Episodes of Cannibalism throughout History

2. Captain James Cook described cannibalism among the Maori and on islands he observed on his voyages

The English explorer James Cook explored the lands occupied by the Maori in 1770 following his visit to Tahiti, where he observed the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. Accompanying him on the voyage to New Zealand was a Tahitian priest, Tupaia, who assisted him in navigating the Polynesian islands, and told him of the islands now known as Fiji, though Cook did not visit the archipelago. In January, 1770, Cook observed and recorded in his journal cannibalistic rituals practiced by the Maori, explained to him as religious rites by his Tahitian assistant.

Cook’s journals were published upon his return to England the following year, as were those of the botanist who had traveled with him on his voyage, Joseph Banks. Both were sensations in Europe. Tales of the savage cannibals of the Pacific Isles were a stark contrast to those of the peaceful idylls of Polynesia. Cook wrote of cannibalism on his subsequent voyages, many instances when he was informed by one island populace of cannibalism practiced by the people of another. Ironically, when Cook was killed in Hawaii, the natives roasted the flesh from his bones, some of which were then returned to the British ships. The funerary rite of the islanders led to stories that the great explorer had been killed and eaten by cannibals.

3. Josephus described cannibalism during the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE

Flavius Josephus’s The Wars of the Jews contains a passage graphically depicting cannibalism practiced by the Jews starving during the Siege of Jerusalem. In Book 6, Chapter 3, Section 4, a woman named Mary, daughter of Eleazar, describes the suffering and lack of food among the citizens of Jerusalem as being so severe that she could no longer find any sort of food, and “the famine pierced through her very bones and marrow”. The hunger drove her to do a “most unnatural thing”, and she took her son, who was, “a child sucking at her breast”, and exhorted him to “be thou my food”.

“As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and eat the one-half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed”. When the act was discovered by other Jews they were too horrified by her actions to punish her. The story of her murder and consumption of her son spread through the city, and Josephus reported that when the people heard the story they reacted, “as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves”. Josephus wrote that most of the people “distressed by the famine” wanted to die, considering those already dead to be happier than those still struggling to remain alive, reduced to such vile acts as those committed by Mary.

4. Cannibalism was recorded in Hispania during the Siege of Numantia

During the Roman Wars to subjugate the Iberian Peninsula in the 2^nd Century CE, the city of Numantia was besieged by Roman armies, as recorded by the Appian of Alexandria. Appian was born more than two centuries following the events of the siege, and the sources of his information are for a large part unknown. Essentially his work is laid out in the manner of a series of individual articles, with large chronological gaps, and with his sources not identified, though there are occasional references within the text of his work. All together it covers more than nine centuries of Roman history, as well as the peoples conquered by the Republic and Empire.

Appian wrote of the Siege of Numantia that the besieged, being out of other foods, boiled the hides of animals for sustenance. When that source was exhausted, they, “boiled and ate the bodies of human beings, first those who had died a natural death, chopping them in small bits for cooking.” When the resulting meals sickened the people, “the stronger laid hands on the weaker”. Appian reported that the people who partook in cannibalism were made “savage in mind by their food”. The people were reduced to the behavior and appearance of “wild beasts” and were in such condition when they appealed to the Roman commander, Scipio, for terms.

5. Cannibalism was likely practiced by the Aztecs as a part of human sacrificial rituals

In pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, human sacrifice was a widespread ritual as an integral part of celebrating the various feasts of the year. While some have proposed that humans were part of the routine diet for the nobility and priests of the Aztec Empire, most scholars do not support that view. But evidence of cannibalism practiced ritually is strong. It must be noted cannibalism does not necessarily mean the complete consumption of a body, but any portion of it, and drinking the blood of sacrificial victims, as well as eating the heart and other internal organs, is evidenced in the art of the Aztecs, the later observations recorded by the Spanish, and the archeological discoveries of Aztec communities.

