THE “HUMAN” DIET

(Information from: “Cannibals of the Canyon” by Douglas Preston, The New Yorker, November ’98.)

It has been a long-brewing controversy among anthropologists. Did human cannibalism ever really occur, or are native reports of it simply legend, not fact? Skeptics point out that there are no reliable fisthand accounts of cannibalism, and all reports of it have been hearsay.

The most recent academic squabbling has centered on Anasazi remains in the Southwestern U.S., where human skeletal remnants have shown marks of sawing near the joints (possibly due to dismemberment), as well as cut marks indicating the meat had been stripped from the bones. Skulls were found smashed and the brains removed, while other bones had marrow removed. In addition, signs of “pot polishing” indicate the bones had been cooked.

There are many folk tales of the Anasazi, Zuni, and Hopi cultures which mention human cannibalism, but as some experts point out, the skeletal findings do not necessarily mean the remains were actually consumed; dismemberment and stripping of flesh may instead have been some sort of bizarre mortuary practice.

Now there’s proof the flesh was eaten. That proof is found in human coprolites — otherwise known as dried-up feces.

Human muscle contains myoglobin, a protein found nowhere else except in skeletal and heart muscle. When human flesh is eaten, traces of myoglobin will appear in the diner’s excrement. Just such traces were found in human coprolites in Anasazi campsites where the bones of massacred people were scattered. It’s compelling evidence that cannibalism was real.