Eat Thy Neighbour: A History of Cannibalism

By Daniel Diehl, Mark P. Donnelly, Mark F. Donnelly

Book Overview

Cannibalism is unquestionably one of the oldest and deepest-seated taboos. Even in an age when almost nothing is sacred, religious, moral and social prohibitions surround the topic. But even as our minds recoil at the mention of actual acts of cannibalism there is some dark fascination with the subject. Appalling crimes of humans eating other humans are blown into major news stories and gory movies: both Hitchcock's "Psycho" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" were based on the crimes of Ed Gein, who is profiled, along with others, in this book. In Eat Thy Neighbour the authors put the subject of cannibalism into its social and historical perspective.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0750943734
• ISBN13: 9780750943734
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Sutton
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.9" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

To sate a morbid appetite

Diehl and Donnelly's book, "Eat Thy Neighbour", starts out with a brief history on cannibalism. Tying in the probabilities as to why some people chose to eat...other people and why some people were simply forced by their own inclination to survive, the authors offer a wide variety of reasons why men and women historically (and currently) cross one of the last human taboos. Historical aspects of tribal anthropophagy are mentioned and the book starts out as a kind of anthropological adventure into the past. The reader is then brought up to the past 200 years and individual chapters on various cannibals are revealed in lurid detail. This is not faint-hearted reading. Unless you can detatch yourself from the victims and have a solid stomach, you may not appreciate some of the reports (some of which are pieced together from personal confessions). I have read other material on cannibalism in the past, and while I felt this to be more a book that focused on individuals, rather than the general topic of cannibalism, it would still be a good starting point if you are interested in this kind of history and/or subject. I gave it five stars for keeping me turning the pages. If I could, I'd mark it 3 or 4 for the content.

As Entertaining as People-Eating Can Be

This product treats anthropophagy thoroughly with wit and a sense of humor. It's one of the most in-depth books on the subject I've found so far. The first few chapters are a historical basis for the practice of cannibalism and the last half contains entertaining specifically documented accounts of the practice in "civilized society" since the 1600's.

Very Informative

I read this book in 2 days - it had a lot of interesting information about the subject. I also liked how every chapter was either a different time period in history or a different individual whose story was discussed. If you are looking for something unlike a history book but still informative - this one was great.

How can one learn more about anthropophagy?

By reading this delightful book about a truly undelightful practice. Usual societal mores view eating the flesh of another human as distasteful, not an easy topical read, and a difficult subject matter for some to swallow (poor puns intended). How best to examine the scattered historical records of what we now see as such abberant behavior? With a grain of salt, perhaps, as have these authors, as evidenced by their chapter titles, and by the occasional humorous nuance found in their recounting of known occurrances of cannibalism. We don't know when homo sapiens gave up such primitive behaviors, but we do know through evidence found by reputable archaeologists that prehistoric man often consumed his fellow man. These days, we don't often eat the children during a difficult winter, as we did eons ago. Here, in this book, we learn of some sometimes startling consumptive events in humanity's relatively recent past. I found this compendium of known incidences of cannibalism to be interesting, well presented, and am pleased that someone took the time and effort to make all these tales available between two covers. A good and entertaining read.