| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Cannibalism Bill Schutt, 2017-02-14 “A masterful and compulsively readable book that challenges our preconceived notions about a behavior often sensationalized in our culture and, until just recently, misunderstood in the scientific world.” —Ian Tattersall, Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History, and author of The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack 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. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: A History of Cannibalism Nathan Constantine, 2018-05-11 Cannibalism is the oldest taboo in the world. But in ancient times it was integral to existence in some societies and viewed as both necessary and socially acceptable. Throughout history there have been instances of humans who, finding themselves in extremis, are forced to eat companions out of sheer desperation in order to survive. Do we reserve judgement in these circumstances, or is this behaviour simply an indication of the brutality that simmers under the surface of human civilization? A History of Cannibalism delves into a subject that causes people to recoil in horror and disbelief. It examines the background to many notorious cases, providing no easy answers, but offering a fascinating insight into forces that lie deep within the human psyche. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Eat Me Bill Schutt, 2017 Cannibalism. It's the last, greatest taboo: the stuff of urban legends and ancient myths, airline crashes and Captain Cook. But while we might get a thrill at the thought of the black widow spider's gruesome mating habits or the tragic fate of the nineteenth-century Donner Party pioneers, today cannibalism belongs to history - or, at the very least, the realm of the weird, the rare and the very far away. Doesn't it?Here, zoologist Bill Schutt digs his teeth into the subject to find an answer that is as surprising as it is unsettling. From the plot of Psycho to the ritual of the Eucharist, cannibalism is woven into our history, our culture - even our medicine. And in the natural world, eating your own kind is everything from a survival strategy - practiced by polar bears and hamsters alike - to an evolutionary adaption like that found in sand tiger sharks, who, by the time they are born, will have eaten all but one of their siblings in the womb. Dark, fascinating and endlessly curious, Eat Me delves into human and animal cannibalism to find a story of colonialism, religion, anthropology, dinosaurs, ancient humans and modern consequences, from the terrible 'laughing death' disease kuru to the BSE crisis. And - of course - our intrepid author tries it out for himself.Published in partnership with Wellcome Collection.Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we think and feel about health. Inspired by the medical objects and curiosities collected by Henry Wellcome, it connects science, medicine, life and art. Wellcome Collection exhibitions, events and books explore a diverse range of subjects, including consciousness, forensic medicine, emotions, sexology, identity and death. Wellcome Collection is part of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive, funding over 14,000 researchers and projects in more than 70 countries.wellcomecollection.org |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: An Intellectual History of Cannibalism Ctlin Avramescu, 2011-08-28 Annotation Based on the research he undertook in rare book collections housed in Scotland, the United States, Finland, Iceland, Holland, Germany and Austria, the author presents a systematic history of cannabalism as reflected in the mirror of philosophy. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Dinner with a Cannibal Carole A Travis-Henikoff, 2008-03-01 Presenting the history of cannibalism in concert with human evolution, Dinner with a Cannibal takes its readers on an astonishing trip around the world and through history, examining its subject from every angle in order to paint the incredible, multifaceted panoply that is the reality of cannibalism. At the heart of Carole A. Travis-Henikoff’s book is the question of how cannibalism began with the human species and how it has become an unspeakable taboo today. At a time when science is being battered by religions and failing teaching methods, Dinner with a Cannibal presents slices of multiple sciences in a readable, understandable form nested within a wealth of data. With history, paleoanthropology, science, gore, sex, murder, war, culinary tidbits, medical facts, and anthropology filling its pages, Dinner with a Cannibal presents both the light and dark side of the human story; the story of how we came to be all the things we are today. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Eat Thy Neighbour Daniel Diehl, Mark P Donnelly, 2012-05-30 Cannibalism is unquestionably one of the oldest and deepest-seated taboos. Even in an age when almost nothing is sacred, religious, moral and social prohibitions surround the topic. But even as our minds recoil at the mention of actual acts of cannibalism there is some dark fascination with the subject. Appalling crimes of humans eating other humans are blown into major news stories and gory movies: both Hitchcock's 'Psycho' and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' were based on the crimes of Ed Gein, who is profiled, along with others, in this book. In ' Eat Thy Neighbour' the authors put the subject of cannibalism into its social and historical perspective. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Cannibalism, Headhunting and Human Sacrifice in North America George Franklin Feldman, 2023-10-03 This riveting volume dispels the sanitized history surrounding Native American practices toward their enemies that preceded the European exploration and colonization of North America. We abandon truth when we gloss over the clashes between Native Americans and Europeans, encounters of parties equally matched in barbarity, says George Franklin Feldman, We neglect true history when we hide the uniqueness of the varied cultures that evolved during the thousands of years before Europeans invaded North America. The research is impeccable, the writing sparkling, and the evidence incontrovertible: headhunting and cannibalism were practiced by many of the native peoples of North America. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Himalayan Codex Bill Schutt, J. R. Finch, 2017-06-06 Looks like Schutt and Finch are filling the void left by the passing of Michael Crichton.--James Cameron, director/writer/explorer In the wake of World War II, zoologist and adventurer Captain R. J. MacCready is sent to the frozen mountain valleys of Tibet to find a creature of legend that may hold the secret to humankind’s evolutionary future—or the key to its extinction—in this explosive follow-up to Hell’s Gate. It is 1946, and the world is beginning to rebuild from the ashes of the devastating war. Marked by the perilous discoveries he encountered in the wilds of Brazil, Captain R. J. MacCready has a new assignment on the other side of the globe—a mission that may help him put the jungle’s horrors behind him. He is headed for the Himalayas, to examine some recently discovered mammoth bones. Arriving in Asia, Mac learns the bones are only a cover story. He’s really there to investigate an ancient codex allegedly written by Pliny the Elder, a fascinating text filled with explosive secrets. The Roman naturalist claimed to have discovered a new race of humans, a divergent species that inspired the myth of the Yeti and is rumored to have the ability to accelerate the process of evolution. If Pliny’s assertions are true, this seemingly supernatural ability holds unlimited potential benefits—and unlimited potential for destruction. Charged with uncovering more about this miracle species, Mac sets off into the remote mountain valleys of Tibet, using the codex as his guide. But the freezing climate and treacherous terrain are only the beginning of the dangers facing him. He must also contend with the brutal Chinese army and a species of native creature even the Yeti seem to fear. The deeper he plunges into the unknown, the more certain it appears that Mac and the associates who join his odyssey may not make it out alive. Combining plausible science, history, and action-packed thrills, The Himalayan Codex is a page-turning adventure sure to enthrall fans of James Rollins, Michael Crichton, Dan Brown, and Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Cannibalism Hans Askenasy, 1994 Psychologist Hans Askenasy has put together the first comprehensive history of a subject combining violence, horror, and exotic customs. In Part One of his study, Dr. Askenasy gives a historical and geographic overview of humankind's practice of and attitudes toward cannibalism. Part Two discusses motivational factors for cannibalism, including famines (natural and man-made), survival in extreme situations, magic, ritual, and madness. Among the people and events covered are the siege of Leningrad by the Nazis; the wreckage of the frigate Medusa; the Donner Party; the notorious nineteenth-century Colorado Man-Eater, Alferd Packer; the Andes plane crash of 1972; Elizabeth Bathory (b. 1560), the Vampire Lady of the Carpathians; and Georg Haarmann, who ground up his victims and sold them as potted meat. In Part Three, Cannibalism in Culture and Society, Askenasy addresses our continuing fascination with cannibals, man-eating witches, werewolves, and vampires in literature, myth, and the media, ranging from Francis Ford Coppola's film version of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles to the blood curdling events surrounding the cases of Issei Sagawa, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the Russian schoolteacher-turned torturer, Andrei Romanovitsch Chikatilo. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Hell's Gate Bill Schutt, J. Finch, 2016-06-07 When a Japanese submarine is discovered abandoned deep in the Brazilian wilderness, a smart, adventurous, and tough zoologist must derail a catastrophic plot in Hell’s Gate. 1944. As war rages in Europe and the Pacific, Army Intel makes a shocking discovery: a 300-foot Japanese sub marooned and empty, deep in the Brazilian interior. A team of Army Rangers sent to investigate has already gone missing. Now, the military sends Captain R. J. MacCready, a quick-witted, brilliant scientific jack-of-all-trades to learn why the Japanese are there—and what they’re planning. Parachuting deep into the heart of Central Brazil, one of the most remote regions on the planet, Mac is unexpectedly reunited with his hometown friend and fellow scientist Bob Thorne. A botanist presumed dead for years, Thorne lives peacefully with Yanni, an indigenous woman who possesses mysterious and invaluable skills. Their wisdom and expertise are nothing short of lifesaving for Mac as he sets out on a trail into the unknown. Mac makes the arduous trek into an ancient, fog-shrouded valley hidden beneath a 2000-foot plateau, where he learns of a diabolical Axis plot to destroy the United States and its allies. But the enemy isn’t the only danger in this treacherous jungle paradise. Silently creeping from the forest, an even darker force is on the prowl, attacking at night and targeting both man and beast. Mac has to uncover the source of this emerging biological crisis and foil the enemy’s plans . . . but will he be in time to save humanity from itself? |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Cannibals All! George Fitzhugh, 1857 |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Mouth that Begs Gang Yue, 1999 Drawing on narrative works acoss a century and across Chinese and Chinese-American cultural lines, Yue examines Chinese cultural politics of the twentieth century as an alimentary discourse, where the roles of food and eating wi |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack Ian Tattersall, 2015-06-09 In his new book The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack, human paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall argues that a long tradition of human exceptionalism in paleoanthropology has distorted the picture of human evolution. Drawing partly on his own career—from young scientist in awe of his elders to crotchety elder statesman—Tattersall offers an idiosyncratic look at the competitive world of paleoanthropology, beginning with Charles Darwin 150 years ago, and continuing through the Leakey dynasty in Africa, and concluding with the latest astonishing findings in the Caucasus. The book's title refers to the 1856 discovery of a clearly very old skull cap in Germany's Neander Valley. The possessor had a brain as large as a modern human, but a heavy low braincase with a prominent brow ridge. Scientists tried hard to explain away the inconvenient possibility that this was not actually our direct relative. One extreme interpretation suggested that the preserved leg bones were curved by both rickets, and by a life on horseback. The pain of the unfortunate individual's affliction had caused him to chronically furrow his brow in agony, leading to the excessive development of bone above the eye sockets. The subsequent history of human evolutionary studies is full of similarly fanciful interpretations. With tact and humor, Tattersall concludes that we are not the perfected products of natural processes, but instead the result of substantial doses of random happenstance. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Eaters of the Dead Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr., 2021-09-16 Spanning myth, history, and contemporary culture, a terrifying and illuminating excavation of the meaning of cannibalism. Every culture has monsters that eat us, and every culture repels in horror when we eat ourselves. From Grendel to medieval Scottish cannibal Sawney Bean, and from the Ghuls of ancient Persia to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, tales of being consumed are both universal and universally terrifying. In this book, Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. explores the full range of monsters that eat the dead: ghouls, cannibals, wendigos, and other beings that feast on human flesh. Moving from myth through history to contemporary popular culture, Wetmore considers everything from ancient Greek myths of feeding humans to the gods, through sky burial in Tibet and Zoroastrianism, to actual cases of cannibalism in modern societies. By examining these seemingly inhuman acts, Eaters of the Dead reveals that those who consume corpses can teach us a great deal about human nature—and our deepest human fears. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Wild Life of Our Bodies Rob Dunn, 2011-06-21 “Extraordinary. . . . takes the reader into the overlap of medicine, ecology, and evolutionary biology to reveal an important domain of the human condition.” —Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Anthill and The Future of Life We evolved in a wilderness of parasites, mutualists, and pathogens, but we no longer see ourselves as being part of nature. In the name of progress and clean living, we scrub much of nature off our bodies and try to remove whole kinds of life—parasites, bacteria, mutualists, and predators—to allow ourselves to live free of wild danger. Nature, in this new world, is the landscape outside, a kind of living painting that is pleasant to contemplate but nice to have escaped. The truth, though, according to biologist Rob Dunn, is that while “clean living” has benefited us in some ways, it has also made us sicker in others. As Dunn reveals, our modern disconnect from the web of life has resulted in unprecedented effects that immunologists, evolutionary biologists, psychologists, and other scientists are only beginning to understand. Diabetes, autism, allergies, many anxiety disorders, autoimmune diseases, and even tooth, jaw, and vision problems are increasingly plaguing bodies that have been removed from the ecological context in which they existed for millennia. In this eye-opening book, Dunn considers the crossroads at which we find ourselves. Through the stories of visionaries, Dunn argues that we can create a richer nature, one in which we choose to surround ourselves with species that benefit us, not just those that, despite us, survive. “A pleasure to read.” —Boston Globe “[Dunn’s] sure use of language, scientific research, and humor . . . keep the reader highly engaged.” —New York Journal of Books “Not merely interesting but gripping.” —Booklist, starred review |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Flesh and Blood Reay Tannahill, 1996 Presenting a history of cannibalism, this text shows how in primitive times, human game was treated just as any other, and both the prophet Muhammed and Richard the Lionheart consumed the bodies of their enemies. Also covered are modern-day cannibals such as Chikatilo and Hannibal Lecter. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Through Your Eyes: Religious Alterity and the Early Modern Western Imagination , 2021-09-20 The focus of Through Your Eyes: Religious Alterity and the Early Modern Western Imagination is the (mostly Western) understanding, representation and self-critical appropriation of the religious other between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Mutually constitutive processes of selfing/othering are observed through the lenses of creedal Jews, a bhakti Brahmin, a widely translated Morisco historian, a collector of Western and Eastern singularia, Christian missionaries in Asia, critical converts, toleration theorists, and freethinkers: in other words, people dwelling in an 'in-between' space which undermines any binary conception of the Self and the Other. The genesis of the volume was in exchanges between eight international scholars and the two editors, intellectual historian Giovanni Tarantino and anthropologist Paola von Wyss-Giacosa, who share an interest in comparatism, debates over toleration, and history of emotions. Contributors are: Daniel Barbu, Vincent Carretta, Ananya Chakravarti, Talya Fishman, Rolando Minuti, Fernando Rodríguez Mediano, Paul Rule, Knut Martin Stünkel, Giovanni Tarantino, and Paola von Wyss-Giacosa. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Forest People Colin Turnbull, 2015-10-01 The Forest People is an astonishingly intimate and life-enhancing account of a hunter-gatherer tribe living in harmony with nature -- and an all-time classic of anthropology. For three years, Colin Turnbull lived with an isolated group of Pygmies deep in the forest of the African Congo, experiencing their daily life first-hand. He attended their hunting parties and initiation ceremonies, witnessed their music and their rituals, observed their quarrels and love affairs. He documented them as an anthropologist but was accepted among them as a friend. A ground-breaking work in its time, The Forest People made him one of the most famous intellectuals of the 1960s and 1970s. It remains a transporting account of an earthly paradise and of a legendary and fascinating people. With a new foreword by Horatio Clare. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The People's Act Of Love James Meek, 2008-11-20 1919, Siberia . . . Deep in the unforgiving landscape a town lies under military rule, awaiting the remorseless assault of Bolsheviks along the Trans-Siberian railway. One night a stranger, Samarin, appears from the woods with a tale of escape from an Arctic prison, insisting a cannibal is on his trail. Only Anna, a beautiful young widow, trusts his story. When a local shaman is found dead suspicion and terror engulf the isolated community, which harbours a secret of its own . . . |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The World Without Us Alan Weisman, 2008-08-05 A penetrating take on how our planet would respond without the relentless pressure of the human presence |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Isle of Dogs Wes Anderson, 2018-03-30 Wes Anderson startled audiences with his stop-motion animated film of Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox.He now displays his unique wit and playful visual sense in an action-filled saga of Samurai dogs. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Of Cannibals and Kings Neil L. Whitehead, 2011 Translations of the earliest accounts, from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, of the native peoples of the Americas, including Columbus's descriptions of his first voyage. Documents the emergence of a primal anthropology and how Spanish ethnological classifications were integral to colonial discovery, occupation, and conquest--Provided by publisher. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Naturalist Darrin P. Lunde, 2016 A biography of Theodore Roosevelt focusing on his career as a naturalist, his role as a pioneer for wilderness engagement, and an early advocate for museum building-- |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Lives of a Cell Lewis Thomas, 1978-02-23 Elegant, suggestive, and clarifying, Lewis Thomas's profoundly humane vision explores the world around us and examines the complex interdependence of all things. Extending beyond the usual limitations of biological science and into a vast and wondrous world of hidden relationships, this provocative book explores in personal, poetic essays to topics such as computers, germs, language, music, death, insects, and medicine. Lewis Thomas writes, Once you have become permanently startled, as I am, by the realization that we are a social species, you tend to keep an eye out for the pieces of evidence that this is, by and large, good for us. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare's England David B. Goldstein, 2013-11-07 David B. Goldstein argues for a new understanding of Renaissance England from the perspective of communal eating. Rather than focus on traditional models of interiority, choice and consumption, Goldstein demonstrates that eating offered a central paradigm for the ethics of community formation. The book examines how sharing food helps build, demarcate and destroy relationships – between eater and eaten, between self and other, and among different groups. Tracing these eating relations from 1547 to 1680 - through Shakespeare, Milton, religious writers and recipe book authors - Goldstein shows that to think about eating was to engage in complex reflections about the body's role in society. In the process, he radically rethinks the communal importance of the Protestant Eucharist. Combining historicist literary analysis with insights from social science and philosophy, the book's arguments reverberate well beyond the Renaissance. Ultimately, Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare's England forces us to rethink our own relationship to food. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Cannabis Robert Clarke, Mark Merlin, 2016-06-28 Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary exploration of the natural origins and early evolution of this famous plant, highlighting its historic role in the development of human societies. Cannabis has long been prized for the strong and durable fiber in its stalks, its edible and oil-rich seeds, and the psychoactive and medicinal compounds produced by its female flowers. The culturally valuable and often irreplaceable goods derived from cannabis deeply influenced the commercial, medical, ritual, and religious practices of cultures throughout the ages, and human desire for these commodities directed the evolution of the plant toward its contemporary varieties. As interest in cannabis grows and public debate over its many uses rises, this book will help us understand why humanity continues to rely on this plant and adapts it to suit our needs. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Tropics Bite Back Valérie Loichot, 2013-04-14 The ubiquitous presence of food and hunger in Caribbean writing—from folktales, fiction, and poetry to political and historical treatises—signals the traumas that have marked the Caribbean from the Middle Passage to the present day. The Tropics Bite Back traces the evolution of the Caribbean response to the colonial gaze (or rather the colonial mouth) from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first. Unlike previous scholars, Valérie Loichot does not read food simply as a cultural trope. Instead, she is interested in literary cannibalism, which she interprets in parallel with theories of relation and creolization. For Loichot, “the culinary” is an abstract mode of resistance and cultural production. The Francophone and Anglophone authors whose works she interrogates—including Patrick Chamoiseau, Suzanne Césaire, Aimé Césaire, Maryse Condé, Edwidge Danticat, Édouard Glissant, Lafcadio Hearn, and Dany Laferrière—“bite back” at the controlling images of the cannibal, the starved and starving, the cunning cook, and the sexualized octoroon with the ultimate goal of constructing humanity through structural, literal, or allegorical acts of ingesting, cooking, and eating. The Tropics Bite Back employs cross-disciplinary methods to rethink notions of race and literary influence by providing a fresh perspective on forms of consumption both metaphorical and material. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Hungry God David Shulman, 1993-10-15 India's folklore and classical literature abound with stories of parents who sacrifice their children. In The Hungry God, David Shulman examines one set of such tales—Hindu texts that bear similarities to the biblical aqedah, the account of Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac. In all the stories that Shulman explores, the sacrifice proceeds from a divine command and has no utilitarian explanation or rationale. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Dark Archives Megan Rosenbloom, 2020-10-20 On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest other volumes of a distinctly strange and grisly sort: those bound in human skin. Would you know one if you held it in your hand? In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy—the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering. Dozens of such books live on in the world’s most famous libraries and museums. Dark Archives exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, and indigents whose lives are sewn together in this disquieting collection. Along the way, Rosenbloom tells the story of how her team of scientists, curators, and librarians test rumored anthropodermic books, untangling the myths around their creation and reckoning with the ethics of their custodianship. A librarian and journalist, Rosenbloom is a member of The Order of the Good Death and a cofounder of their Death Salon, a community that encourages conversations, scholarship, and art about mortality and mourning. In Dark Archives—captivating and macabre in all the right ways—she has crafted a narrative that is equal parts detective work, academic intrigue, history, and medical curiosity: a book as rare and thrilling as its subject. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Panic in Level 4 Richard Preston, 2008-05-27 Bizarre illnesses and plagues that kill people in the most unspeakable ways. Obsessive and inspired efforts by scientists to solve mysteries and save lives. From The Hot Zone to The Demon in the Freezer and beyond, Richard Preston’s bestselling works have mesmerized readers everywhere by showing them strange worlds of nature they never dreamed of. Panic in Level 4 is a grand tour through the eerie and unforgettable universe of Richard Preston, filled with incredible characters and mysteries that refuse to leave one’s mind. Here are dramatic true stories from this acclaimed and award-winning author, including: • The phenomenon of “self-cannibals,” who suffer from a rare genetic condition caused by one wrong letter in their DNA that forces them to compulsively chew their own flesh–and why everyone may have a touch of this disease. • The search for the unknown host of Ebola virus, an organism hidden somewhere in African rain forests, where the disease finds its way into the human species, causing outbreaks of unparalleled horror. • The brilliant Russian brothers–“one mathematician divided between two bodies”–who built a supercomputer in their apartment from mail-order parts in an attempt to find hidden order in the number pi (π). In fascinating, intimate, and exhilarating detail, Richard Preston portrays the frightening forces and constructive discoveries that are currently roiling and reordering our world, once again proving himself a master of the nonfiction narrative and, as noted in The Washington Post, “a science writer with an uncommon gift for turning complex biology into riveting page-turners.” |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Boys Enter the House David Nelson, 2021-10-05 Here is a work that emphasizes the full view of the lives of those young people that Gacy took. . . . It is essentially the Gacy story in reverse. Victims first. —Jeff Coen, author of Murder in Canaryville As investigators brought out the bagged remains of several dozen young men from a small Chicago ranch home and paraded them in front of a crowd of TV reporters and spectators, attention quickly turned to the owner of the house. John Gacy was an upstanding citizen, active in local politics and charities, famous for his themed parties and appearances as Pogo the Clown. But in the winter of 1978–79, he became known as one of many so-called sex murderers who had begun gaining notoriety in the random brutality of the 1970s. As public interest grew rapidly, victims became footnotes and statistics, lives lost not just to violence, but to history. Through the testimony of siblings, parents, friends, lovers, and other witnesses close to the case, Boys Enter the House retraces the footsteps of these victims as they make their way to the doorstep of the Gacy house itself. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History Stephen Jay Gould, 2010-11-29 Gould himself is a rare and wonderful animal—a member of the endangered species known as the ruby-throated polymath. . . . [He] is a leading theorist on large-scale patterns in evolution . . . [and] one of the sharpest and most humane thinkers in the sciences. --David Quammen, New York Times Book Review |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny Michael Wallis, 2017-06-06 Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence Finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award A Publishers Weekly Holiday Guide History Pick “A book so gripping it can scarcely be put down.... Superb.” —New York Times Book Review WESTWARD HO! FOR OREGON AND CALIFORNIA! In the eerily warm spring of 1846, George Donner placed this advertisement in a local newspaper as he and a restless caravan prepared for what they hoped would be the most rewarding journey of a lifetime. But in eagerly pursuing what would a century later become known as the American dream, this optimistic-yet-motley crew of emigrants was met with a chilling nightmare; in the following months, their jingoistic excitement would be replaced by desperate cries for help that would fall silent in the deadly snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada. We know these early pioneers as the Donner Party, a name that has elicited horror since the late 1840s. With The Best Land Under Heaven, Wallis has penned what critics agree is “destined to become the standard account” (Washington Post) of the notorious saga. Cutting through 160 years of myth-making, the “expert storyteller” (True West) compellingly recounts how the unlikely band of early pioneers met their fate. Interweaving information from hundreds of newly uncovered documents, Wallis illuminates how a combination of greed and recklessness led to one of America’s most calamitous and sensationalized catastrophes. The result is a “fascinating, horrifying, and inspiring” (Oklahoman) examination of the darkest side of Manifest Destiny. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Gory Details Erika Engelhaupt, 2021-03-02 Erika Engelhaupt, founding editor of National Geographic's Gory Details blog, explores oft-ignored but alluring facets of biology, anatomy, space exploration, nature, and more. Featuring reporting and interviews with leading researchers in the field, Gory Details illuminates the world's most intriguing real-world applications of science-- |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2015-07-14 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Cannibal's Cookbook Brandon Clifford, 2021-03-08 The Cannibal's Cookbook fiercely consumes the body of past cyclopean constructions. It assembles, re-packages, and offers this latent knowledge for your contemporary consumption. It is a manual for the hungry, for those who are not satiated by the careless building practices of the present. With one foot in the past and another in the present, the cookbook bridges the realities of our ancestors and ourselves. We propose a series of architectural recipes after dining on this body of past expertise. The recipes are deciphered from ancient cyclopean masonry systems, but with a contemporary twist. They cannibalize leftover debris--building rubble that typically stuffs our landfills--to construct new buildings |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: New Cannibal Markets Collectif, 2017-12-19 Thanks to recent progress in biotechnology, surrogacy, transplantation of organs and tissues, blood products or stem-cell and gamete banks are now widely used throughout the world. These techniques improve the health and well-being of some human beings using products or functions that come from the body of others. Growth in demand and absence of an appropriate international legal framework have led to the development of a lucrative global trade in which victims are often people living in insecure conditions who have no other ways to survive than to rent or sell part of their body. This growing market, in which parts of the human body are bought and sold with little respect for the human person, displays a kind of dehumanization that looks like a new form of slavery. This book is the result of a collective and multidisciplinary reflection organized by a group of international researchers working in the field of medicine and social sciences. It helps better understand how the emergence of new health industries may contribute to the development of a global medical tourism. It opens new avenues for reflection on technologies that are based on appropriation of parts of the body of others for health purposes, a type of practice that can be metaphorically compared to cannibalism. Are these the fi rst steps towards a proletariat of men- and women-objects considered as a reservoir of products of human origin needed to improve the health or well-being of the better-off? The book raises the issue of the uncontrolled use of medical advances that can sometimes reach the anticipations of dystopian literature and science fiction. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Cannibalism in China Key Ray Chong, 1990 |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: The Beginning was the End Oscar Kiss Maerth, 1974 Asserts the human species is at a low level in the evolutionary chain and that the human brain grew larger than its physical skull could accomodate, causing damage which resulted in the species' alienation from the immaterial world. |
| cannibalism a perfectly natural history: Cari Mora Thomas Harris, 2019-05-21 A resilient young woman must outwit a sadistic psychopath in this pulse-pounding thriller from the author of The Silence of the Lambs, a master still at the top of his strange and chilling form (Wall Street Journal). Twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies hidden beneath a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront. Ruthless men have tracked it for years. Leading the pack is Hans-Peter Schneider. Driven by unspeakable appetites, he makes a living fleshing out the violent fantasies of other, richer men. Cari Mora, caretaker of the house, has escaped from the violence in her native country. She stays in Miami on a wobbly Temporary Protected Status, subject to the iron whim of ICE. She works at many jobs to survive. Beautiful, marked by war, Cari catches the eye of Hans-Peter as he closes in on the treasure. But Cari Mora has surprising skills, and her will to survive has been tested before. Monsters lurk in the crevices between male desire and female survival. No other writer in the last century has conjured those monsters with more terrifying brilliance than Thomas Harris. Cari Mora, his sixth novel, is the long-awaited return of an American master. |
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - kidrex.org
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, …
Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History - Taylor & Francis …
Schutt contends that cannibalism is a natural part of natural history and is a legitimate field of study. Cannibalism is generally taboo as a practice or research subject, yet Schutt provides a …
NATURAL HISTORY NOTE Putative Cannibalism in the …
Herein, we report on observations of cannibalism among S. hammondii from vernal pools in northwestern Baja California, México, within the current range of S. hammonndii. We feel that …
Title Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History …
comprehensive, available treatment of cannibalism in terms of variation across animal taxa, from invertebrates (cricket, mantis, spider, snail) to vertebrates (spadefoot
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - www.rpideveloper
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 …
In 46ullshf6 NOTE Observation filmée d’une séquence de …
Abstract – We here report the observation of a complete sequence of cannibalism by an adult male on a juvenile of the lacertid Podarcis muralis in the field in Haute-Savoie, a French …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - grapevine.emwd.com
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, …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - intranet.select.com
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 …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History (2024)
History of Cannibalism is the first book to systematically examine the role of the cannibal in the arguments of philosophers from the classical period to modern disputes about such wide …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - 139.162.192.125
An Intellectual History of Cannibalism is the first book to systematically examine the role of the cannibal in the arguments of philosophers, from the classical period to modern disputes about …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - rpideveloper
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 …
101 Cannibalisations: understanding the prominence of …
consistent customary cannibalism throughout history. As already stated, this work is less focused on the historical truth behind anthropology, and thus belongs to the Arens school of thought, …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History
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 …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History (Download Only)
This blog post delves into the perfectly natural history of cannibalism, exploring its various forms, motivations, and ecological consequences across different species, from the microscopic to the …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - sip.ymcanorth.org
An Intellectual History of Cannibalism Cătălin Avramescu,2011-08-08 The cannibal has played a surprisingly important role in the history of thought perhaps the ultimate symbol of savagery …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - obiemaps.oberlin.edu
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 …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History
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 …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History
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, …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History Copy
American Museum of Natural History and author of The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - kidrex.org
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, …
Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History - Taylor & Francis …
Schutt contends that cannibalism is a natural part of natural history and is a legitimate field of study. Cannibalism is generally taboo as a practice or research subject, yet Schutt provides a …
NATURAL HISTORY NOTE Putative Cannibalism in the …
Herein, we report on observations of cannibalism among S. hammondii from vernal pools in northwestern Baja California, México, within the current range of S. hammonndii. We feel that …
Title Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural …
comprehensive, available treatment of cannibalism in terms of variation across animal taxa, from invertebrates (cricket, mantis, spider, snail) to vertebrates (spadefoot
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - www.rpideveloper
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 …
In 46ullshf6 NOTE Observation filmée d’une séquence de …
Abstract – We here report the observation of a complete sequence of cannibalism by an adult male on a juvenile of the lacertid Podarcis muralis in the field in Haute-Savoie, a French …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History
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, …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - intranet.select.com
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 …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History (2024)
History of Cannibalism is the first book to systematically examine the role of the cannibal in the arguments of philosophers from the classical period to modern disputes about such wide …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - 139.162.192.125
An Intellectual History of Cannibalism is the first book to systematically examine the role of the cannibal in the arguments of philosophers, from the classical period to modern disputes about …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - rpideveloper
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 …
101 Cannibalisations: understanding the prominence of …
consistent customary cannibalism throughout history. As already stated, this work is less focused on the historical truth behind anthropology, and thus belongs to the Arens school of thought, …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History
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 …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History (Download Only)
This blog post delves into the perfectly natural history of cannibalism, exploring its various forms, motivations, and ecological consequences across different species, from the microscopic to the …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History - sip.ymcanorth.org
An Intellectual History of Cannibalism Cătălin Avramescu,2011-08-08 The cannibal has played a surprisingly important role in the history of thought perhaps the ultimate symbol of savagery …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History
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 …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History
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 …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History
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, …
Cannibalism A Perfectly Natural History Copy
American Museum of Natural History and author of The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological …
