cannibal13

Gory evidence uncovered in France reveals that the early humans in the region ate one another.
Cheek muscles from children were filleted out, tendons were sliced and skulls were cracked to remove brains.
   Excavations at the cave at Moula-Guercy, Ardeche, yielded 78 Neanderthal bones, from at least six individuals who lived 100,000 years ago. Remnants of two adults, two 15 or 16 year-olds, and two six or seven year-olds were dug up as well as nearly 400 pieces of animal bone.
   Careful study of tool marks and fractures on the remains shows that these Neanderthals were master butchers.
   "If we conclude that the animal remains are the leftovers from a meal, we're obliged to expand that conclusion to include humans," said the research team leader Alban Defleur, at the University of the Mediterranean Marseille.
   All the skulls and limb bones were broken apart, presumably to remove brain or marrow. Only the hand and foot bones remained intact, which contain no marrow. Arm and leg tendons were cut, a necessary action if a limb is to be removed. Other cuts show that the thigh muscles were removed, and in at least one case the tongue was cut out.
   There have been hints of Neanderthal cannibalism at other sites before but this is the by far the clearest evidence and the first in Europe.
   No signs of gnawing were found on the bones, ruling out the possibility that the Neanderthals were eaten by wild animals. There were no signs of charring either suggesting the flesh was either eaten raw or cooked off the bone.
   It is not clear whether the individuals were eaten for survival when other food was scarce or as part of a social ritual. But the abundance of natural resources available at the site makes the survival scenario seem unlikely, according to Dr Defleur.
   However, the archaeologists have also found no evidence that the bones were cut and broken as part of a burial ritual - the early human bones were thrown on to the cave floor alongside deer bones.
   The new evidence might appear to be at odds with records of careful Neanderthal burials in which bodies were laid in the foetal position in semi-circular graves. But Professor Tim White, another team member from the University of California Berkeley believes that the variable treatment reveals a cultural complexity.
   "When you see some Neanderthals practising intentional burial and others practising cannibalism, that is a clear indication of behaviour that is multidimensional - a pattern that mirrors the behaviour of more modern people," he said.

Cannibalism
Pronounced As: kaniblizm [from Span. can�bal, referring to the Carib], eating of human flesh by other humans. The charge of cannibalism is a common insult, and it is likely that some alleged cannibal groups have merely been victims of popular fear and misrepresentation. Nevertheless, archaeological research suggests that ancient societies did practice cannibalism, and it has been observed in Africa, North and South America, the South Pacific islands, and the West Indies. Widespread cannibalism is usually not found in state-level societies, which have the means to tax and control surplus labor. Nevertheless, one of the most famous cases of cannibalism is that of the Aztecs, who sacrificed their prisoners of war and undoubtedly ate some of them. According to available evidence, most authorities agree that the partaking of human flesh is almost always a ritual practice. A minority of anthropologists, however, believe cannibalism emerged as a cultural response to chronic protein shortages. In modern Western society, cannibalism is commited only by the deranged or by people who otherwise face death from starvation (see Donner Party). In contrast, various traditional cultures are known to have encouraged their members to eat part of their kinsmen's corpses out of respect for the deceased in a practice known as endocannibalism. For example, For� women of New Guinea, who dispose of the dead, ritually ate their deceased relatives' brains. Some anthropologists believe that head-hunting evolved from cannibalism. Among a few peoples the head of the enemy is preserved and the rest of the body or selected parts of it are eaten; this may represent a connecting link between cannibalism and head-hunting. The term cannibalism is also used in zoology to describe species who prey upon their own kind, such as lions, crabs, ants, and some kinds of fish.

By the mid-1800s land and opportunities in the East were no longer plentiful. Cholera outbreaks had become common place in the overpopulated eastern cities where sanitation was poor. People began to cast wistful eyes in a westerly direction. Thousands of pioneers packed family and belongings for the move west.
   George Donner, a sixty-five year old farmer, was among those pulled by the lure of open spaces. Eagerly responding to a proposal by neighbor and businessman James Frazier Reed, Donner decided to move his family west. He promptly posted a bulletin in the Springfield Gazette that began �Westward Ho!� and promised free travel to California for up to eight able-bodied young men capable of driving a team of oxen.
   The Donners and the Reeds left Springfield, Illinois on April 16th, 1846, for Independence, Missouri. Their party consisted of thirty-two people. The twenty-five hundred mile trip from Independence to San Francisco was expected to take four months. Survival would depend on nearly perfect timing: they could not leave until the spring rains stopped and they had to make it over the Sierra Nevada mountains before the first snows flew. Neither Donner nor Reed was worried; they would follow a new route over the mountains. A route touted by attorney Lansford Hastings as able to cut three to four hundred miles from the trip.
   The Donner party left Independence on May 12th and became one in the thousands of wagon trains heading out that spring. There was hardship from the beginning. Thunderstorms soaked the trail daily, creating muddy bogs that mired the wagons and oxen down. Progress was limited to two miles a day.
   Despite the poor beginning, they reached Fort Laramie on the edge of the Rockies just one week behind schedule. James Reed ran into an old friend, James Clyman, who had come through Hastings� pass on horseback. Clyman emphatically warned Reed to take the old route; the wagons would never make it through the pass. Reed respectfully declined the advice.
   The wagon trains pressed on toward the Continental Divide. On July 17th a horseman rode up with a message from Hastings urging the emigrants to keep on to Fort Bridger where Hastings, himself, would be present to escort them over the new pass. Three days later the caravan came to the Little Sandy River where the old trail turned north to cross the Sierras well above San Francisco. While most of the pioneers elected to take the known route, Reed remained convinced that Hastings had been right about the shortcut. So the nine wagons comprising the Reed and Donner parties along with the eleven wagons of people who had elected to join them turned south towards Fort Bridger.