Slashdot Mirror
New Evidence in Historical Cannibalism Debate
An anonymous reader writes "ScienceNOW is reporting that a team of scientists led by Geneticist Jaume Bertranpetit has called into question findings from an earlier study of human prion diseases. The first study, led by John Collinge of University College London, stated that the existence of a gene that codes for prions was a result of a "balancing act" that had kept it in the gene pool for so long. The balancing act was supposedly due to widespread cannibalistic practices in human history. The new report suggests that their results were skewed because of low frequency variations known as 'ascertainment bias.'"
so we were cannibal's children, now we're not.
Let's throw both research teams into the pot!
It's really the only way to test this theory.
Why are women so complicated? Find out how little I know here.
...but the mainstream news media will continue to utilize the cannabalism story due to their 'entertainment' bias
Actually, cannibalism is still very prevalent among the lesbian and gay communities... Oh, wait - we're talking about something else...
"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup."
Almost sounds like a Roland Piquepaille text...
Is that slang for big-butt porno?
That's not entertainment, that's ASSERTAINMENT!
An innocent kid and budding geek, I tried feeding novel combinations of nouns and verbs to the primitive parser.
I tried "EAT LAMP"... got back "You can't eat the lamp." "EAT BREAD"... "That was delicious."... Etc.
I tried "EAT ME". I couldn't comprehend why my dad, who had just bought the game for me and was supervising over my shoulder, started laughing so hard.
Several years later I finally understood why he laughed even harder when the computer responded:
"Auto-cannibalism is not the answer."
You can mod this offtopic, but those 1983 game designers had a real sense of humor and subtly implemented it in 64KB.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
Few taboos are stronger than cannibalism. It's no surprise then that a study published 2 years ago created quite a stir by claiming that modern humans harbor a genetic signature suggesting our ancestors engaged heavily in the practice.
I don't see why. Just because something is taboo now doesn't mean it always was. I wouldn't be bothered too much if I found out for certain that my ancestors were cannibals. It's not like that reflects poorly on me or my society. Every culture used to do some weird/nasty/mean things at some point.
Two missionaries in Africa were apprehended by a tribe of very hostile cannibals who put them in a large pot of water, build a huge fire under it, and left them there. A few minutes later, one of the missionaries started to laugh uncontrollably.
The other missionary was incredulous, and said, "What's wrong with you? We're being boiled alive! They're going to eat us! What could possibly be funny at a time like this?"
The laughing missionary said, "I just peed in their soup!"
-- When did Ignorance Become a Point of View?
...what the scientists tell me about my genes. If I'm hungry and you look tasty, get running, unless you have an offering of a loaded baked potato or appropriate substitute.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
It doesnt really matter that much to me if my ancestors did a little canibalism, or even a lot for that matter. After all Im pretty sure that somewhere down the line some or perhaps even a lot of my ancestors engaged in equally terrible things to survive or perhaps even took part in them without "survival" really being an issue.
These thoughts dont exactly delight me.
However they dont really frighten me either.
To me all this article really says is that genetics is more complicated that we are currently able to understand and goes a lot deeper than just decoding a genome. One scientists sees some data and comes to a conclusion, another scientist looks at the same data a couple years later and reaches the opposite conclusion.
(You knew it was coming)
... is people!"
Fry: "My God! What if the secret ingredient
Leela: "No. There's already a soda like that. Soylent Cola."
Fry: "Oh. How is it?"
Leela: "It varies from person to person."
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
In 15th century Guadaloupe, cannibals eat YOU!
Oh wait..
But how much? Did we eat each other daily? Weekly? On special holidays? It can't have been to common anyway. If you eat more of a food source then is grown your run out. or put another way. Even if you farmed humans you would be hard put to serve baby more then once per year. Presuming of course that factory farming is really a recent invention.
Anyway wasn't cannabilism more ritual then food source? Eat the X of a vanguished enemy to gain his X. God forbid to think what the chinese would serve after the battle.