In the book The Conquest of New Spain (1632) by Bernal Diaz, descriptions of caged men awaiting sacrifice and consumption by their captors are found. Diaz wrote that after the Aztecs were defeated by the Spaniards, the latter found cooking pots “prepared with salt and peppers and tomatoes” in which the captured Spanish soldiers were to have been cooked, as part of a victory banquet. Though some consider Diaz’s account to be based on racism, as justification for the Spanish conquest, other eyewitness accounts corroborate him, including that of Diego Munoz Camargo, who wrote in 1585, “Thus there were butcher’s shops of human flesh, as if it were of cow or sheep”.

6. Archeological evidence of cannibalism during the early days of Jamestown, Virginia

The Winter of 1609, in the struggling English colony of Jamestown in Virginia, has long been known as a period when the settlers ate dogs, horses, cats, and whatever else they could find to survive. There is no archeological evidence that on at least one occasion some of them resorted to eating each other. Based on skeletal remains analyzed by archeologists from the Smithsonian Institution and Preservation Virginia, at least one person, an unknown young girl they called Jane, was butchered in a manner to allow the consumption of internal organs and parts of the body. The remains were found in a refuse pit where the bones of butchered animals were also found.

The team speculated that the skull was split open to remove the brain, and other marks indicated that the tongue and cheeks were also removed, likely to be eaten. The leg muscles were also butchered in a manner to indicate they were to be eaten. Letters from residents of the colony during the Starving Time long hinted at some of the colony resorting to cannibalism, including one from George Percy, who had led the colony at the time. In 1625 Percy wrote, “that nothing was spared to maintain life and to do those things which seem incredible, as to dig up dead corpses out of graves and to eat them”.

7. The Maori in New Zealand cannibalized 27 French sailors at one time in 1772

Marion du Fresne was a naval officer during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 – 48) who rose to the rank of Captain before entering the merchant service following the war. He served in the French East India Company, which failed in 1769, and led him to lobbying the court of Louis XVI to equip him with an expedition to the South Seas, in search of the east coast of Australia, a mission which placed him in competition with James Cook. With two ships, du Fresne discovered the Prince Edward Islands and the Crozet Islands before embarking for Tasmania and New Zealand.

In 1772, du Fresne’s expedition anchored in the Bay of Islands, needing to refit their ships and obtain fresh vegetables to treat the scurvy which had broken out in their crews. There, according to two separate contemporaneous accounts written by survivors, they were befriended by a local Maori Chieftain named Te Kauri. On June 12, 1772, du Fresne and 26 sailors with him ashore were attacked by Maori tribesmen under Te Kauri, killed, and eaten. The Maori later attempted to destroy the rest of the expedition, but French firearms defeated Maori spears. Upon return to France, the story of the cannibals’ massacre of the French party was used to refute the fashionable ideas of Rousseau of the natives living as “noble savages”.

8. Cannibalism was described in The Gentleman’s Magazine in 1736

According to the July, 1736 edition of The Gentleman’s Magazine, published in London, the slave ship Mary was lost at sea in late 1735, and eight survivors in a ship’s boat were gradually reduced to but two. The ship spent several months in African waters and the Cape Verde Islands before sailing for Lisbon, laden with slaves and ivory, with its first officer in command following the death of the captain at Cutchoe in Guinea. The ship sank while underway to Portugal, and eight survivors escaped in the boat, minimally provisioned, with little idea of where they were and less of which direction to sail. They drifted for several days.

According to the account, they decided by vote to kill one of the company, “whom we accordingly killed out of pure necessity, and cut his flesh into small pieces dipped it in salt water, and hung it up to dry in the sun”. It wasn’t enough. “And thus we were forced to do with four more of the crew out of eight”. The sixth victim was killed to prevent him from killing one of the two men who survived and reported the incident to the authorities. The last two men were rescued by a vessel which put them ashore in Barbados, where they delivered the tale to local authorities. The Gentleman’s Magazine did not recount what happened to the two survivors who delivered the harrowing tale beyond their arrival at Barbados.

