Cannibalism
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Narrated by:
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Tom Perkins
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By:
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Bill Schutt
About this listen
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 mothers' skin; why sexual cannibalism is an evolutionary advantage for certain spiders; why, until the end of the 18th 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.
©2017 Bill Schutt (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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- By Neuron on 11-04-18
By: Andrew Lawler
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How to Build a Dinosaur
- Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever
- By: Jack Horner, James Gorman
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In movies, in novels, in comic strips, and on television, we've all seen dinosaurs - or at least somebody's educated guess of what they would look like. But what if it were possible to build, or grow, a real dinosaur without finding ancient DNA? Jack Horner, the scientist who advised Steven Spielberg on the blockbuster film Jurassic Park and a pioneer in bringing paleontology into the 21st century, teams up with the editor of the New York Times's Science Times section to reveal exactly what's in store.
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Good book but misplaced title
- By Robert on 06-19-15
By: Jack Horner, and others
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The Most Perfect Thing
- By: Tim Birkhead
- Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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How are eggs of different shapes made, and why are they the shapes they are? When does the shell of an egg harden? Why do some eggs contain two yolks? How are the colours and patterns of eggshells created, and why do they vary? And which end of an egg is laid first - the blunt end or the pointy end?
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Great book about eggs!!
- By Timothy on 03-24-21
By: Tim Birkhead
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Pandora's Seed
- The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization
- By: Spencer Wells
- Narrated by: Spencer Wells
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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This new book by Spencer Wells, the internationally known geneticist, anthropologist, author, and director of the Genographic Project, focuses on the seminal event in human history: mankind's decision to become farmers rather than hunter-gatherers.
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Short and unfocused, but often quite interesting.
- By Alan on 06-23-10
By: Spencer Wells
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The World Until Yesterday
- What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none of these things. While the gulf that divides us from our primitive ancestors may seem unbridgeably wide, we can glimpse much of our former lifestyle in those largely traditional societies still or recently in existence.
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A visit with our ancient ancestors
- By BRB on 01-30-13
By: Jared Diamond
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Rabid
- A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus
- By: Bill Wasik, Monica Murphy
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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The most fatal virus known to science, rabies kills nearly 100 percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of mankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.
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Unexpected and Intriguing
- By Cynthia on 06-09-13
By: Bill Wasik, and others
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How the Dog Became the Dog
- From Wolves to Our Best Friends
- By: Mark Derr
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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That the dog evolved from the wolf is an accepted fact of evolution and history, but the question of how wolf became dog has remained a mystery, obscured by myth and legend. How the Dog Became the Dog posits that dog was an evolutionary inevitability in the nature of the wolf and its human soul mate. The natural temperament and social structure of humans and wolves are so similar that as soon as they met on the trail they recognized themselves in each other.
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Interesting and thorough, but not for everyone
- By N. Rogers on 12-12-11
By: Mark Derr
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Written in Stone
- Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature
- By: Brian Switek
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Spectacular fossil finds make today's headlines; new technology unlocks secrets of skeletons unearthed 100 years ago. Still, evolution is often poorly represented by the media and misunderstood by the public. A potent antidote to pseudoscience, Written in Stone is an engrossing history of evolutionary discovery for anyone who has marveled at the variety and richness of life.
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Very good but has some weaknesses
- By Anonymous User on 06-23-19
By: Brian Switek
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Sex, Time, and Power
- How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution
- By: Leonard Shlain
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of research, he shows how, long ago, the narrowness of the newly bipedal human female's pelvis and the increasing size of infants' heads precipitated a crisis for the species. Natural selection allowed for reconfiguration of hormonal cycles, entraining women with the periodicity of the moon - and imbuing women with the concept of time.
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Interesting conjecture
- By DJKPP on 10-15-20
By: Leonard Shlain
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Seven Modern Plagues
- And How We Are Causing Them
- By: Mark Jerome Walter
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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According to veterinarian and journalist Mark Walters, we are contributing to - if not overtly causing - some of the scariest epidemics of our time. Through human stories and cutting-edge science, Walters explores the origins of seven diseases: Mad Cow Disease, HIV/AIDS, Salmonella DT104, Lyme Disease, Hantavirus, West Nile, and new strains of flu. He shows that they originate from manipulation of the environment, from emitting carbon and clear-cutting forests to feeding naturally herbivorous cows “recycled animal protein.”
