Grandpa died. Go fetch the BBQ sauce!

Roughly what percentage of prehistoric tribes ate their dead?
(I realize that they might have had no BBQ sauce.)

"Shut up and keep eating...."

In fact, it seems like I've read that archeologists find evidence of cannibalism near the very end of many great civilizations.

I always assumed this was when the poor finally decided to eat the rich.

Sometimes they also find small characteristic nicks on human bones indicating the flesh was systematically removed with a tool of some kind.

Presumably, finding empty bottles of Chianti and cans of fava beans would indicate cannibalism, too. :shrug:

by demanding more and more of the harvest to fund wars and the poor started to starve.

Then they ate the rich.

evidence of cannibalism among people who kept written records?

Is anybody else a bit confused by the sequence:
1) "not just prehistoric"
2) "archaeologists find"?

...but may not have many written records we know of (or can interpret).

For example, there are sizeable ruins of cities in the high Andes we don't know much about other than the 'stone finds', there's Mayan civilization (any historical records from their collapse seem to have been destroyed), and at least a couple of ruined city sites I've read about in south central Asia that possess no written accounts of their existence and downfall.

I don't consider these to be 'prehistoric', since they probably did have accounts of their histories -- we just haven't found them or can't interpret them, or the periods of their collapse were not recorded. That leaves archeological evidence as the only way we know about them.

My understanding is that, for example, parts of the historical era of Mesopotamia coincide in time with parts of Britain's prehistoric era.



Perhaps for some times and places the historical record has very big gaps, so some event can't be considered prehistoric simply because there are some surviving written records of at least one event that occurred earlier in the same place?

Kuru. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_%28disease%29

Today's Republicans are more sophisticated and evolved; they only metaphorically and ritualistically eat the poor.

Gramps would be nothing without a good basting. Me? I prefer being a Pastafarian.

Many beleifs of primitive cultures included the idea that you would get the positive trats of the dead person you ate.

One can easily see how this type of practice carried over into Christianity through Catholicism. (The ceremonial eating of the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus.)

One would be shocked just how much paganism mingled with Christianity if they took the time to educate themselves about other beliefs.

I think it would behoove most people to learn more about their own beliefs. Your example of the holy communion is a great one.

Cannibalism seemed to spring up in a lot of cultures, although most modern cultures have relegated it to the metaphoric.