Cannibalism

By: Bill Schutt

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

Eating one's own kind is a completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons related to famine, burial rites, and medicine. Cannibalism has also been used as a form of terrorism and as the ultimate expression of filial piety.

With unexpected wit and a wealth of knowledge, Bill Schutt takes us on a tour of the field, exploring exciting new avenues of research and investigating questions like why so many fish eat their offspring and some amphibians consume their mothers' skin; why sexual cannibalism is an evolutionary advantage for certain spiders; why, until the end of the 18th century, British royalty regularly ate human body parts; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of Neanderthals. Today the subject of humans consuming one another has been relegated to the realm of horror movies, fiction, and the occasional psychopath. But as climate change progresses and humans see more famine, disease, and overcrowding, biological and cultural constraints may well disappear. These are the very factors that lead to outbreaks of cannibalism - in other species and our own.

©2017 Bill Schutt (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

well balanced

very explorative,scientifically detached and largely nonjudgmental. my main objection is the use of bce for bc and ce for ad. also a bit of overemphasis on climate change. too much political correctness. but kudos for debunking the idea that the native people were all cannibals and therefore deserved to be displaced.

I learned a lot

Mainly I learned that humans taste like beef and pork. Don't listen to this book while you're eating.

An excellent overview of a taboo subject

This brave and thorough zoologist dares to point the microscope of the common behavior of cannibalism in the animal community to the human species. He does an excellent job of researching, the sociological, cultural and historical aspects of cannibalism as it continues to happen today as well as how it has affected, eastern and western cultures throughout the centuries. Four stars.

A behaviour that we just don't talk about.

For many of us, our first introduction to cannibalism is when we saw guppies eating their young in a fish tank. Other than questioning our choice of pets, most of us don't dwell much upon this topic. Maybe we switched to hamsters next (oops).

Fortunately, the author followed through and studied the topic. We typically don't consider cannibalism to be a normal part of behaviour, but apparently, it is far more widespread than I had realized. And the reasons behind cannibalism vary as well.

Far from being morbid, the book is fascinating from squid to mammals. He skillfully avoids the morbid and keeps the book fascinating and informative. Great read.

a fascinating listen

it was a pretty enjoyable book! definitely. A nice listen just to pass the time and you learn some things too.