Neanderthal cannibalism

mortongr@flash.net
Thu, 30 Sep 1999 21:27:35 +0000

John Rylander made me aware of the following article on the BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_462000/462048.stm

It concerns neanderthal cannibalism. This is important because as Juan Luis
Arsuaga commented in the article : "To me this is, paradoxically, a very
human behaviour that indicates a human mind. Only humans practice
systematic cannibalism - this is the dark side of the human coin."

Cannibalism has always been associated with religous/spiritual activities.
The eating of an enemies flesh gives you his strength, or so some cultures
believed. Such behavior was observed by Columbus' men who saw the Carib
Indian's enemies cooked and eaten in great feasts.
(http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/science/1999/0503/scitoday5
.htm). Just 2 days ago there was the publication of a study that reported
similar activity was finally proven on Fiji (for the past 30 years
cannibalism has been a controversial topic see
http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/09271999/graphb.htm )

Tim White of Berkeley a well respected anthropologist who wrote a book on
cannibalism among the southwestern American Indians, said this of the
Neandertal cannibalism, ""When you see some Neanderthals practising
intentional
burial and others practising cannibalism, that is a clear indication of
behaviour that is multidimensional - a pattern that mirrors the behaviour
of more modern people," he said."

As I have noted many times on this list, to place the origin of humanity
with anatomically modern peoples, flies in the face of massive
anthropological data. The first human and the first spiritual individual
was NOT an man that looked like us. It was some hominid with whom we would
feel little kinship yet that kinship would be there in our spirits!
Anthropology is showing clearly that humankind lived long before Christian
apologists want to accept. To ignore this type of data places us in the
same position as the YECs who ignore geological and astronomical data.

glenn

Foundation, Fall and Flood
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm

Lots of information on creation/evolution