The Limited Nutritional Value of Cannibalism and the Development of Early Human Society
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An increasing number of instances of cannibalism, while a relatively rare human behaviour, have come to light over the past 30 years.Forty years ago two anthropologists suggested that the limited nutritional value of cannibalism meant that primitive man could not have survived solely on human flesh.Recently an archaeologist tried to evaluate this suggestion.This paper broadens his analysis by linking Paleolithic cannibalism with an unnoticed analysis of the population dynamics of small hunter-gatherer groups among early man.It is argued that the synthesis of these two hypotheses provides additional explanations of why cannibalism was a sub-optimal survival strategy.
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Human bodies have limited nutritional value.
“Considering the limited nutritional values of human bodies (Cole, 2017;Sack, 2021)”
From The Archaeology of Cannibalism: a Review of the Taphonomic Traits Associated with Survival and Ritualistic Cannibalism (2025) · cites this paper as Sack, 2021
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Bello, S. M. (2025) · Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · doi:10.1007/s10816-024-09676-3 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“Considering the limited nutritional values of human bodies (Cole, 2017; Sack, 2021), the large scale of can-nibalistic evidence around the world and at different time periods up to the present day (e.g. Saladié & Rodríguez-Hidalgo, 2017; Scott and McMurry, 2011), the variety of expressions in which…”
- Authors
- Sack, G.
- Corresponding author
- Sack, Gerald
- ORCID
- Sack, Gerald
- Venue
- Social Evolution & History
- Publisher
- Uchitel Publishing House
- Published
- 2021
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 1681-4363 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4205830484
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 0.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- Social Evolution & History (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Archaeological and Geological Studies
- Keywords
- cannibalism, Paleolithic, early human societies, hunter-gatherers, population dynamics, small group size, survival strategies, human evolution
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