Knowra Human cannibalism Human cannibalism Human cannibalism is the act of consuming all or part of another human’s body. It has occurred in ritual, survival, funerary, criminal, and wartime contexts.
Homo antecessor : An extinct human species known from fossils at Gran Dolina in Spain, some of which show cut marks and breakage. Its butchered remains are among the oldest proposed evidence of human cannibalism.
Endocannibalism : The consumption of members of one’s own social group, often in ritual or funerary contexts. The term distinguishes rites involving kin or community members from eating outsiders.
Taphonomy : The study of how organisms decay and become part of the fossil or archaeological record. It helps distinguish human processing marks from damage caused by burial, animals, or excavation.
Anthropophagy : The eating of human flesh, especially as described in scientific or anthropological writing. It is a technical synonym that avoids some of the historical baggage of “cannibalism.”
Cannibalism in the archaeological record : The study of material evidence used to identify human consumption of human remains in the past. Researchers debate which combinations of marks and context justify identifying cannibalism.
Moula-Guercy : A Middle Paleolithic cave site in southeastern France containing Neanderthal bones with cut marks and marrow extraction damage. The remains provide evidence of Neanderthal bodies processed in ways resembling animal carcasses.
Exocannibalism : The consumption of people from outside one’s own social group. It names a contrasting social boundary that can shape the act’s meaning.
Cut mark : A groove or incision on bone produced by a sharp-edged tool. Cut marks can indicate defleshing, but do not alone prove that flesh was eaten.
Necrophagy : The consumption of a dead organism by another organism. It describes eating a corpse broadly, while human cannibalism specifies human consumers.
Neanderthal cannibalism : The proposed consumption of Neanderthal individuals by other Neanderthals, inferred from modified remains. Similar treatment of human and animal bones supports, but does not settle, competing interpretations.
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