Read More: Dinner with a Cannibal

I pretty much love all things horrifying, including humans eating humans, so I figured Dinner with a Cannibal by Carole A. Travis-Henikoff would be a wonderful and interesting read. Unfortunately there just wasn't a whole lot of information on cannibalism in this book.

It started with gross things that people eat. It is important that you note now, before you get yourself in an awkward situation, that rocky mountain oysters are not oysters. And if you order sweetbreads you will not get raisin cinnamon toast.

Then it tried to get to cannibalism, but was so disorganized and unfocused, that it only touched on it here and there. For example, one chapter starts by talking about Aborigines, then jumps to Neanderthal cannibalism, and then back to Aboriginal scarification and finally gets to Aborigine cannibalism. A very roundabout way, but it finally made it, for about one page of the chapter. In another she talks about cannibalistic infanticide and then wanders off to the topic of child brides, which is unsettling for sure, but has nothing to do with cannibalism. I would say, all in all, about 5% of this book had anything to do with people eating people.

And when she does get to the topic promised by the title, I have to wonder about her sources and the credibility of her claims. For instance she says there is irrefutable evidence that Neanderthals were cannibals because of the cut marks found on bones. There certainly may well have been cannibalism going on... or they may have defleshed bodies for ritualistic burial purposes. There could be many explanations for this. So suspected cannibalism, fine, but definitive evidence, nay. Also, in recounting her evidence that Aborigines were cannibals, she says that there are too many accounts to be ignored. Too many accounts by invading peoples who treated the Aborigines atrociously and continue to treat them as second class citizens today? A quote from an article concerning another book about aborigines and cannibalism sums up my thoughts nicely:

" 'I don't think there is any credible evidence in the historical-anthropological literature to sustain it,' said James Cook University historian Henry Reynolds, regarded as Australia's pre-eminent historian on Aborigines. 

'Certainly there were writers in the 19th century who wrote sensational material along these lines, but to think that anyone in the late 20th century can take it seriously and put it forward without any evidence is pretty disturbing,' he said."

I concur! But what do you expect from a lady who evidently links Aborigines and Neanderthals together in her mind?

All in all, this was a pretty lame read. If you want to read a book on cannibalism, do not go here. However, if you want to read a bunch of loosely (and I use this term loosely) related crap, written dully, then I dare say this book is for you.

- Megan Leigh