144-478: Not to be confused with Donner Party . [REDACTED] Look up dinner party in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Dinner Party or The Dinner Party may refer to: A type of party or formal dinner The Dinner Party , an installation artwork by Judy Chicago The Dinner Party (play) , by Neil Simon Dinner Party (EP) - an eponymous recording by
288-494: A rifle and food. The trials that the Donner Party had so far endured resulted in splintered groups, each looking out for themselves and distrustful of the others. Grass was becoming scarce, and the animals were steadily weakening. To relieve the animals' load, everyone was expected to walk. Keseberg ejected Hardkoop from his wagon, telling the elderly man that he had to walk or die. A few days later, Hardkoop sat next to
432-466: A "disagreeable" glue-like jelly. Ox and horse bones were boiled repeatedly to make soup, and they became so brittle that they would crumble upon chewing. Sometimes they were softened by being charred and eaten. Bit by bit, the Murphy children picked apart the oxhide rug that lay in front of their fireplace, roasted it in the fire and ate it. After a party set out on makeshift snowshoes in an attempt to cross
576-476: A "shortage of animal protein" was also the underlying reason for Aztec cannibalism. The cultural anthropologist Marshall Sahlins , on the other hand, rejected such explanations as overly simplistic, stressing that cannibal customs must be regarded as "complex phenomen[a]" with "myriad attributes" which can only be understood if one considers "symbolism, ritual, and cosmology" in addition to their "practical function". In pre-modern medicine, an explanation given by
720-544: A 16-year-old named Jean Baptiste Trudeau from New Mexico , who claimed to have knowledge of the Native Americans and terrain on the way to California. The party turned south to follow the Hastings Cutoff. Within days, they found the terrain to be much more difficult than described. Drivers were forced to lock the wheels of their wagons to prevent them from rolling down steep inclines. Years of traffic on
864-464: A 2002 episode "Dinner Party" ( Filthy Rich & Catflap ) TV & film [ edit ] Dinner Party , a short film by Lisa Cholodenko The Dinner Party (talk show) , a live arts talk show hosted by Elysabeth Alfano Dinner Party Wars , a Canadian show that originally aired on Food Network Canada and was judged by Corbin Tomaszeski and Anthea Turner "The Dinner Party",
1008-524: A 25-year-old teamster named John Snyder, traveling together in three wagons. Their arrival brought the Donner Party to 87 members in 60–80 wagons. The Graves family had been part of the last group to leave Missouri, confirming the Donner Party was at the back of the year's western exodus. It was August 20 by the time that they reached a point in the mountains where they could see the Great Salt Lake . It took almost another two weeks to travel out of
1152-914: A belief that eating a person's flesh or internal organs will endow the cannibal with some of the positive characteristics of the deceased. However, several authors investigating exocannibalism in New Zealand , New Guinea , and the Congo Basin observe that such beliefs were absent in these regions. A further type, different from both exo- and endocannibalism, is autocannibalism (also called autophagy or self-cannibalism ), "the act of eating parts of oneself". It does not ever seem to have been an institutionalized practice, but occasionally occurs as pathological behaviour, or due to other reasons such as curiosity. Also on record are instances of forced autocannibalism committed as acts of aggression, where individuals are forced to eat parts of their own bodies as
1296-697: A boy aged around 5 or 6. As the daily energy need of an adult man is about 2,400 kilocalories, a dead male body could thus have fed a group of 25 men for a bit more than two days, provided they ate nothing but the human flesh alone – longer if it was part of a mixed diet. The nutritional value of the human body is thus not insubstantial, though Cole notes that for prehistoric hunters, large megafauna such as mammoths , rhinoceros , and bisons would have been an even better deal as long as they were available and could be caught, because of their much higher body weight. Cases of people eating human livers and hearts , especially of enemies, have been reported from across
1440-540: A carriage maker from Illinois, brought his wife Eleanor (25) and their two children, James (3) and Margaret (1). The Breen family consisted of Patrick Breen (51), a farmer from Iowa , his wife Margaret ("Peggy", 40) and seven children: John (14), Edward (13), Patrick, Jr. (9), Simon (8), James (5), Peter (3) and 11-month-old Isabella. Their neighbor, 40-year-old bachelor Patrick Dolan, traveled with them. German immigrant Lewis Keseberg (32) joined, along with his wife Elisabeth Philippine (22) and daughter Ada (2); son Lewis Jr.