Oh well whatever the truth just don't accept an invitation to the donner party. Or board an airplane with an Uruguayan rugby team. Well unless you are feeling peckish.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
becaauuuse..."Let's build a snowman! We can make him our best friend. [Miller] Shut the fuck up, Swan! We can name him Shannon! Shannon Wilson Bell! [Miller] Swan, shut the fuck up! We can make him tall or we can make him not so tall... (Swan is interrupted by a bullet to the head)"(Let's Build A Snowman! (Reprise)http://www.cannibalthemusical.net/songs.s html#snowman)
Yes, by this time I wanted to shoot him myself! (http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800257737/info)
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
Somewhere in the dusty recesses of the library stacks I came across writings that suggested many early northern european peoples practised cannibalism as was evidenced by the skulls of victims being halved to get at the brains. The National Geographic article suggests modern cannibals fed the brains to women and children as less desirable, but, for examples, grizziles feeding on migrating salmon will feed exclusivley on the brains once their initial hunger is sated.
My culinary perversion only extended to a one time feeding on beef tartare. I kinda liked it.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
...because they consider the idea of human cannibalism to be "distasteful" (pardon the pun).
I don't know if cannibalism was as widespread as has been claimed, but I do know that many people will continue to deny that it ever happened, simply because they don't like the ideas of it.
What next: we are descended from apes? When will tese outrageous and shameful claims ever cease?
I once knew a girl who liked to be eaten.
Once, twice, thrice she'd entreat me,
Eat me, she'd say, eat me, EAT ME!
And so I would; on the lass I'd dine.
Now, you'd think that a strapping young girl would taste,
Like beef, or lamb, or pork at least.
But I tell you, this hot young lass of mine,
always tasted like fish, each and every time.
Farewell! It's been a fine buncha years!
Baby back ribs
If I can do it, its probably not worth doing... probably
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the
victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
-- Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
I've never understood the taboo against cannibalism. Sure, historically it often included murder; but it's the murder that's the problem, not the cannibalism. Eating people who have died for unrelated reasons is just... smart, assuming you are really hungry. I'd rather eat human than several animals I can think of. Like vulture, for a start.
they also hunt for sport. I'd rather eat pussy than Johnson, but that's just me.
two cannibals are eating a clown. one turns to the other and says "does this taste funny to you?"
Nevertheless, perhaps we'll see an article in the future to see the conclusion after more comparisons between the two papers and further research. It's an interesting topic, to say the least.
Fun Zoid RPG
...tonight, on Hannibal Lecter Dinner Theater, we will be running that old favorite, 'Alive'.
A wonderously entertaining movie where the topic 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' is once again explored. Joining us for comment will be the remaining members of the 1972 Peruvian Soccer Team, looking fit as ever, of course.
We are shedding our skin all the time (what do you think house dust is?). If one of civilization's characteristic is living in closed spaces, then consumption of human flesh by another human is a continuous (albeit microscopic) process. At the very least you end up with proteins (and prions) generated in another person's body in your stomach. Is it any wonder we are all slowly going insane? Maybe it's just me.
Johnny, eat your Steven. It's good for the gene pool....or not...
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
As seen on the Daily Show
Because taboos are mostly irrational attitudes, the ways each culture chooses to be irrational are different and varied.
That is not to say that some taboos may not be rooted in some practical fact, but more often than not they are nonsense.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
By the by sometime poeple ate people for because otherwise their diet would lack proteins and other important nutrients, ancient American tribes for instance (think Aztecs, Toltecs or Maya's)
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Probably responsible for more computer mag write ins...
> Bite Tongue
Genius.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
And you guys call yourselves nerds?
Now there is hufu, the healthy human flesh alternative for the ethically inclined cannibal: http://www.eathufu.com/faq.asp
I ate the last one
meat!!1 flesh!!!! aaahhhhhhhhhhhh...
