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Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History

"Surprising. Impressive. Cannibalism restores my faith in humanity." --Sy Montgomery, The New York Times Book Review

For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism--the role it plays in evolution as well as human history--is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we've come to accept as fact.

In Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism's role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party--the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it goes well with Chianti).

Bringing together the latest cutting-edge science, Schutt answers questions such as why some amphibians consume their mother's skin; why certain insects bite the heads off their partners after sex; why, up until the end of the twentieth century, Europeans regularly ate human body parts as medical curatives; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He takes us into the future as well, investigating whether, as climate change causes famine, disease, and overcrowding, we may see more outbreaks of cannibalism in many more species--including our own.

Cannibalism places a perfectly natural occurrence into a vital new context and invites us to explore why it both enthralls and repels us.

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Published Jan 30, 2018

352 pages

Average rating: 7.31

243 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

CeLynasings
Nov 25, 2024
10/10 stars
This book was so fascinating and insightful. I did not think this is where a book of cannibalism was going to take my thoughts on politics and world history, but this book really makes you think about how we influence each other.
BMC
Sep 24, 2024
5/10 stars
Well ... I did not love it. A lot of that is personal preference, like how the language was a little too academic/scientific for me, the fact it covered everything from bugs to fish to humans, and the format of the Mad Cow chapter. I did enjoy the chapters on the Donner Party (my second favourite party) and kuru, though the placenta chapter just about made me throw in the towel. I won't say "don't read this", but it's definitely not top of my list.
Red-Haired Ash Reads
Aug 12, 2025
10/10 stars
As soon as I saw this book I knew it was one I wanted to read. This was a fascinating look at cannibalism in humans, animals, and insects. While this seems like a book that would discuss cannibal serial killers, it doesn’t and the author explains early on why he doesn’t cover that topic. I agree with some of the author’s reasons for not writing about serial killers and I think it actually made this a better book because it focused on the rest of the world instead of just serial killers. “Cannibalism occurs in every class of vertebrates, from fish to mammals.” This book covers a lot of different types of cannibalism in animals and all of it was fascinating. From the beginning of this book I was hooked and I took a lot of notes along the way. This book covers cannibalism in tadpoles, fish, birds, preying mantis, spiders, snails, crickets, polar bears, monkeys, and dinosaurs. The wide range of animals and insects that was covered really shows how widespread cannibalism is across species. I found all of these different forms of cannibalism very fascinating and I learned so much about the animal kingdom. “Cannibalism is found in over 1500 species.” This book also covers cannibalism in early ancestors (neanderthals), cannibalism in certain cultures, endocannibalism, exocannibalism, survivor cannibalism, medical cannibalism and cannibalism in the Bible. Before reading this book I didn’t realize there were so many forms of cannibalism or that it was so prevalent throughout history, so as you can imagine I learned a lot from this book. The most interesting of these for me was medical cannibalism because I never really considered it before. It was also surprising to find out how many kinds of medical cannibalism there is, such as women eating their placentas and how Victorians used to turn Egyptian mummies into medicinal powders. Of course this book also covers cannibalism related diseases like Kuru and Mad Cow Disease. This was not the first time I had learned about Kuru but it was still a fascinating look at a culture’s death practices and the horrible side effects that came from it. Mad Cow Disease was a new one for me. I had heard of it, but I never realized it was caused by eating flesh. I knew nothing about how cow feed was made so it was all so surprising to learn that they use body parts in the process, and that poor processing of the feed led to this disease. Overall, this was an absolutely fascinating and informative book about a potentially morbid topic but Schutt does a great job at keeping this topic light. If you like medical history or just want to know more about this topic, I highly recommend this book. TW: cannibalism (animal and human); infanticide in animals; animal experimentations; animal cruelty and death; colonization;
DOmadness
Nov 07, 2024
7/10 stars
Loved learning how much of catabolism is fear mongering vs actual cannibalism and the reasons behind it such as religion, ritual, etc.
phurlz
Oct 23, 2024
9/10 stars
How wild! Loved this scientific exploration of Cannibalism. Learned so much about the Donner Party too!

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