1584-702: A double bag ... which was put into a large pot" and so boiled alive. While not mentioning live roasting or boiling, European authors also complained about cannibalism and cruelty during the Mongol invasion of Europe , and a drawing in the Chronica Majora (compiled by Matthew Paris ) shows Mongol fighters spit-roasting a human victim. Pedro de Margarit [ es ] , who accompanied Christopher Columbus during his second voyage , afterwards stated "that he saw there with his own eyes several Indians skewered on spits being roasted over burning coals as
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#17327930469901728-411: A family of thirteen. Her five youngest children were: John Landrum (16), Meriam ("Mary", 14), Lemuel (12), William (10) and Simon (8). Levinah's two married daughters and their families also came along: Sarah Murphy Foster (19), her husband William M. (30) and son Jeremiah George (1); Harriet Murphy Pike (18), her husband William M. (32) and their daughters Naomi (3) and Catherine (1). William H. Eddy (28),
1872-459: A form of torture . Exocannibalism is thus often associated with the consumption of enemies as an act of aggression, a practice also known as war cannibalism . Endocannibalism is often associated with the consumption of deceased relatives in funerary rites driven by affection – a practice known as funerary or mortuary cannibalism . Medicinal cannibalism (also called medical cannibalism ) means "the ingestion of human tissue ... as
2016-525: A group of cannibals in West Africa in the 14th century, the Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta recorded that, according to their preferences, "the tastiest part of women's flesh is the palms and the breast." Centuries later, the anthropologist Percy Amaury Talbot [ fr ] wrote that, in southern Nigeria , "the parts in greatest favour are the palms of the hands, the fingers and toes, and, of
2160-471: A major part of the grieving process. It has also been explained as a way of guiding the souls of the dead into the bodies of living descendants. In contrast, exocannibalism is the consumption of a person from outside the community. It is frequently "an act of aggression, often in the context of warfare", where the flesh of killed or captured enemies may be eaten to celebrate one's victory over them. Some scholars explain both types of cannibalism as due to
2304-545: A member of the enemy faction, which was enough to get her killed by an angry mob. After the others had left, he "cut open the girl's chest ..., dug out her heart, and took it home to enjoy". In a further case that took place in Wuxuan County , likewise in the Guangxi region, three brothers were beaten to death as supposed enemies; afterwards their livers were cut out, baked, and consumed "as medicine". According to
2448-622: A more direct route (which actually increased the trip's mileage by 125 miles) to California across the Great Basin , which would take travelers through the Wasatch Range and across the Great Salt Lake Desert . Hastings had not traveled any part of his proposed shortcut until early 1846 on a trip from California to Fort Bridger , a scant supply station run by Jim Bridger at Blacks Fork , Wyoming. Hastings stayed at
2592-525: A mountain pass in present-day Wyoming which was relatively easy for wagons to negotiate. From there, pioneers had a choice of routes to their destinations. Lansford Hastings , an early migrant from Ohio to the West, published The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California to encourage settlers. As an alternative to the Oregon Trail's standard route through Idaho 's Snake River Plain , he proposed
2736-438: A narrow sense), but also " lungs , liver , brain , heart , nervous tissue , bone marrow , genitalia and skin ", as well as kidneys . For a typical adult man, the combined nutritional value of all these edible parts is about 126,000 kilocalories (kcal). The nutritional value of women and younger individuals is lower because of their lower body weight – for example, around 86% of a male adult for an adult woman and 30% for
2880-503: A new and better road to California" and said he would be waiting at Fort Bridger to guide the migrants along the new cutoff. On July 20, at the Little Sandy River, most of the wagon train opted to follow the established trail via Fort Hall . A smaller group opted to head for Fort Bridger and needed a leader. Most of the younger men in the group were European immigrants and not considered ideal leaders. James Reed had lived in
3024-526: A painting by Sam Walsh, inspired by Millais' Pre-Raphaelite painting Isabella Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Dinner Party . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dinner_Party&oldid=1257979881 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
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#17327930469903168-522: A previous marriage: Elitha (14) and Leanna (12). George's younger brother Jacob (56) joined the party with his wife Elizabeth (45), stepsons Solomon Hook (14) and William Hook (12), and five children: George (9), Mary (7), Isaac (6), Lewis (4) and Samuel (1). Also traveling with the Donner brothers were teamsters Hiram O. Miller (29), Samuel Shoemaker (25), Noah James (16), Charles Burger (30), John Denton (28) and Augustus Spitzer (30). James F. Reed (45)
3312-472: A rescue party for the refugees. A rescue party including William Eddy started on February 4 from the Sacramento Valley. Rain and a swollen river forced several delays. Eddy stationed himself at Bear Valley, while the others made steady progress through the snow and storms to cross the pass to Truckee Lake, caching their food at stations along the way so they did not have to carry it all. Three of
3456-492: A rifle, a blanket each, a hatchet and some pistols , hoping to make their way to Bear Valley . Historian Charles McGlashan later called this snowshoe party the " Forlorn Hope ". Two of those without snowshoes, Charles Burger and 10-year-old William Murphy, turned back early on. Other members of the party fashioned snowshoes for 12-year-old Lemuel Murphy on the first evening from one of the packsaddles that they were carrying. The snowshoes proved to be awkward but effective on
