"We've got folks who are processing humans in exactly the same way they process animals and we're supposed to believe that the end result was not consumption?" White asks incredulously. "Why does it look exactly like consumption?"
Native American representatives are silent on the matter. A spokesman for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, on whose comment either on that site or on the possibility of any incidents of cannibalism among the Anasazi. The tribe also refused to allow outsiders to visit the excavated site or to view the bones.. Their reaction is understandable, some say. How would other people feel if scientists dug up bodies at Arlington National Cemetery and declared the soldiers cannibals? Not surprisingly, park service brochures handed out at Mesa Verde make no mention of possibility of cannibalism either. The bones will eventually be reburied by a Ute religious leader.
"We can't get the meat from the hand into the mouth," concedes Billman. "but there is now a possibility that we may be able to do that. One of the last things that was done on our site -- once the hearth had gone cold and was filled with ash -- was someone squatted down in the hearth and defeated." A preliminary analysis of the coprolite. as the preserved specimen is called, indicates that its owner's last meal was almost entirely animal protein. Determining just what type of animal -- elk, deer, or human -- the protein came from will be the job of Richard Marlar, a professor of molecular biology at the University of Colorado at Denver. He heard about the Cowboy Wash coprolite and offered to analyze its contents.
It might seem that Marlar could just look for human blood or cells in the coprolite, but humans often shed their own intestinal cells in feces. So he will test for the presence of myoglobin. a protein found in human skeletal muscle but not in the intestines. He will dissolve samples of the coprolite in a buffer solution and then add antibodies that recognize myoglobin. If myoglobin is present, reactions with the antibodies will tint the solution. Marlar also plans to test residues from cooking vessels found at the site.
Although such tests have been routinely used to identify bison, antelope, and human blood at archeological sites, no one has used the techniques yet to address the question of humans eating humans. But Marlar predicts that it "could really answer if cannibalism occurred, once and for all." And, if the test is positive, archeologists will have even more reason to speculate on scenarios about social turmoil on the Southwest. Of course, if the test is negative, the case is still not closed. The abundance of evidence points to cannibalism among the Anasazi. But without clear historical records, the precise reason for that cannibalism -- if it occurred -- will probably never be known. |
