Cannibalism

Name: Cannibalism
Brand: HighBridge Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Bill Schutt
ISBN: 9781681681979

Author: Bill Schutt

Narrator: Tom Perkins

Unabridged: 8 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Highbridge Audio

Published: 02/14/2017

Categories: Nonfiction, History, World History, Social Science, Sociology

Synopsis

Eating one's own kind is a completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons related to famine, burial rites, and medicine. Cannibalism has also been used as a form of terrorism and as the ultimate expression of filial piety. With unexpected wit and a wealth of knowledge, Bill Schutt takes us on a tour of the field, exploring exciting new avenues of research and investigating questions like why so many fish eat their offspring and some amphibians consume their mother's skin; why sexual cannibalism is an evolutionary advantage for certain spiders; why, until the end of the eighteenth century, British royalty regularly ate human body parts; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of Neanderthals.

Today, the subject of humans consuming one another has been relegated to the realm of horror movies, fiction, and the occasional psychopath. But as climate change progresses and humans see more famine, disease, and overcrowding, biological and cultural constraints may well disappear. These are the very factors that lead to outbreaks of cannibalism—in other species and our own.

About Bill Schutt

Bill Schutt is a professor of biology at LIU Post and a research associate in residence at the American Museum of Natural History. His first book, Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures, was selected as a Best Book of 2008 by Library Journal and Amazon, and was chosen for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island by parents who encouraged his love for turning over stones and peering under logs, Bill quickly grew a passion for the natural world, with its enormous wonders and its increasing vulnerability. He received his PhD in zoology from Cornell and has published over two dozen peer-reviewed articles on topics ranging from terrestrial locomotion in vampire bats to the precarious, arboreal copulatory behavior of a marsupial mouse. His research has been featured in Natural History magazine as well as the New York Times, Newsday, the Economist, and Discover magazine. He was recently reelected to the board of directors of the North American Society for Bat Research. A recipient of the Theodore Roosevelt Award at the AMNH, Bill lives on the East End of Long Island with his wife and son.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Hannah

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend. What struck me as the most interesting aspect of this book is how Schutt opens by reminding readers that many of the relatives of people who were victims of cannibalism are still alive. For that reason, Schu......more

Goodreads review by Carlos

I know this might be the wrong thing to say but I enjoyed this book, for such a hard topic the author did a very good job of keeping the theme of the narrative fun and light . This is a study about cannibalism as it happens around the world , how cannibalism has used by colonial powers to brand cult......more