More on Cannibalism and the Development of Early Human Society

A substantial body of archaeological research over the past 25 years supports the proposition that Paleolithic and Neolithic cannibalism was a sub-optimal survival strategy. This is because early modern humans had to compete with non-human scavengers and predators for meat, and so plant food became essential for survival. We now know that ‘man the hunter’ was successful in relatively few hunts, and so probably lived on the margin until foraging skills developed sufficiently to provide nutritious supplements not available fr om meat. Seasonal variations in food animals caused food stress, thereby depressing women's fertility. This probably promoted intergroup co-operation, rather than cannibalism.