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Frightening, truthful and a real eye opener
- By RobJD on 02-23-15
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Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You
- A Lively Tour Through the Dark Side of the Natural World
- By: Dan Riskin
- Narrated by: Dan Riskin
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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It may be a wonderful world, but as Dan Riskin explains, it's also a dangerous, disturbing, and disgusting one. At every turn, it seems, living things are trying to eat us, poison us, use our bodies as their homes, or have us spread their eggs. In Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You, Riskin is our guide through the natural world at its most gloriously ruthless. Using the seven deadly sins as a road map, Riskin offers dozens of jaw-dropping examples that illuminate how brutal nature can truly be.
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Just a bunch of random animal behaviors.
- By Goddess on 05-18-23
By: Dan Riskin
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excellent read!
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There should be a law. Oh wait there is.
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Pump
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Loved this book
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Morbidly wonderful
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Strange Medicine
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Now published in five languages, Strange Medicine casts a gimlet eye on the practice of medicine through the ages that highlights the most dubious ideas, bizarre treatments, and biggest blunders. From bad science and oafish behavior to stomach-turning procedures that hurt more than helped, Strange Medicine presents strange but true facts and an honor roll of doctors, scientists, and dreamers who inadvertently turned the clock of medicine backward.
By: Nathan Belofsky
What listeners say about Cannibalism
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Heidi O.
- 08-15-21
I learned a lot
Mainly I learned that humans taste like beef and pork. Don't listen to this book while you're eating.
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- Mrs Rancher
- 08-24-22
well balanced
very explorative,scientifically detached and largely nonjudgmental. my main objection is the use of bce for bc and ce for ad. also a bit of overemphasis on climate change. too much political correctness. but kudos for debunking the idea that the native people were all cannibals and therefore deserved to be displaced.
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- tetrahymena
- 03-27-21
A behaviour that we just don't talk about.
For many of us, our first introduction to cannibalism is when we saw guppies eating their young in a fish tank. Other than questioning our choice of pets, most of us don't dwell much upon this topic. Maybe we switched to hamsters next (oops).
Fortunately, the author followed through and studied the topic. We typically don't consider cannibalism to be a normal part of behaviour, but apparently, it is far more widespread than I had realized. And the reasons behind cannibalism vary as well.
Far from being morbid, the book is fascinating from squid to mammals. He skillfully avoids the morbid and keeps the book fascinating and informative. Great read.
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- 0deaths
- 11-15-24
a fascinating listen
it was a pretty enjoyable book! definitely. A nice listen just to pass the time and you learn some things too.
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- Fenna
- 06-15-17
Strange Topic, Great Book, Loved It
I loved this book and I hope none of you think ill of me for it.
This book starts by introducing you to cannibalism in animal nature (which happens more often than one may think) before moving on to incidents in human history, up into modern day, and then even addresses the taboo associated with cannibalism and where it may stem from. It's a very fascinating read about a topic that no one wants to talk about. What I love about this book is that Schutt from the very beginning tells the reader that he, in no way, is there to sensationalize those who the public may consider the 'modern day cannibals' of recent history and refuses to give any attention to murders or serial killers and their acts. I can appreciate that since I feel like those people, their lives, and their actions are something that are so sensationalized already and if that's what you're looking for then you could always find that somewhere else. This book is about cannibalism in nature, in survival situations, and in culture. I thought the animal science and information was fascinating and it made me think a lot about where taboos come from and how our abhorrence for cannibalism may differ greatly with another culture.
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7 people found this helpful
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- mattLo
- 10-07-24
informative
very interesting changed my opinion or knowledge of cannibalism and the stories we think we know about it!
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- Christopher
- 12-30-23
An excellent overview of a taboo subject
This brave and thorough zoologist dares to point the microscope of the common behavior of cannibalism in the animal community to the human species. He does an excellent job of researching, the sociological, cultural and historical aspects of cannibalism as it continues to happen today as well as how it has affected, eastern and western cultures throughout the centuries. Four stars.
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- Adam
- 05-10-17
Very fun and interesting popsci book
I love biology books about strange and exotic animals and this one hit the mark. Venemous and toxic animals aren't something I was specifically interested in but this book made the topic fascinating.
An added bonus was the authors personality and the way it comes through in the writing. I usually prefer my science books to be a little on the dryer and strictly informative side, but occasionally an author is just really funny and interesting. That was the case with this book.
Fantastic book and totally worth a listen. I only wish there was more of it or more books by the author!
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6 people found this helpful
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- Thomas
- 10-21-17
Pretty Good
Actually Pretty Good-
I learned a lot about Human conditions- Wasn't planning on it- Thought it would be all animals - Solid --
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kate Brotherton
- 02-12-21
Fantastic!
Factual and well researched while maintaining a light and fun narration. I love that the author does not judge nor glorify the subject. I started fascinated the entire time.
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