Cannibalism has often been passed off by scientist as something that rarely happens, and generally only in extreme survival situations. It also makes for great horror movies. One scientist now, though, believes that there may be more to the horrific “phenomena” than we’ve given it credit for.
Zoologist Bill Schutt, who is a biology professor and also works with the American Natural Museum of History as a research associate, has released a book titled “Cannibalism, A Perfectly Natural History,” where he details his research of cannibalism and makes the frightening theory that it could potentially become a necessary global occurrence.
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He asks the question, “How much of a surprise would it be if the butchery of humans for food becomes commonplace in drought-ridden and overpopulated regions of the near-future Earth?”
Professor Schutt theorizes that catastrophic global climate change could be the cause of future cannibalism. In his book he writes,”In a world where global climate change is taking place before our very eyes, there may be little to prevent famine-related cannibalism from happening again, especially in the poorest and most unstable countries in the world.”
Though it’s extremely rare, there have been some cases of cannibalism reported in the civilized world. Most notably, at the turn of the 20th century The Donner party, a group of American pioneers, were caught in a massive snowfall and resorted to cannibalizing the dead to survive.
Another infamous story is Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which, in October of 1973, crash landed in the Andies Mountains and while carrying 45 passengers, including the Uruguayan rugby team. Similar to the Donner Party scenario, the group found themselves stranded in extreme cold and heavy snow, and were forced to eat the dead in order to save themselves.
These stories were retold cinematic in 1999’s Ravenous, and 1994’s Alive, respectively.
The scenario that Professor Schutt describes, though, is closer to the story of The Road, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy in 2006 that became a critically acclaimed film in 2009. In it, the main character and his son traverse a post-apocalyptic U.S., now rotting with cataclysmic poverty, and along their journey, we discover that cannibalism has now become a common practice.
If any of Professor Schutt theories about cannibalism are true, we may have evidence that it is an evolutionary trait embedded in humanity.
Bon Appétit!
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[H/T: New York Post]