Two cannibals walk into a restauraunt and take a seat. A nervous waiter explains that the only thing the restauraunt could possibly offer them is a missionary from Prague willing to sacrifice himself. The cannibals exchange glances and one tells the waiter "Yeah, I guess we could split the Czech."
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein
The title of the original Slashdot posting is misleading. This is not "new evidence". It's a debate about methodology.
This issue was really eating away at me!
This story points out, once again, how the media and other Mauraders - (definition from Mark Cuban) - mis-use the word "scientific".
More often than not - pronouncements in the staus quo media as well as the so-called alternative media - write stories about one thing or another - so that it appears to be "scientific" - but in fact is simply a - "notion"!
Scientific is simple - means proven by the "scienific method" -and the proof replicated by others using the "scientific method". More often than not - the so-called science (or medical) research doesn't even follow the scientific method. And even worse - the results are never replicated to see if the original research was accurate.
The list of the failures is endless - the most glaring example is that HIV is the sole cause of auto immune dis-eases.
By the way - here's the five key criteria for the "scientific method":
1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena. 2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation. 3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations. 4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by originator of the hypothesis with properly performed experiments. 5.Replication of the experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.
Dear Sir,
I am glad to hear that your readership disapprove of this article as strongly as I. As a loyal reader and paying subscriber, I abhor the implication that Slashdot.org is a haven for cannibalism.
It is well known that we now have the problem relatively under control, and that it is Kuro5hin.org who now suffer the largest casualties in this area.
And what do you think the Argylls ate in Aden. Arabs?
Yours etc.
Zontar T. Mindless (in a white wine sauce with shallots, mushrooms and garlic)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Given the fact that some of our distant relations, e.g. Chimpanzees, still kill and eat humans if they can, it doesn't surprise me that early humans might have done this as well. It probably was never a food of choice but was a 'meal of opportunity' so to speak. In addition, there could also be another reason behind the cannabalism: ritual. Many primitive cultures had rituals in which they eat animal parts in order to obtain some of that animal's powers and it isn't much of a stretch to assume ritualized cannabalism of vanquished enemies was practiced as well by early humans. We certainly know men have been killing each other for a long, long time and show no signs of developing a distaste for it (no pun intended). Even today, some Asians consume tiger genitalia and other animal parts for certain perceived benefits which probably has an origin in those rituals. The patterns seem clear enough, but it isn't very politically correct in the most religious of industrialized nations to point out man's animal orgins so I expect significant resources will be brought to bear to dissprove this even if fabrication is necessary.
Enslaving people with no souls cannot possibly be a sin, can it? Therefore there existed an incentive to find all sorts of evidence of cannibalism among tribes in distant lands.
They don't eat each other, they eat foreigners. That's just predationism.
We decided to cut back on our fatty missionary intake and went vegetarian altogether - although there certainly was a time I would have eaten you. Young guy like you, not too much muscle... I'd probably marinate you in white wine for forty-five minutes... dip you in a light corn batter... wrap you in banana leaves and bury you in a pit with a hundred hot coals... let you roast overnight. Then I'd serve you on a bed of basmati rice... with a garnish of shitake mushrooms and shallots. Mmmmmmm...
Circumcision is child abuse.
Soylent Green! It makes its own gravy!
[Speculations about the frequency of possible cannabilism followed by] Anyway wasn't cannabilism more ritual then food source?
Careful there. Many anthropologists would agree with you, but this is a case where you can end up being dead right. You are skating close to a really bad taboo-- the kind that could get your house burned down, with you in it.
Slashdotters, please keep in mind that practitioners of one the world's major religions use ritualistic cannabilism in one of their core rites, often as much as once a week. Yet most of these persons have been raised with a tremendously strong taboo against recognizing this as cannabalism, and that tends to distort the entire personality in dangerously perverse ways. When child's core belief of goodness and right is based on the phrase "take, eat: this is my body... take, drink: this my blood...", and it is taboo for the child to recognize these clear words are descriptive of ritualistic cannabilism, then that child will mature into an adult who is capable of setting up whatever mental barriers they need to allow them to do whatever the hell they want with a clear conscience.
Of course this post violates something even stronger than Godwins Law: it violates the unstated taboo about bringing rational criticism of any major religion into an internet discussion.
Naturely I post this anonymously.
"Polynesian" is not a specific nationality, but a supranational cultural/ethnic group. As the name implies, it encompasses many widespread Pacific islands and their related languages and cultures. Hawaiians and Maoris are both subsets of the Polynesians. So are the original inhabitants of Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, Easter Island, the Marquesas, Tonga, Niue, Tuvalu, and about 1000 more islands.
A few of the Polynesians were definitely cannibals, e.g. Maoris, Marquesans, and Fijians. The Tongans, Niueans, and Hawaiians, among others, have been accused of it, but there is little supporting evidence.
The Hawaiians themselves insist that they never practiced cannibalism and consider the allegation insulting. They did perform human sacrifice and kept relics of the dead, but they did not actually consume any part of their victims.
-ccm
Too much Law; not enough Order.
Kuru (a common prion disease from cannibalism) is also known as Laughing Death. That's right.. I've got my eye on you laughers and I know what you're up to. You know who you are.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Awesome
First is the television, which spreads corporate US culture in which animal brains are not food. Though in the "old days" if it was food, you ate it even if it was stuff like haggis or brains or black pudding.
Second, due to the way corporate agriculture uses animal carcasses as an ingredient in livestock feed, you get an intentional feedback loop where prions can accumulate in livestock until they can cross species. Now it is simply unsafe to eat any part of the central nervous system. A case in point is, how many times have you seen oxtail soup on the menus since the mad cow problems started to be publicized?
Third, industrial pollutants build up in animal tissue especially fat. In these times, we (ok most of us, for a while longer) have a surplus and can afford to chuck contaminated tissue like organs and fat. As far as cannibalism goes, humans are just too far up the food chain to be safe to eat, not to mention disproportionaly difficult to hunt or harvest than other animals.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Delicious.
Everything takes the easiest path.Robots that make robots that make robots,will take parts of existing robots to make new robots. Robot evolution would not be posible if this happens.PRNP software will be needed as a failsafe.
ID is not what you may think.
L.Genes
My UID is in the late 600k range and I *just* started getting moderation points a few months ago. (And I've had excellent karma for a few years.)
Now I get a set of points every week or two.
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
IN understanding prions,such as CJD,Mad cow,alz.Only a few papers exist on this gene.It may be one of the first genes ever produced on this planet.Melbourne released the first paper several years ago.I predicted the existance of this gene 10 years ago.I hope to see more research on this gene in the future.I am glad to see this in slashdot .
First time I looked at the article, I thought it said the researcher's name is "bonappetit," which would have been both appropriate and amusing. But having other things to chew on, and digesting the gist of the discussion, I moved on.
"Against stupidity, the very gods themselves contend in vain." - Schiller. I'm not smart enough to have said it myself.
I'm in the late 400k range and I stopped getting Mod points over 2 years ago. (And I've had excellent karma for a few years - apart from that time when it dropped to good after I got four Redundants on a post (one even canceled out his mod by posting to the threat saying the moderation was actually unfair because the other post was just 1 minute earlier and didn't contain the link I gave) - but I'm rating).
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
"Used to?"
Take just about any weird/nasty/mean practice that we discover our ancestors did, and you find out modern, "civilized" people have been doing similar stuff within recent memory. How about genocide in Rwanda, or massacres in China during WWII? Napalming populated jungle areas? Or body-piercing? Jonestown? At least every 10 years right up to the present day, there's documented evidence that humans are absolutely barbaric, always have been, and look to continue being so. We need to get past the idea that we've somehow outgrown the barbarism of our ancestors. Civilization is a thin veneer that only takes a few weeks to strip away when conditions deteriorate.
mod parent up