9. Cannibalism was practiced by Indians during Pontiac’s Rebellion, according to the account of a survivor

Following the French and Indian War in North America, a confederation of Indian tribes raised by the Ottawa war chief Pontiac besieged Fort Detroit. Prior to the siege warriors from Pontiac’s force encountered a party of British troops and American militia on a patrol of the Detroit River. The party was under the command of Captain Charles Robson, of the 77^th Regiment of the British Army. The Indians captured most of the small party after killing Robson and at least one other. The officer’s coat was taken as a prize and he was scalped before the Indians – who were either Ottawa or Huron – drank the rum they found in the British boat.

That evening the drunken Indians dragged one of the prisoners, a man named Rutherford, into one of their shelters, where he observed them roasting the body of Captain Robson in their fires, and eating of its flesh. The following morning Rutherford was unbound and offered some of the remaining flesh from the repast of the evening before, which according to his account he refused. Rutherford informed his Indian master that he would obey his every command but that one, and in so doing pleased his Indian captor to the point that he was not forced to eat of his late commander’s flesh. After he was freed, Rutherford told his comrades that some of the North American tribes ate the flesh of their enemies because they believed it would ensure they would prosper in the art of war.

10. References to cannibalism are prevalent in the Bible

Both the Christian New Testament and the Hebrew Bible contain numerous references to cannibalism. Some of them are promises or commands from God, as in Jeremiah 19: 9, “And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend in the siege…” (KJV). In Isaiah 49: 26, God tells the prophet, “And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine…” (KJV). In 2 Kings is a story of a woman asking another to deliver her son to be eaten, with the promise of her delivering her own son for the same purpose the following day. (2 Kings 6: 28-29, KJV)

The presence of more than 30 verses throughout the Bible leads some to argue that the Bible endorses cannibalism, others that it describes it as the suffering to be visited upon sinners, and still others to ignore them entirely. They do indicate that the practice was known in the lands of ancient Israel and the other kingdoms and dominions of the books of the Bible. The Christian belief in the conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ – the transubstantiation – led the Romans and others to consider them cannibalistic in nature, though their participation in the eating of flesh and blood was purely symbolic.

11. A Dutch mob killed and ate their own Prime Minister in 1672

Johan deWitt was a wealthy and powerful leader of the faction of Dutch merchants and traders that supported the Dutch Republic. For two decades deWitt and his brother, Cornelis, controlled the machinery of government in the Republic, despite opposition from the powerful House of Orange, the leading house of Dutch nobility. Its leader was Willem III, Prince of Orange (and later King William III of England). During his period of control of the republican Dutch government as Grand Pensioner (in effect, Prime Minister), deWitt focused on liberal reforms and policies, largely ignoring the Dutch army. He did support the expansion of the Dutch navy to defend trade.

In 1672 war erupted between the English and Dutch (Third Anglo-Dutch War); the French and Dutch (Franco-Dutch War); and enemy armies rapidly overran the Dutch Republic. Angry mobs of supporters of the House of Orange rioted, and the deWitt brothers were seized and murdered, according to some on the command of the Prince of Orange. The brothers’ bodies were then mutilated and according to numerous sources parts of Johan’s body were eaten by the frenzied mob. Though the murderers were known by authorities, none were ever charged with a crime, and some were granted rewards by Willem, and by his supporters, leading to the conclusion that a future King of England endorsed, though he did not participate in, an act of cannibalism.

12. Survivors of the Luxborough Galley resorted to cannibalism to stay alive

The Luxborough was a vessel which ran on the Triangle Trade route, carrying goods, slaves, rum and molasses between England, the American colonies, and Africa in 1727. On her final voyage a disastrous fire, started when a lighted candle used for checking the source of a leak ignited a barrel of rum, led to the loss of the ship and 22 men and boys escaped in a small boat. They had no navigational aids, little food and water, and when they were rescued by a fishing vessel two weeks later their number had been reduced to twelve. Several more died after being rescued despite the attentions of the fishermen. One survivor went to Boston, and it was the Gazette of that city which first described the loss of the ship and the survival of some of the crew.

The account reported that though the sensation of hunger was “not so urgent” the survivors quickly decided to “adopt the horrible expedient of eating part of the bodies of our dead companions, and drinking their blood”. They failed in their several attempts to catch fish swimming around the drifting boat, using parts of the dead bodies as their bait. The report stated they tried several parts of the bodies as food, “but could relish only the hearts, of which we ate three”. They developed a procedure of quickly cutting the throat of the recently deceased to drain as much blood as possible, which was then shared among the survivors. Nearly all of the survivors lived to “a very great age” according to John Nichols, editor of Gentleman’s Magazine, who interviewed some of them decades later.

13. Escaping prisoners cannibalized each other until there was one

In 1822, Alexander Pearce and seven other prisoners escaped from the prison at Macquarie Harbor, on Tasmania’s remote west coast. The prisoners had intended to escape by boat, but circumstances of the escape led them to enter the rugged country to the east, hoping to cross to the coast in that direction. On the eighth day, one of the escapees, Alexander Dalton, was selected by vote of the others to be killed to provide food for the rest. Two escapees decided the next day to return to the prison. The others continued eastward, and as hunger became great, the weakest of the party was killed by bludgeoning with an axe, and provided sustenance for the others.

When there were but two remaining, both struggled to remain awake, and Pearce won the battle. He made it to the eastern settlements and managed to remain undetected for a short time, surviving by stealing sheep. When he was recaptured, he told the story of the escape to local authorities, who did not believe him. The escapees who had returned to Macquarie had died, and the story could not be corroborated. Months later Pearce escaped again, in company with another prisoner. He was quickly recaptured, and had human flesh in his possession when he was. He also had other food. He was hanged in Hobart in July, 1824.

14. Andrew Jackson was accused of cannibalism while running for president on 1828

Those who believe that political campaigns of the present day are the most vile and vicious of history would do well to look at some of the campaigns of the past. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was running for President, largely on his heroic reputation as a soldier against the Creek Indians and his victory at New Orleans in 1815. A series of pamphlets known as the Coffin Handbills were produced by his opponents, tarnishing his reputation both as a soldier and as a man. In one he was accused of executing several men under his command, a blatant falsehood as presented. In another he was accused of adultery and bigamy.

In a supplement to the Coffin Handbills, a pamphlet written by Congressman John Taliaferro, a supporter of Jackson’s opponent, incumbent President John Quincy Adams, Jackson was directly accused of sleeping while surrounded by the bodies of the Indians his troops had slain. He was also accused of having some of the bodies butchered by his cooks and served to him for breakfast. There was no truth to the accusations, but they were widely repeated in pro-Adams publications and read in the taverns and inns. They are still sometimes cited as a source of proof that Andrew Jackson was a cannibal, found often within the Cherokee Nation.

15. Two missionaries were killed and eaten by cannibals in the New Hebrides in 1839

John Williams and his wife Mary established their first mission in the Society Islands in 1817. The Society Islands were a group of islands so named by James Cook, to honor the Royal Society in Great Britain. Tahiti and the other islands of French Polynesia are included in the group. From 1817 to the 1830s, Williams expanded his mission in the South Seas, becoming the first missionary to visit Samoa, as well as the first to visit Rarotonga, which had been discovered by Fletcher Christian and the Bounty mutineers as they searched for Pitcairn Island, though the discovery had been unknown in Europe. In 1839 Williams and a companion visited the New Hebrides chain to establish a mission there.

Upon arrival at the island of Erromango, part of the Vanuatu chain, the two missionaries were attacked, killed, and eaten by cannibals. Erromango had been first discovered by Captain Cook, and its name was bestowed, according to local lore, by a misunderstanding on the Englishman’s part. When handed a yam by a native, Cook was told what he believed to be the name of the island on which he stood. What he heard was Erromango. What was actually said in the extinct language of the islanders was armai n’go, which was not the name of the island at all, but which meant, in reference to the yam, “this food is good”.

16. Cannibalism was common among the warring tribes of the Marquesas Islands

The Marquesas Islands were heavily populated by numerous tribes, which continually formed alliances and carried out wars with each other. The tribes concentrated their settlements in the valleys and along the rivers. When American Commodore David Porter was in command of USS Essex on its Pacific cruise during the War of 1812 he visited the islands to refit his ships and the tribe which hosted him demanded his support in a local war as their price. Whaling vessels long resorted to the islands for replenishment. There were many reports of cannibalism among the natives of the Marquesas, including by Robert Louis Stevenson, who visited the islands. Cannibalism was practiced both as religious ritual and as a source of food.

The flesh of human beings was known as Long Pig to the Marquesans, who considered the consumption of the body of a dead enemy to be the supreme triumph. Captured enemies were set aside to be eaten later, their legs broken to prevent them from escaping. They were lodged so as to see what their own fate would be, allowed to view the killing, butchering, and eating of their fellow prisoners who preceded them. The capture, killing, and eating of women of an enemy tribe was considered a great accomplishment, both as a humiliation of the men of the enemy, unable to protect their women, and because they were in demand as better to eat.

17. One cannibal reported that humans’ taste like fine veal

William Seabrook was a reporter and author who traveled to Africa in the 1920s, where he claimed to have encountered ritual cannibalism among some of the tribes. In a book based on his adventures entitled Jungle Ways, Seabrook described the taste of human flesh he discovered on his journey. He compared it to “fully developed veal, not young, but not yet beef”. He went on to write, “It was so nearly like good, fully developed veal that I think no person with a palate of ordinary, normal sensitiveness could distinguish it from veal”. But Seabrook did not base his description on the output of an African cannibal chef.

As he later confessed, “the distrustful tribesmen never allowed him to partake in their traditions”. Instead, Seabrook obtained human flesh from a contact at the Sorbonne, and prepared it himself at home. As it is possible that the contact, a young intern, was appalled at what Seabrook intended to do with it and provided instead veal, easily obtainable in Paris, Seabrook might not have tasted human flesh at all. But he insisted that he did, further describing it as a roast, “from which I cut and ate a central slice, was tender, and in color, texture, smell as well as taste…veal is the one meat to which this meat is accurately comparable”.

18. The Boyd Massacre of 1809 led to European ships avoiding New Zealand for a time

The straight grained wood of the kauri trees of New Zealand made them highly desirable for use as replacement spars and masts on the ships plying the South Pacific in the days of sail. In 1809, a brigantine named Boyd arrived at Whangaroa, commanded by John Thompson, and carrying about 70 people (accounts vary) including a Maori named Te Ara, whom the crew called George. George was supposed to pay for his passage by working with the crew, and when he refused to do so he was disciplined in the manner of the sea at the time, placed on reduced rations and flogged. Other accounts state that he was flogged for theft.

When the local Maori chief learned of the flogging, he and his men lured several of the crew away from the ship with a promise of helping them locate suitable kauri trees. The working party was killed, the bodies taken to the Maori village for consumption. The Maori then attacked Boyd, killing all but five of the remaining crew and passengers. In all between 66 and 70 of the Europeans were killed and eaten by the Maori cannibals, the last being the second mate of the ship, who was spared in the initial massacre to be used as a maker of fishing nets for the tribe. Once his usefulness was spent he too was killed and eaten. Pacific whaling ships attacked the Maori village in the aftermath, freeing the four remaining prisoners. It was the largest single reported incident of cannibalism by the Maori against Europeans. It also led to many ships avoiding the waters around New Zealand.

