A review by talonsontypewriters
Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt
informative
medium-paced
Starts strong, and has some interesting content, but it starts to fall apart when Schutt delves more into the history of cannibalism among human populations, with the light tone feeling more and more forced and the concluding scope even wider and more disorganized than the setup justifies. (If you have to cite Freud to lead into your final thesis, it probably needs some reworking.) In general, I found myself irritated by the author's attitude more than once, and as a biology student I found the popular science angle more to the book's detriment than anything -- though some lack of depth is probably just due to the author balking for fear of playing into sensationalism, the fact that even very simple concepts in biology must be explained for laypeople is likely a factor as well.
I was also unimpressed that Gajdusek's work with kuru is repeatedly referenced, but that he was a convicted child molester -- who sexually abused boys he adopted from the very region he studied, at that -- is never even touched upon, while several much lesser scandals among other cited researchers are at least noted in passing. Given the meandering path from relevance the last few chapters seem to take (and the respect Schutt tends to extend to the victims of both colonization and cannibalistic murderers), surely so much as a footnote might have been warranted.
Ultimately overall fairly disappointing, with poor organization, weak writing, and tentative conviction dulling what could have been a truly fascinating read, though I did like the earlier chapters on cannibalism in other animals and the discussion of the questionable accuracy of historic claims of cannibalistic practices around the world. I'm refraining from giving a star rating (at least for now) for that reason, but I'd say it probably sits somewhere between 2-3.
I was also unimpressed that Gajdusek's work with kuru is repeatedly referenced, but that he was a convicted child molester -- who sexually abused boys he adopted from the very region he studied, at that -- is never even touched upon, while several much lesser scandals among other cited researchers are at least noted in passing. Given the meandering path from relevance the last few chapters seem to take (and the respect Schutt tends to extend to the victims of both colonization and cannibalistic murderers), surely so much as a footnote might have been warranted.
Ultimately overall fairly disappointing, with poor organization, weak writing, and tentative conviction dulling what could have been a truly fascinating read, though I did like the earlier chapters on cannibalism in other animals and the discussion of the questionable accuracy of historic claims of cannibalistic practices around the world. I'm refraining from giving a star rating (at least for now) for that reason, but I'd say it probably sits somewhere between 2-3.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Animal death, and Gore
Moderate: Classism, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Racism, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Slavery
Minor: Ableism, Child death, Rape, Sexual content, Alcohol, Excrement, Gun violence, Incest, Self harm, and Torture