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. They present a lively and informative account of cannibalism, and cannibals, from the earliest known incidents to the present day. They include cases of ritual cannibalism in early and primitive societies such the inhabitants of Papua New Guinea; cases where famine, poverty, disease or war has left no alternative; cases in mythology, legend, literature, and fairytales like "Hansel and Gretel"; and cases of individuals from the Middle Ages to the present - Mrs Lovett and Sweeny Todd, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Armin Meiwes, the recent German cannibal who found his victim via the internet.
| |||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Daniel Diehl is an author and cultural historian. Mark P. Donnelly is a writer and lecturer on medieval subjects. Together they have produced an impressive number of books and television documentary scripts, including a book about the history of the Tower of London, Tales from the Tower (Sutton 2004).
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
After nearly 14 years in Britain, Mark P. Donnelly returned to the United States where he continues to write history for publication and broadcast. To date he has scripted and/or produced nearly 200 hours of non-fiction documentary television for The History Channel, Dicovery Channel, PBS, BBC, National Geographic, Bio/A&E and more. He has also authored or co-authored 15 books on a wide variety of historical subjects.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Colorful but Unreliable,
By
This review is from: Eat Thy Neighbour: A History of Cannibalism (Hardcover)
Eat Thy Neighbour is nothing if not engaging. From the lurid detail of a Goya painting of Saturn devouring one of his children on the dust jacket to the details of case after case of cannibalism, the book is a romp through the history of anthropophagy (the scientific name for humans eating human flesh). Unfortunately, this not a topic in which one ought to romp. The first and lesser of two problems with the book is that the tone is entirely unsuitable to the subject matter. The authors seem positively to delight in the most graphic aspects of the cases they survey, and the chapter titles, after the useful distinctions and measured tone of Part One, begin to descend into the depths of puns and sly asides: "Keeping it in the Family: Sawney Beane," "The Proof of the Pudding is in the Tasting: Margery Lovett and Sweeney Todd," "A Hunger for Adventure: Alfred Packer," and so on.
The second, and greater, offense is the authors' failure to distinguish between myth and hearsay on the one hand and actual evidence of cannibalism on the other. Time and again, they accept secondhand rumors at face value. While there is a place in history for secondhand rumors, they need to be identified as such. Diehl and Donnelly accept, for example, that the Aztecs ate all of their human sacrifices, without noting that the source for this story is a priest who arrived in Mexico more than a decade after the Spanish had imposed their own rule, and without noting that evidence of human sacrifice and evidence of cannibalism are hardly the same. They also accept as fact the testimony of sailor Hans Staden, whose account of South American cannibalism was uncorroborated and suspect. They offer a note of caution with regard to the tale of Sawney Beane, admitting that the evidence for his existence is slight, but then cheerfully accept the historicity of Sweeney Todd on the basis of (according to the bibliography) exceedingly slight evidence. Their credibility is further damaged by simple factual errors and omissions. For example, the extremely well documented case of the Medusa, a ship that ran aground in 1816, is misrepresented. The most shocking aspect of the case was that the captain and many of the better-connected passengers sailed away in the ship's boats (though the ship itself, damaged, remained largely intact on its sandbank for years), leaving about 150 stranded on a makeshift raft constructed mostly of the ship's masts. Only 15 of these people survived until rescue, and only by consuming the flesh of the dead. Evidence abounds in this case: there were court records, newspaper accounts, and the published memoirs of those who survived. The raft later became the subject of a celebrated painting by Gerricault, who interviewed survivors and even had a scale model of the raft constructed so that he could study it better. A diagram of the raft was even published. With all this evidence, and with the raft the central focus of so much discussion, it seems incredible that the authors could summarize the incident by stating that the ship "foundered and sank" and that "More than 150 survivors clung desperately to an intact section of the vessel's hull." Such basic failure to acquaint themselves with well-known facts calls the authors' credibility into question across the board.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
As Entertaining as People-Eating Can Be,
By
This review is from: Eat Thy Neighbour: A History of Cannibalism (Hardcover)
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.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not a History,
This review is from: Eat Thy Neighbour: A History of Cannibalism (Hardcover)
This book is not a 'history of cannibalism'. It is chronologically arranged, but that's as close to 'history' as it gets: it's a clutter of sensationalistic, editorialized retellings of gruesome crimes, masquerading as popular scholarship. Practically useless except when 'America's Most Wanted' isn't on television and you want a dose of the same canned, grim yet faux-shocked voice.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
