18

What are thr worst instances of this happening throughout history

top 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] itsraining@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 6 days ago

for some reason I read this as "Survival Capitalism"

[-] Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida@hexbear.net 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

One example I can think of that was pretty bad was during the Great Famine of 1315-1317, which coincided with the end of the Medieval Warm Period. Several bad harvests over those years devastated the people of Northern Europe a generation and a half before the coming of the Black Plague. Even the aristocracy, the people at the top of the feudal mode of production, had episodes in which they found food harder to come by. Anecdotally, the King of England himself, when taking up residence in a town, found it without enough food to feed his entire group of followers.

The very young were abandoned and sometimes the very old volunteered to starve themselves to spare the able-bodied. After the people exhausted their reserves of food, ate their seed grain, and slaughtered their draft animals, it's not hard to imagine at least some instances of cannibalizing the recently deceased, if stray animals could not be found. It was reported in the chronicles of the era.

Another I can think of off the top of my head is the Jamestown colony during it's early history, which was called the Starving Time. During the winter of 1609-1610, less than a fifth of the original 500 colonists were still there, and recent archeological findings show clear evidence of survival cannibalism.

[-] harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 week ago

The Donner Party - 19th century USA. Idiots who don't take advice from those with experience get caught in a blizzard while trekking to California. Even murdered a couple of their Native American guides for food.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party?wprov=sfla1

[-] stevatoo@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

JFC I forgot that last part what-the-hell

[-] stevatoo@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago

The Alaskan explorers who were too racist to take advice from the inuit people always comes to mind.

[-] FearsomeJoeandmac@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago

Ah franklin expedition and Donner party always comes to mind. Good one forgot about this one for a bit

[-] Feinsteins_Ghost@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Uruguayan Air Force flight 571.

I’m headed out the door for some errands so no time to give an explanation, but it’s worth searching on the net.

Edit - apparently this is not technically cannibalism since there was no rituals, no murder for eating of humans. This is technically called anthropophagy. Donner Party is an actual example of survival cannibalism.

[-] FearsomeJoeandmac@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

You need to get the fuck back here and explain yourself

[-] Feinsteins_Ghost@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Footie team crashes in the Andes. They eat their crash mates to survive. Tons of reading material, podcasts, and even a movie (Alive!) about it. Despite it being a Hollywood thing the movie is pretty accurate to what happened. 40 something in the plane, something like 15 survived to rescue. Like 10k foot elevation in the Chilean Andes for 70+ days.

Fucking harrowing. I am doing it zero justice, and not doing justice to the survivors stories. It’s worth the rabbit hole.

ETA - I think Last Podcast On The Left did something about it. It’s worth the listen.

[-] Thordros@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

The part of the book with the poop stick is the best part.

[-] coeliacmccarthy@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

it's the rugby team from Alive

[-] imogen_underscore@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

it happened during the Irish famine, I haven't done any real reading about it though but would be interested. we learn in school that people ate grass which is a fun euphemism for they ate each other

this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
18 points (100.0% liked)

history

2 readers
13 users here now

Welcome to c/history! History is written by the posters.

c/history is a comm for discussion about history so feel free to talk and post about articles, books, videos, events or historical figures you find interesting

Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember...we're all comrades here.

Do not post reactionary or imperialist takes (criticism is fine, but don't pull nonsense from whatever chud author is out there).

When sharing historical facts, remember to provide credible souces or citations.

Historical Disinformation will be removed

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS