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Cannibalism : A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt (2017, Hardcover)
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherAlgonquin Books of Chapel Hill
ISBN-101616204621
ISBN-139781616204624
eBay Product ID (ePID)219094474
Product Key Features
Book TitleCannibalism : a Perfectly Natural History
Number of Pages352 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicNatural History, Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Anthropology / General, Life Sciences / Biology
Publication Year2017
IllustratorYes
GenreSocial Science, Science
AuthorBill Schutt
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height6.2 in
Item Weight16 Oz
Item Length9 in
Item Width6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2016-023112
Dewey Edition23
Reviews"With plenty of examples of cannibalism in humans past and present, Schutt's well researched and suspenseful work is a must read for anyone who's interested in the topic--and can stomach the gore." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "A fascinating exploration of a normally taboo subject." -- John de Cuevas, contributing editor, Harvard Magazine "Bill Schutt serves up a deliciously entertaining smorgasbord of scientific reality. He gives us a deeper insight into the way nature really works." -- Darrin Lunde, Museum Specialist, Smithsonian Institution, and author of The Naturalist . "Butterflies do it. So do some toads, birds, and polar bears. Did dinosaurs do it? What about the Neanderthals? And what about us, for that matter? If you're hungry for a fun, absorbing read about which animals eat their own kind and why, read this book." -- Virginia Morell, New York Times bestselling author of Animal Wise: How We Know Animals Think and Feel "A clear-headed, sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic--and always fascinating--compendium of one of Western culture's strongest taboos. From the Australian redback spider to the Donner Party, Schutt examines the evolutionary purposes that eating one's own can serve. But he goes beyond scientific explanation to show how deeply cannibalism is woven into our own history and literature." -- Cat Warren, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World "Bill Schutt's fascinating and compulsively readable new book will amaze you." -- Ian Tattersall, Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History, and author of The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack and Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution, "A clear-headed, sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic--and always fascinating--compendium of one of Western culture's strongest taboos. From the Australian redback spider to the Donner Party, Schutt examines the evolutionary purposes that eating one's own can serve. But he goes beyond scientific explanation to show how deeply cannibalism is woven into our own history and literature." -- Cat Warren, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World "Butterflies do it. So do some toads, birds, and polar bears. Did dinosaurs do it? What about the Neanderthals? And what about us, for that matter? If you're hungry for a fun, absorbing read about which animals eat their own kind and why, read this book." -- Virginia Morell, New York Times bestselling author of Animal Wise: How We Know Animals Think and Feel "Bill Schutt's fascinating and compulsively readable new book will amaze you." -- Ian Tattersall, Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History and author of The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack and Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution "Bill Schutt serves up a deliciously entertaining smorgasbord of scientific reality. He gives us a deeper insight into the way nature really works." -- Darrin Lunde, Museum Specialist, Smithsonian Institution, and author of The Naturalist
Dewey Decimal394.909
Synopsis"A masterful and compulsively readable book that challenges our preconceived notions about a behavior often sensationalized in our culture and, until just recently, misunderstood in the scientific world." --Ian Tattersall, Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History, and author of The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism--the role it plays in evolution as well as human history--is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we've come to accept as fact. In Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History , zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism's role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party--the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it goes well with Chianti). Bringing together the latest cutting-edge science, Schutt answers questions such as why some amphibians consume their mother's skin; why certain insects bite the heads off their partners after sex; why, up until the end of the twentieth century, Europeans regularly ate human body parts as medical curatives; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He takes us into the future as well, investigating whether, as climate change causes famine, disease, and overcrowding, we may see more outbreaks of cannibalism in many more species--including our own. Cannibalism places a perfectly natural occurrence into a vital new context and invites us to explore why it both enthralls and repels us., "A masterful and compulsively readable book that challenges our preconceived notions about a behavior often sensationalized in our culture and, until just recently, misunderstood in the scientific world." --Ian Tattersall, Curator Emeritus, American Museum of Natural History, and author of The Strange Case of the Rickety Cossack For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism--the role it plays in evolution as well as human history--is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we've come to accept as fact. In Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History ,zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism's role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party--the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it goes well with Chianti). Bringing together the latest cutting-edge science, Schutt answers questions such as why some amphibians consume their mother's skin; why certain insects bite the heads off their partners after sex; why, up until the end of the twentieth century, Europeans regularly ate human body parts as medical curatives; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He takes us into the future as well, investigating whether, as climate change causes famine, disease, and overcrowding, we may see more outbreaks of cannibalism in many more species--including our own. Cannibalism places a perfectly natural occurrence into a vital new context and invites us to explore why it both enthralls and repels us.
LC Classification NumberGN409.S38 2017
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Ratings and reviews
Most relevant reviews
- 11 Feb, 2019
Cannibalism in Nature is The Best Book I Have Picked Up in 10 Years! Compelling!
If you’re tired of the Donner party and tribal speculation about the origins and reasons why cannibalism occurs, this book is your new friend! Fascinating examples of how and why creatures eat parts of, or the entirety of one of their own. It’s not just because they’re hungry! Mind-opening content. I plan to read again and again... I pick up something new to mull over each time!Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned
