Would you eat another human to survive?

Buona Fortuna wrote: »

Maybe, though you'd really want them to die from injuries rather than some disease.

"Woof, woof, woof, ah the TB's kicking off lads,I won't be here long but have a couple slices of that arse on the BBQ and think of me wouldya."

You wouldn't want to be cooking it rare that's true. Well done and you'd be grand.

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Can you folks not just eat berries or other things like wildlife instead of eating a dead human ? what's the matter with you all. Just make a bow and arrow and hunt for food just like we did yonks ago. Maybe it's just complete laziness but you need to get running chasing little furry rabbits or armadillos.

Depends where you are. The guys after the plane crash were stuck up a mountain above the tree line in snow. Pretty much nada to eat up there. Different scenario if you were on a coastal environment, every time the tide goes out it's grub up time. No need to start chowing down on grainne or sean. Berries and the like are seasonal and you'd want to know exactly which berries and other plants to eat. Most wild plants are not exactly calorie or nutrient dense and quite the few can kill you stone dead. In general meats give you the best bang for buck in the wild.

One eyed Jack wrote: »

Whoever is left after me could have what they liked, I'm very fat so there'd be plenty of crackling to go round at least :pac:


(actually now I think of it, I'd be likely to survive much longer in the Andes than a slim Jim, given my fat reserves... )

*takes short pencil from pocket, licks the lead, takes down note* One eyed Jack, bump him off early on. Will make fine marbled steaks. NB come at him in surprise, with a large club and from behind as he's a big fcuker.

You probably would survive longer alright J, certainly in the cold of the Andes. I'd expire in hours. Hell, I'm looking iffy on a damp day on O'Connell Street. One theory holds that humans put on weight so easily because it was an evolutionary adaptation to times of famine and it may even be why we alone survived. Other earlier humans may have added muscle with extra food, not so good as muscle is very calorie hungry(hence bodybuilders have to eat like horses).

Cannibalism has been part of the human condition for a very long time. Neandertals certainly seem to have practiced it, as did we*. Now the evidence may be down to some ritual funeral practice in both, but food was probably high enough on the list. There's a fair bit of eating on an adult person all the way down to the marrow(in those ancient remains the long bones were purposely crushed to get to the marrow, a very rich food source). In more "modern" types in various cultures it's much more a ritualistic thing. Where someone may eat the heart of an enemy, but the rest of the body is discarded. In other cultures much loved members of the society are consumed as a veneration, which in one group of tribal types has led to a type of mad cow disease called IIRC kuru or kuro from eating brain and spinal matter. In either types they don't crush the bones to get at the marrow. Nothing was going to waste. They were even defleshing the face. It seems, regardless of any ritual connotations our early ancestors were needing the food(the Neandertal examples were living in one of the worst cold snaps in Europe at the time and they were the only humans who hadn't gotten the fcuk outa Dodge).

It's one thing to eat an already dead person, I'd draw the line at killing somebody for food. That's a big bloody line right there.





*of course when we find evidence they did it, it was just for food. The brutes. When we did it, well then it was "probably ritual". Yeah right…