culturally delicate, so politically incor- removed from long bones. rect, that they find any evidence for it im- In these two examples, possible to swallow. stone hammers split the The most compelling evidence in upper arm bones support of human cannibalism at the lengthwise, exposing various Anasazi sites was published in the marrow. 2000 by Richard A. Marlar of the Uni- versity of Colorado School of Medicine and his colleagues. The workers exca- vated three Anasazi pit dwellings dating to approximately A.D. 1150 at a site called Cowboy Wash near Mesa Verde It remains much more difficult to establish why cannibalism took place than to establish that it did.

in southwestern Colorado. The same strong additional support for numerous nibalism presented a way to get through pattern of findings that had been docu- osteological and archaeological findings the lean times or a satisfying way to get mented at other sites, such as Mancos, across the Southwest. rid of outsiders—requires knowledge not was present: disarticulated, broken, scat- yet available to archaeologists. Even in tered human bones in nonburial con- Understanding Cannibalism the case of the Anasazi, who have been texts. Excellent preservation, careful ex- IT REMAINS MUCH more challenging well studied, it is impossible to determine cavation and thoughtful sampling pro- to establish why cannibalism took place whether cannibalism resulted from star- vided a chemical dimension to the than to establish that it did. People usual- vation or was rooted in religious beliefs, analysis and, finally, direct evidence of ly eat because they are hungry, and most or was some combination of these and human cannibalism. prehistoric cannibals were therefore other things. What is becoming clear Marlar and his colleagues discovered probably hungry. But discerning more through the refinement of the science of residues of human myoglobin—a pro- than that—such as whether the taste of archaeology, however, is that cannibal- tein present in heart and skeletal mus- human flesh was pleasing or whether can- ism is part of our collective past. cle—on a ceramic vessel, suggesting that human flesh had been cooked in the pot. MORE TO EXPLORE An unburned human coprolite, or an- Prehistoric Cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR-2346. T. D. White. Princeton University Press, 1992. cient feces, found in the fireplace of one Does Man Eat Man? Inside the Great Cannibalism Controversy. L. Osborne in of the abandoned dwellings also tested Lingua Franca, Vol. 7, No. 4, pages 28–38; April/May 1997. positive for human myoglobin. Thus, Fijian Cannibalism: Osteological Evidence from Navatu. D. DeGusta in osteological, archaeological and bio- American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 110, pages 215–241; October 1999. chemical data indicate that prehistoric Cannibalism at Moula-Guercy, Ardèche, France. A. Defleur, T. D. White, P. Valensi, L. Slimak and E. Crégut-Bonnoure in Science, Vol. 286, pages 128–131; October 1, 1999. cannibalism occurred at Cowboy Wash. Biochemical Evidence of Cannibalism at a Prehistoric Puebloan Site in The biochemical data for processing and Southwestern Colorado. R. A. Marlar, B. L. Leonard, B. R. Billman, P. M. Lambert and J. E. Marler

TIM D. WHITE consumption of human tissue offer in Nature, Vol. 407, pages 74–78; September 7, 2000.

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