19. Cannibalism became a popular feature of entertainment

Daniel Defoe placed his hero Robinson Crusoe in danger of being captured and eaten by cannibals in 1719 (Friday was one of the cannibal tribe before Robinson converted him). Jonathan Swift suggested the Irish and English practice cannibalism, with the poor Irish selling their children to the wealthy among the English for food. Swift’s satire suggested that the problems of an Ireland overburdened by starving children could thus easily be resolved. Herman Melville used cannibalism as a dramatic feature in his novel Typee, which was based on his own actual experiences living among cannibals on the island of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands.

In the 1930s, cannibals became a staple of jungle movies, which continued into the 21^st century, though by then the horror genre, rather than adventure and drama, had absorbed most cannibal films. Cartoons featured stereotypical cannibals, as a foil for the animated heroes such as Bugs Bunny and Popeye the Sailor, among others. Originally Pippi Longstocking’s father was described as a King of the Cannibals somewhere in the far Pacific, before political correctness decided that such a description was offensive and dangerous for sensitive children. Numerous video games featured cannibalism, and in some the player may become a cannibal, if so desired.

20. Japanese troops practiced cannibalism during the Second World War

That Japanese troops throughout the South Pacific practiced cannibalism during World War II is well documented as a result of the investigations of the Australian War Crimes Section of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (1946-48). According to Toshiyuki Tanaka, a historian and author Japanese cannibalism were “conducted…by whole squads and under the commands of officers”. The Japanese performed amputations on the living that were medically unnecessary, and ate the limbs thus acquired. In early 1945 five American prisoners of war were killed and eaten by the Japanese on Chichi-Jima, and five senior Japanese officers including a general, an admiral, and a doctor were convicted after the war for the crime and hanged.

Over 100 cases of cannibalism by the Japanese on prisoners of war were documented by the Australian investigation following the war. In some cases, it was evident that the Japanese attempted to hide the activity from other prisoners while in others, particularly in camps holding Indian prisoners, the killing and cooking of PoWs were conducted in plain view. Japanese cannibalization of prisoners increased later in the war. Among the documents held in Australia are internal Japanese Army memos which indicate the cannibalization of enemy prisoners was calculated to enhance unit cohesion, not to battle hunger, and the activity was known among the Japanese senior commanders.

Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:

“The Next Great Famine”. Amy Davidson, The New Yorker. January 11, 2016

“Captain Cook’s Journal During His First Voyage Round the World”. James Cook. 1768-71. Project Gutenberg. Online

“The Wars of the Jews, or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem”. Flavius Josephus. Project Gutenberg. Online

“100 Great Sieges from Jericho to Sarajevo”. Paul K. Davis. 2001

“The Conquest of New Spain”. Bernal Diaz del Castillo. 1963 edition.

“Jamestown Colonists Resorted to Cannibalism”. Paula Neely, National Geographic News. May 3, 2013

“Marion du Fresne”. Biography, New Zealand History Online.

“Pontiac and the Indian Uprising”. Howard H. Peckham. 1947

“Bible Verses about Cannibalism”. King James Bible Online.

“Orange and Stuart, 1641-1672”. Pieter Geyl. 1969

“An Account of the Loss of the Luxborough Galley”. William Boys. 1727.

“A real-life horror story of the Irish cannibal who terrorized Australia”. Staff, Irish Central. October 4, 2018. Online

“The Tsunami of Slime circa 1828: New York Magazine. June 15, 2012

“A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands”. John Williams. Cambridge Library Edition. 2010

“Journal of a cruise made to the Pacific Ocean”. David Porter, USN. 1822. Project Gutenberg. Online

“Human Flesh Looks Like Beef, But the Taste Is More Elusive”. Rachel Nuwer, Smithsonian.com. February 3, 2014

“Stronger than Spinach: The Secret Appeal of the Famous Studios Popeye Cartoons”. Steve Bierly.

“Japan Hears of World War II Cannibalism a Half Century Later”. Geoff Spencer, Associated Press. August 11, 1992