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  • Cannibalism in early humans: the calorific significance of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic era

Cannibalism in early humans: the calorific significance of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic era

Human cannibalism is a subject that continues to hold a morbid fascination within modern societies. In particular, identifying the motivations for human cannibalism remains a contentious issue. In modern humans, cannibalism has been related to any combination of the following: survival, or behaviours which are psychotic or criminal, aggressive, spiritual or ritual, gastronomic or dietary, and medicinal. Cannibalism is not, however, purely a characteristic of modern humans and has been practiced by a range of hominin species from at least one million years ago.

Research undertaken by Dr James Cole has quantified the calorific value of the human body to shed more light on the habits of our ancient human ancestors. The results question the idea that our ancestors hunted and consumed members of their own species for strictly nutritional reasons given the much greater calorie return from the faunal species we know were commonly exploited in the past. This raises the suggestion that at least some acts of cannibalism amongst our human ancestors (and our own species) may have been socially motivated rather than nutritionally motivated.

James-Cole

Dr James Cole

A 65kg or 10 stone human has approximately 32,000 calories in their muscle tissue compared to 163,000 calories in the muscle tissue of a deer and an estimated 3.6 million calories for the muscle tissue of a mammoth.

Cannibalism amongst our human ancestors may have been socially rather than nutritionally motivated

James Cole constructed a nutritional template for the human body by using the total average weights and calorie values (fat and protein) for each body part from chemical composition analyses of four male individuals. The data obtained pertains to modern humans. Although it is unknown how these values would vary for non-Homo sapiens species, James Cole suggests that in the case of Neanderthals, the values for skeletal muscle may be higher given their greater muscle mass.

By comparing the calorific values calculated to those for animal species whose remains have been identified at sites of Palaeolithic cannibalism, Dr Cole found that human skeletal muscle has a nutritional value broadly in line with species of a similar size and weight. However, it produces significantly fewer calories than most of the larger animals, such as mammoth, woolly rhino and species of deer, which are known to have been consumed by hominins.

Undoubtedly, each episode of Palaeolithic cannibalism would have had its own specific cultural context and reason for consumption. In some instances, this may represent a more practical or opportunistic approach to food procurement, for example, the consumption of individuals who died of natural causes within the social group.

Such an interpretation cannot be entirely dismissed given that the nutritional value of the human body is not particularly high, and hominins regularly exploited faunal remains that were lower in calories with no cultural influence. However, the similarity of demographics across Palaeolithic cannibalism episodes (adults to infants) may indicate that the motivations followed the inter- and intra-group dynamics involving resource and territory defence. If this is the case, it would suggest that pre-Homo sapiens Pleistocene hominin social structures and interactions within and between groups may have been far more complex than currently estimated.

Recent palaeo-genetic studies have already hinted at a more explicit and active degree of social interaction between hominin species than was previously thought possible. In addition, the recognised complexity within Neanderthal societies with distinct cultural and symbolic traditions illustrates a hominin that is more behaviourally similar to our own species. We know that modern humans have a range of complex motivations for cannibalism that extend from ritual, aggressive, and survival to dietary reasons. Why then would a hominin species such as the Neanderthals, who seem to have had varying attitudes to the burial and treatment of their dead, not have an equally complex attitude towards cannibalism? As such, social motivations behind acts of Palaeolithic cannibalism should not be readily discounted when examined within the broader behavioural context of the hominins under study.

The use of the human nutritional template from this research highlights that humans (and by inference hominins) fall within the expected range of calories for an animal of our average body weight. We are, however, significantly lower in calorie value when compared to single large fauna (such as mammoth, bison, cattle and horse) that have a much greater calorific return per individual than many of the groups of cannibalised human remains.

This return must therefore question the viability of hunting and consuming hominins for strictly nutritional reasons. It is recommended that the data and methods from this research form part of a holistic approach to the definition of episodes of prehistoric cannibalism, with a stricter use of terminology when describing episodes of prehistoric cannibalism beyond the ambiguous and leading terms ‘nutritional’ or ‘symbolic’.

Scientific-reports

For further information, read Dr James Cole's paper – Assessing the calorific significance of episodes of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic

The-Conversation-logo-box

Read Dr James Cole's article in The Conversation – Our ancestors were cannibals and probably not because they needed the calories

 

 

 

 

 

 

Palaeolithic human canibalism publication recognised in research awards

Dr James Cole's research was recognised in the award of The Ig Nobel prize 2018, which celebrates unusual and imaginative research and runs parallel to the Nobel Prizes. 

The Ig Nobel award, organised by the USA magazine Annals of Improbable Research is respected as a means of spurring interest in science, medicine and technology and a way to honour research that “makes you laugh, and then think”. The prize ceremony is co-sponsored by Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students and the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association, with genuine Nobel Laureates handing out the prizes. There are usually only 10 awards per year from more than 10,000 nominations. 

 

 

 

Academic in tweed jacket leans over a reconstructed skull of a prehistoric ancestor. Dr James Cole researching early human canibalism.
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