The Limited Nutritional Value of Cannibalism and the Development of Early Human Society

Abstract

An increasing number of instances of cannibalism, while a relatively rare human behaviour, have come to light over the past 30 years. Forty years ago two anthropologists suggested that the limited nutritional value of cannibalism meant that primitive man could not have survived solely on human flesh. Recently an archaeologist tried to evaluate this suggestion. This paper broadens his analysis by linking Paleolithic cannibalism with an unnoticed analysis of the population dynamics of small hunter-gatherer groups among early man. It is argued that the synthesis of these two hypotheses provides additional explanations of why cannibalism was a sub-optimal survival strategy.