| CANNIBALISM IN THE PREHISTORIC MIDWEST |
Dr. E. J. Neiburger DDS |
Cannibalism, the eating of humans by humans, strikes an emotional chord with most people. The "civilized" world abhors this thought and relegates the practitioners of this "distasteful" activity to the classification of "savages." Though rare, some cases of cannibalism are deemed more or less appetizing to our modern-day tastes. The occasional consumption of fellow humans when the group is isolated or starving generally is understood and considered a tragedy rather than a crime or the mark of savagery. Various cultural groups may participate in occasional ritual cannibalism where a dead relative or enemy is butchered and consumed for religious reasons. This paper will not directly focus on these minor cases but on situations where humans were killed and consumed in large numbers and as a genuine food staple. The Midwest United States was one such place where this occurred.
Many cultures practiced cannibalism, if not now, then in their ancient past. From the time that man became "human," early man has left remnants of cannibalistic feasts. One such place is at the recently discovered Sima De los Huesos archaeological site in Spain, where early man ate each other 500,000 years ago.
THE NEW WORLD
In the Americas, European explorers often chronicled cannibalism and the savagery of the local natives. The most famous cannibals were the Aztecs, who butchered and ate an estimated 250,000 people, including many Europeans. The Spanish friars, hardened by the slaughter of men, women and children in their religious wars in Europe (not to mention the Inquisition), were shocked by the bloodletting in the New World and used the Indian custom of cannibalism as a partial rationale for destroying the Aztecs and their blood-consuming religion, all in the name of the Christian God.
| Sixteenth century Spanish depiction of an Aztec ritual where a priest cuts open a victim's chest, removes the heart and rolls the victim's butchered limbs down the temple steps to be consumed by the congregation. |
Over several centuries, French and English explorers and missionaries wrote a steady volume of literature concerning first accounts of Eastern United States Indians and their cannibalistic practices. Most noted for their savagery were the Iroquois and related tribes, who tortured, killed and ate large numbers of their captives. In the Mohawk language, "Iroquois" translates as "eaters of men." In some of these chilling accounts, people were literally eaten alive. In a letter dated August 25, 1682, Father Jean De Lamberville recounts: "The great success that God is pleased to grant to the weapons of the Iroquois makes them very proud, brave and enterprising. Last year they brought 700 Illinois captives all of whom they keep alive. They killed and ate over 600 others on the spot, without counting those whom they burned along the road. They saved the children who could live without the milk of their mothers whom they had killed; but the others were cruelly roasted and devoured. It is related that they tied living men and women to stakes, and, as fast as their flesh became roasted, they cut it off, and ate it." This was not an exceptional report but one of many mentioning cannibalism, a common practice for the time. Many of the missionaries were in the New World expressly to baptize the captives (and thus collect their souls) before they were killed and eaten. Large numbers of these European clergy died in this effort, as the Indians killed them as wantonly as their neighbors.
| Spanish depiction of a victim being cooked and eaten by Aztec Indians |
THE MARKS OF CANNIBALISM
In the American Southwest, there are over 76 sites, mostly Anasazi, where remains of cannibalism were discovered.
© 1990 C.S.A.S.I. Last modified:
January 31 2004