3600-482: A rising river, but Tamsen Donner wrote to a friend in Springfield, "indeed, if I do not experience something far worse than I have yet done, I shall say the trouble is all in getting started". Young Virginia Reed recalled years later that, during the first part of the trip, she was "perfectly happy". Several other families joined the wagon train along the way. Levinah Murphy (37), a widow from Tennessee , headed
3744-437: A river below, a route likely to break wagons. In his letter Hastings had offered to guide the Donner Party around the more difficult areas, but he rode back only part way, indicating the general direction to follow. Stanton and Pike stopped to rest and Reed returned alone to the group, arriving four days after the party's departure. Without the guide they had been promised, the group had to decide whether to turn back and rejoin
3888-486: A single cooking pot." Al-Latif notes that, while initially people were shocked by such acts, they "eventually ... grew accustomed, and some conceived such a taste for these detestable meats that they made them their ordinary provender ... The horror people had felt at first vanished entirely". After the end of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), a Chinese writer criticized in his recollections of
4032-473: A stream, his feet so swollen they had split open; he was not seen again. William Eddy pleaded with the others to find him, but they all refused, swearing they would waste no more resources on a man almost 70 years old. Meanwhile, Reed caught up with the Donners and proceeded with one of his teamsters, Walter Herron. The two shared a horse and were able to cover 25–40 miles (40–64 km) per day. The rest of
4176-515: A supergroup of 9th Wonder, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, and Kamasi Washington Dinner Party (play) , by Pier Vittorio Tondelli Television episodes [ edit ] "Dinner Party" ( The Office ) "The Dinner Party" ( Seinfeld ) "The Dinner Party" ( Dynasty ) "The Dinner Party" ( The IT Crowd ) "Dinner Party", an Upload episode "Dinner Party", a The Ren & Stimpy Show episode "The Dinner Party" ( The Vampire Diaries ) "Dinner Party" ( The Brak Show ) ,
4320-462: A supposed medicine or tonic". In contrast to other forms of cannibalism, which Europeans generally frowned upon, the "medicinal ingestion" of various "human body parts was widely practiced throughout Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries", with early records of the practice going back to the first century CE. It was also frequently practised in China . Sacrificial cannibalism refers
4464-558: A treat for the gluttonous." Jean de Léry , who lived for several months among the Tupinambá in Brazil, writes that several of his companions reported "that they had seen not only a number of men and women cut in pieces and grilled on the boucans , but also little unweaned children roasted whole" after a successful attack on an enemy village. According to German ethnologist Leo Frobenius , children captured by Songye slave raiders in
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4608-678: A variety of circumstances and for various motives. To adequately express this diversity, Shirley Lindenbaum suggests that "it might be better to talk about 'cannibalisms ' " in the plural. One major distinction is whether cannibal acts are accepted by the culture in which they occur – institutionalized cannibalism – or whether they are merely practised under starvation conditions to ensure one's immediate survival – survival cannibalism – or by isolated individuals considered criminal and often pathological by society at large – cannibalism as psychopathology or "aberrant behavior". Institutionalized cannibalism, sometimes also called "learned cannibalism",
4752-638: A wagon. But the desert soon came to an end, and the party found the Truckee River in beautiful lush country. The company had little time to rest. They pressed on to cross the Sierra Nevada before the snows came. Stanton, one of the two men who had left a month earlier to seek assistance in California, found the company; he brought mules and food from Sutter's Fort, and two Native American guides employed by John Sutter. These Miwok men from
4896-480: A whip handle—when Reed's wife attempted to intervene, she too was struck. Reed retaliated by fatally stabbing Snyder. That evening, the witnesses gathered to discuss what was to be done. American laws were not applicable west of the Continental Divide (in what was then Mexican territory ) and wagon trains often dispensed their own justice. But George Donner, the party's leader, was a full day ahead of
5040-573: A woman, the breast." Regarding the north of the country, his colleague Charles Kingsley Meek added: "Among all the cannibal tribes the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet were considered the tit-bits of the body." Among the Apambia, a cannibalistic clan of the Azande people in Central Africa, palms and soles were considered the best parts of the human body, while their favourite dish
5184-492: A young cannibal who had just participated in a "human barbecue" and told him without hesitation: "It tastes just like chicken. Especially the liver – just the same as chicken." In 2013, during the Syrian civil war , Syrian rebel Abu Sakkar was filmed eating parts of the lung or liver of a government soldier while declaring that "We will eat your hearts and your livers you soldiers of Bashar the dog". Various accounts from around
5328-524: Is "eaten without ceremony (other than culinary), in the same manner as the flesh of any other animal". While the term has been criticized as being too vague to clearly identify a specific type of cannibalism, various records indicate that nutritional or culinary concerns could indeed play a role in such acts even outside of periods of starvation. Referring to the Congo Basin, where many of the eaten were butchered slaves rather than enemies killed in war,
5472-579: Is a debate among anthropologists on how important functionalist reasons are for the understanding of institutionalized cannibalism. Diamond is not alone in suggesting "that the consumption of human flesh was of nutritional benefit for some populations in New Guinea" and the same case has been made for other "tropical peoples ... exploiting a diverse range of animal foods", including human flesh. The materialist anthropologist Marvin Harris argued that
5616-582: Is called a cannibal . The meaning of " cannibalism " has been extended into zoology to describe animals consuming parts of individuals of the same species as food. Anatomically modern humans , Neanderthals , and Homo antecessor are known to have practised cannibalism to some extent in the Pleistocene . Cannibalism was occasionally practised in Egypt during ancient and Roman times , as well as later during severe famines. The Island Caribs of
5760-575: Is close to modern explanations. He also pointed out that some acts of Europeans in his own time could be considered as equally barbarous, making his essay " Of Cannibals " ( c. 1580 ) a precursor to later ideas of cultural relativism . Archaeologist James Cole investigated the nutritional value of the human body and found it to be similar to that of animals of similar size. He notes that, according to ethnographic and archaeological records, nearly all edible parts of humans were sometimes eaten – not only skeletal muscle tissue ("flesh" or "meat" in
5904-576: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Donner Party The Donner Party , sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party , were a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest . Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada . Some of
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6048-525: Is otherwise clearly rejected. The survivors of the shipwrecks of the Essex and Méduse in the 19th century are said to have engaged in cannibalism, as did the members of Franklin's lost expedition and the Donner Party . Such cases often involve only necro-cannibalism (eating the corpse of someone already dead) as opposed to homicidal cannibalism (killing someone for food). In modern English law,
6192-483: Is probably also the ultimate reason why cannibalism was widespread in traditional New Guinea highland societies", and both in New Zealand and Fiji , cannibals explained their acts as due to a lack of animal meat. In Liberia , a former cannibal argued that it would have been wasteful to let the flesh of killed enemies spoil, and eaters of human flesh in New Guinea and the neighbouring Bismarck Archipelago expressed
6336-524: Is the consumption of human body parts as "an institutionalized practice" generally accepted in the culture where it occurs. By contrast, survival cannibalism means "the consumption of others under conditions of starvation such as shipwreck, military siege, and famine, in which persons normally averse to the idea are driven [to it] by the will to live". Also known as famine cannibalism , such forms of cannibalism resorted to only in situations of extreme necessity have occurred in many cultures where cannibalism
6480-523: The DSM , presumably because at least serious cases (that lead to murder) are very rare. Within institutionalized cannibalism, exocannibalism is often distinguished from endocannibalism . Endocannibalism refers to the consumption of a person from the same community. Often it is a part of a funerary ceremony, similar to burial or cremation in other cultures. The consumption of the recently deceased in such rites can be considered "an act of affection" and
6624-509: The Cosumnes River area were known by their Catholic conversion names: Luis and Salvador. Stanton also brought news that Reed and Herron, although haggard and starving, had reached Sutter's Fort. By this point, according to Rarick, "To the bedraggled, half-starved members of the Donner Party, it must have seemed that the worst of their problems had passed." Faced with one last push over mountains that were described as much worse than
6768-545: The Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), hundreds of incidents of cannibalism occurred, mostly motivated by hatred against supposed "class enemies", but sometimes also by health concerns. In a case recorded by the local authorities, a school teacher in Mengshan County "heard that consuming a 'beauty's heart' could cure disease". He then chose a 13- or 14-year-old student of his and publicly denounced her as
6912-626: The Democratic Republic of the Congo . It was still practised in Papua New Guinea as of 2012, for cultural reasons. Cannibalism has been said to test the bounds of cultural relativism because it challenges anthropologists "to define what is or is not beyond the pale of acceptable human behavior ". A few scholars argue that no firm evidence exists that cannibalism has ever been a socially acceptable practice anywhere in
7056-627: The Humboldt River . The "shortcut" had probably delayed them by a month. Along the Humboldt River, the group met Paiute Native Americans, who joined them for a couple of days but stole or shot several oxen and horses. By now, it was well into October, and the Donner families split off to make better time. Two wagons in the remaining group became tangled, and John Snyder angrily beat the ox of Reed's hired teamster Milt Elliott. When Reed intervened, Snyder rained blows onto his head with
7200-614: The Humboldt Sink to cache (bury) his wagon; Reinhardt and Spitzer stayed behind to help. They returned without him, reporting they had been attacked by Paiutes and he had been killed. One more stretch of desert lay ahead. The Eddys' oxen had been killed by Native Americans and they were forced to abandon their wagon. The family had eaten all their stores, but the other families refused to assist their children. The Eddys were forced to walk, carrying their children and miserable with thirst. Margret Reed and her children were also now without
7344-474: The Lesser Antilles , whose name is the origin of the word cannibal , acquired a long-standing reputation as eaters of human flesh, reconfirmed when their legends were recorded in the 17th century. Some controversy exists over the accuracy of these legends and the prevalence of actual cannibalism in the culture. Cannibalism has been well documented in much of the world, including Fiji (once nicknamed
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#17327930469907488-660: The Solomon Islands in the 1980s, anthropologist Michael Krieger met a former cannibal who told him that women's breasts had been considered the best part of the human body because they were so fatty, with fat being a rare and sought delicacy. They were also considered among the best parts in New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago . Based on theoretical considerations, the structuralist anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss suggested that human flesh
7632-629: The Southern New Guinea lowland rain forests , hunting people "was an opportunistic extension of seasonal foraging or pillaging strategies", with human bodies just as welcome as those of animals as sources of protein, according to the anthropologist Bruce M. Knauft. As populations living near coasts and rivers were usually better nourished and hence often physically larger and stronger than those living inland, they "raided inland 'bush' peoples with impunity and often with little fear of retaliation". Cases of human predation are also on record for
7776-581: The "Cannibal Isles"), the Amazon Basin , the Congo , and the Māori people of New Zealand. Cannibalism was also practised in New Guinea and in parts of the Solomon Islands , and human flesh was sold at markets in some parts of Melanesia and of the Congo Basin . A form of cannibalism popular in early modern Europe was the consumption of body parts or blood for medical purposes . Reaching its height during
7920-482: The 13th century and their subsequent rule over China during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), some Mongol fighters practised cannibalism and both European and Chinese observers record a preference for women's breasts, which were considered "delicacies" and, if there were many corpses, sometimes the only part of a female body that was eaten (of men, only the thighs were said to be eaten in such circumstances). After meeting
8064-844: The 17th century, this practice continued in some cases into the second half of the 19th century. Cannibalism has occasionally been practised as a last resort by people suffering from famine . Well-known examples include the ill-fated Donner Party (1846–1847), the Holodomor (1932–1933), and the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 (1972), after which the survivors ate the bodies of the dead. Additionally, there are cases of people engaging in cannibalism for sexual pleasure, such as Albert Fish , Issei Sagawa , Jeffrey Dahmer , and Armin Meiwes . Cannibalism has been both practised and fiercely condemned in several recent wars, especially in Liberia and
8208-452: The Arab physician Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi repeatedly saw "little children, roasted or boiled", offered for sale in baskets on street corners during a heavy famine that started in 1200 CE. Older children and possibly adults were sometimes prepared in the same way. Once he saw "a child nearing the age of puberty, who had been found roasted"; two young people confessed to having killed and cooked
8352-737: The Breens, then the Kesebergs, Stanton with the Reeds, Graves, and the Murphys. The Donners traveled last. After a few miles of rough terrain, an axle broke on one of their wagons. Jacob and George went into the woods to fashion a replacement. George Donner sliced his hand open while chiseling the wood but it seemed a superficial wound. Snow began to fall. The Breens made it up the "massive, nearly vertical slope" 1,000 feet (300 m) to Truckee Lake (now known as Donner Lake ), 3 miles (4.8 km) from
8496-573: The Chinese author Zheng Yi, who researched these events, "the consumption of human liver was mentioned at least fifty or sixty times" in just a small number of archival documents. He talked with a man who had eaten human liver and told him that "barbecued liver is delicious". During a massacre of the Madurese minority in the Indonesian part of Borneo in 1999, reporter Richard Lloyd Parry met
8640-441: The Congo Basin, where cannibalism had been quite widespread and where even in the 1950s travellers were sometimes served a meat dish, learning only afterwards that the meat had been of human origin. The term gastronomic cannibalism has been suggested for cases where human flesh is eaten to "provide a supplement to the regular diet" – thus essentially for its nutritional value – or, in an alternative definition, for cases where it
8784-474: The Donner Party crossed the next stretch of desert relatively unscathed. The journey seemed to get easier, particularly through the valley next to the Ruby Mountains . Despite their near-hatred of Hastings, they had no choice but to follow his tracks, which were weeks old. On September 26, two months after embarking on the cutoff, the party rejoined the traditional trail along a stream that became known as
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#17327930469908928-528: The Donner Party was slowed after electing to follow a new route called the Hastings Cutoff , which bypassed established trails and instead crossed the Rocky Mountains ' Wasatch Range and the Great Salt Lake Desert in present-day Utah . The desolate and rugged terrain, and the difficulties they later encountered while traveling along the Humboldt River in present-day Nevada , resulted in
9072-729: The Donner Party. Reed was laid over in San Jose until February because of regional uprisings and general confusion. He spent that time speaking with other pioneers and acquaintances. The people of San Jose responded by creating a petition to the United States Navy to assist the people at Truckee Lake. Two local newspapers reported that members of the snowshoe party had resorted to cannibalism, which helped to foster sympathy for those still trapped. Residents of Yerba Buena , many of them recent migrants, raised $ 1,300 ($ 42,500 in 2023) and organized relief efforts to build two camps to supply
9216-409: The Donner camp. Margret Reed had managed to save enough food for a Christmas pot of soup, to the delight of her children, but by January they were facing starvation and considered eating the oxhides that served as their roof. Margret Reed, Virginia Reed, Milt Elliott and the servant girl Eliza Williams attempted to walk out, reasoning that it would be better to try to bring food back than sit and watch
9360-506: The Donners, who were 5 miles (8.0 km)—half a day's journey —below them. Sixty members and associates of the Breen, Graves, Reed, Murphy, Keseberg and Eddy families set up for the winter at Truckee Lake. Three widely separated cabins of pine logs served as their homes, with dirt floors and poorly constructed flat roofs that leaked when it rained. The Breens occupied one cabin, the Eddys and
9504-532: The Harlan–Young Party. The Harlan–Young wagon train had arrived at Sutter's Fort on October 8, the last to make it over the Sierra Nevada that season. The party of roughly 30 horses and a dozen men carried food supplies, and expected to find the Donner Party on the western side of the mountain, along the Bear River below the steep approach to Emigrant Gap , perhaps starving but alive. When they arrived in
9648-465: The Murphys another, and the Reeds and the Graves the third. Keseberg built a lean-to for his family against the side of the Breen cabin. The families used canvas or oxhide to patch the faulty roofs. The cabins had no windows or doors, only large holes to allow entry. Of the 60 at Truckee Lake, 19 were men over age 18, 12 were women, and 29 were children, six of whom were toddlers or younger. Farther down
9792-643: The Pacific Ocean, the range receives more snow than most other ranges in North America. The eastern side of the range, the Sierra Escarpment , is notoriously steep. After a wagon train left Missouri for Oregon or California, timing was crucial to ensure that it would not be bogged down by mud created by spring rains or by massive snowdrifts in the mountains from September onward, and that horses and oxen had enough spring grass to eat. In
9936-514: The Reeds) died, more from malnutrition than starvation. Franklin Graves fashioned 14 pairs of snowshoes out of oxbows and hide. On December 16, a party of 17 men, women and children set out on foot in an attempt to cross the mountain pass. As evidence of how grim their choices were, four of the men were fathers. Three of the women, who were mothers, gave their young children to other women. They packed lightly, taking what had become six days' rations,
10080-591: The Sierra Nevada to Rancho Johnson in late October. He was safe and recovering at Sutter's Fort, but each day he became more concerned for the fate of his family and friends. He pleaded with Colonel John C. Frémont to gather a team of men to cross the pass and help the party. In return, Reed promised to join Frémont's forces and fight in the Mexican–American War . He was joined by McCutchen, who had been unable to return with Stanton, as well as some members of
10224-503: The U.S. for a considerable time, was older and had military experience, but his autocratic attitude had rubbed many in the party the wrong way: they saw him as aristocratic, imperious and ostentatious. By comparison, the mature, experienced, American-born Donner's peaceful and charitable nature made him the group's first choice. While the members of the party were comfortably well-off by contemporary standards, most of them were inexperienced in long, difficult, overland travel. Additionally,
10368-487: The Wasatch Range, the Donner Party had to decide whether to forge ahead or rest their cattle. It was October 20 and they had been told the pass (now known as Donner Pass ) would not be snowed in until the middle of November. William Pike was killed when a gun being loaded by William Foster was discharged negligently, an event that seemed to make the decision for them; family by family, they resumed their journey—first
10512-447: The Wasatch Range. The men began arguing, and doubts were expressed about the wisdom of those who had chosen this route, in particular Reed. Food and supplies began to run out for some of the less affluent families. Stanton and Pike had ridden out with Reed but had become lost on their way back; by the time the party found them, they were a day away from eating their horses. Luke Halloran died of tuberculosis on August 25. A few days later,
10656-456: The anthropologist Emil Torday notes that "the most common [reason for cannibalism] was simply gastronomic: the natives loved 'the flesh that speaks' [as human flesh was commonly called] and paid for it". The historian Key Ray Chong observes that, throughout Chinese history, "learned cannibalism was often practiced ... for culinary appreciation". In his popular book Guns, Germs and Steel , Jared Diamond suggests that "protein starvation
10800-463: The arduous climb. The members of the party were neither well-nourished nor accustomed to camping in snow 12 feet (3.7 m) deep, and by the third day, most were snowblind . On the sixth day, Eddy discovered his wife had hidden a half-pound of bear meat in his pack. The group set out again the morning of December 21; Stanton had been straggling for several days and he remained behind, saying he would follow shortly. His remains were found at that location
10944-665: The belief that the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans belonged to European Americans and that they should settle it. Most wagon trains followed the Oregon Trail route from a starting point in Independence, Missouri , to the Continental Divide , traveling about 15 miles (24 km) a day on a journey that usually took between four and six months. The trail generally followed rivers to South Pass ,
11088-420: The best you can." Upon their return to the lake, the Breens refused them entry to their cabin, but after Glover left more food, the children were grudgingly admitted. Human cannibalism Note: Varies by jurisdiction Note: Varies by jurisdiction Human cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism
11232-500: The camp's inhabitants initially fled. The Native Americans gave them what they had to eat: acorns, grass and pine nuts . After a few days, Eddy continued on with the help of tribe members to a ranch in a small farming community at the edge of the Sacramento Valley . A hurriedly assembled rescue party found the other six survivors on January 17. Their journey from Truckee Lake had taken 33 days. James Reed made it out of
11376-403: The carcass of an ox that had starved to death. Desperation grew in camp and some reasoned that individuals might succeed in navigating the pass where the wagons could not. In small groups they made several attempts, but each time returned defeated. Another severe storm, lasting more than a week, covered the area so deeply that the cattle and horses—their only remaining food—died and were lost in
11520-452: The cases, with roasting being slightly more common. In contrast to Lévi-Strauss's predictions, boiling was more often used in exocannibalism, while roasting was about equally common for both. Shankman observed that various other "ways of preparing people" were repeatedly employed as well; in one third of all cases, two or more modes were used together (e.g. some bodies or body parts were boiled or baked, while others were roasted). Human flesh
11664-611: The child. Another time, remains were found of a person who had apparently been roasted and served whole, the legs tied like those of "a sheep trussed for cooking". Only the skeleton was found, still undivided and in the trussed position, but "with all the flesh stripped off for food". In some cases children were roasted and offered for sale by their own parents; other victims were street children, who had become very numerous and were often kidnapped and cooked by people looking for food or extra income. The victims were so numerous that sometimes "two or three children, even more, would be found in
11808-545: The children starve. They were gone for four days in the snow before they had to turn back. Their cabin was now uninhabitable; the oxhide roof served as their food supply, and the family moved in with the Breens. The servants went to live with other families. One day, the Graveses came by to collect on the debt owed by the Reeds and took the oxhides, all that the family had to eat. The mountain party at Truckee Lake began to fail. Augustus Spitzer and Baylis Williams (a driver for
11952-919: The consumption of the flesh of victims of human sacrifice , for example among the Aztecs . Human and animal remains excavated in Knossos , Crete , have been interpreted as evidence of a ritual in which children and sheep were sacrificed and eaten together during the Bronze Age . According to Ancient Roman reports, the Celts in Britain practised sacrificial cannibalism, and archaeological evidence backing these claims has by now been found. Infanticidal cannibalism or cannibalistic infanticide refers to cases where newborns or infants are killed because they are "considered unwanted or unfit to live" and then "consumed by
12096-477: The desert. Many other families' cattle and horses went missing. The journey irreparably damaged some of the wagons, but no human lives were lost. Instead of the promised two-day journey over 40 miles (64 km), the journey across 80 miles (130 km) of the Great Salt Lake Desert took six. None of the party had any remaining faith in the Hastings Cutoff as they recovered at the springs on
12240-473: The east to resettle in the Oregon Territory or California, which at the time were accessible only by a very long sea voyage or a daunting overland journey. Some, such as Patrick Breen, saw California, then a part of Mexico, as a place where they would be free to live in a fully Catholic culture ; others were attracted to the West's burgeoning economic opportunities or inspired by manifest destiny ,
12384-452: The emaciated migrants overate. All the cabins were buried in snow. Sodden oxhide roofs had begun to rot and the smell was overpowering. Thirteen people at the camps were dead, and their bodies had been loosely buried in snow near the cabin roofs. Some of the migrants seemed emotionally unstable. Three of the rescue party trekked to the Donners and brought back four gaunt children and three adults. Leanna Donner had particular difficulty walking up
12528-405: The following year. The group became lost and confused. After two more days without food, Patrick Dolan proposed one of them should volunteer to die in order to feed the others . Some suggested a duel , while another account describes an attempt at a lottery . Eddy suggested that they keep moving until someone simply fell, but a blizzard forced the group to halt. Antonio, the animal handler,
12672-483: The fort to persuade travelers to turn south on his route. As of 1846, Hastings was the second person documented to have crossed the southern part of the Great Salt Lake Desert, but neither had been accompanied by wagons. Arguably the most difficult part of the journey to California was the last 100 miles (160 km) across the Sierra Nevada . This mountain range has 500 distinct peaks over 12,000 feet (3,700 m) high, and because of its height and proximity to
12816-551: The group not to take Hastings's shortcut. By the time the Donner Party reached Blacks Fork on July 27, Hastings had already left, leading the forty wagons of the Harlan–Young group. Because Jim Bridger's trading post would fare substantially better if people used the Hastings Cutoff, Bridger told the party that the shortcut was a smooth trip, devoid of rugged country and hostile Native Americans, and would shorten their journey by 350 miles (560 km). Water would be easy to find along
12960-413: The group stripped the muscle and organs from the bodies of Antonio, Dolan, Graves and Murphy. They dried them to store for the days ahead, taking care to ensure nobody would have to eat his or her relatives. After three days' rest, they set off again, searching for the trail. Eddy eventually succumbed to his hunger and ate human flesh, but that was soon gone. They began taking apart their snowshoes to eat
13104-458: The hubs. The days were blisteringly hot and the nights frigid. Several of the group saw visions of lakes and wagon trains and believed they had finally overtaken Hastings. After three days, the water was gone and some of the party removed their oxen from the wagons to press ahead to find more. Some of the animals were so weakened they were left yoked to the wagons and abandoned. Nine of Reed's ten oxen broke free, crazed with thirst, and bolted off into
13248-464: The latter is always considered a crime, even in the most trying circumstances. The case of R v Dudley and Stephens , in which two men were found guilty of murder for killing and eating a cabin boy while adrift at sea in a lifeboat, set the precedent that necessity is no defence to a charge of murder. This decision outlawed and effectively ended the practice of shipwrecked sailors drawing lots in order to determine who would be killed and eaten to prevent
13392-622: The like". Human flesh was also often "cooked into soup " or stewed in cauldrons. Eating human flesh raw was the "least popular" method, but a few cases are on record too. Chong notes that human flesh was typically cooked in the same way as "ordinary foodstuffs for daily consumption" – no principal distinction from the treatment of animal meat is detectable, and nearly any mode of preparation used for animals could also be used for people. Though human corpses, like those of animals, were usually cut into pieces for further processing, reports of people being roasted or baked whole are on record throughout
13536-406: The loss of many cattle and wagons, and divisions soon formed within the group. By early November, the migrants had reached the Sierra Nevada but became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall near Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake ) high in the mountains. Their food supplies ran dangerously low, and in mid-December some of the group set out on foot to obtain help. Rescuers from California attempted to reach
13680-555: The main Oregon Trail had left an easy and obvious path, whereas the Cutoff was more difficult to find. Hastings wrote directions and left letters stuck to trees. On August 6, the party found a letter from him advising them to stop until he could show them an alternate route to that taken by the Harlan–Young Party. Reed, Charles T. Stanton and William Pike rode ahead to get Hastings. They encountered exceedingly difficult canyons where boulders had to be moved and walls cut off precariously to
13824-456: The main wagon train with his family. Snyder had been seen to hit Reed, and some claimed he had also hit his wife, but Snyder had been popular and Reed was not. Keseberg suggested that Reed should be hanged , but an eventual compromise allowed Reed to leave the camp without his family, who were to be taken care of by the others. Reed departed alone the next morning, unarmed, but his stepdaughter Virginia rode ahead and secretly provided him with
13968-554: The marketplace" during the Taiping Rebellion in 1850–1864, human hearts became a popular dish, according to some who afterwards freely admitted having consumed them. According to a missionary's report from the brutal suppression of the Dungan Revolt of 1895–1896 in northwestern China, "thousands of men, women and children were ruthlessly massacred by the imperial soldiers" and "many a meal of human hearts and livers
14112-459: The members of the party had little knowledge about how to interact with Native Americans . Journalist Edwin Bryant reached Blacks Fork a week ahead of the Donner Party. He saw the first part of the trail and was concerned that it would be difficult for the wagons in the Donner group, especially with so many women and children. He returned to Blacks Fork to leave letters warning several members of
14256-422: The migrants resorted to cannibalism to survive, mainly eating the bodies of those who had succumbed to starvation, sickness, or extreme cold, but in one case two Native American guides were murdered and eaten. The Donner Party originated from Springfield, Illinois , and departed Independence, Missouri , on the Oregon Trail in the spring of 1846. The journey west usually took between four and six months, but
14400-473: The migrants, but the first relief party did not arrive until the middle of February 1847, almost four months after the wagon train became trapped. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived. Historians have described the episode as one of the most fascinating tragedies in California history and in the record of American westward migration. During the 1840s there was a dramatic increase in settlers leaving
14544-443: The mother, father, both parents or close relatives". Infanticide followed by cannibalism was practised in various regions, but is particularly well documented among Aboriginal Australians . Among animals, such behaviour is called filial cannibalism , and it is common in many species, especially among fish. Human predation is the hunting of people from unrelated and possibly hostile groups in order to eat them. In parts of
14688-600: The mountain pass, two-thirds of those remaining at Truckee Lake were children. Mrs. Graves was in charge of eight, and Levinah Murphy and Eleanor Eddy together took care of nine. Migrants caught and ate mice that strayed into their cabins. Many were soon weakened and spent most of their time in bed. Occasionally one would be able to make the full-day trek to see the Donners. News came that Jacob Donner and three hired men had died. One of them, Joseph Reinhardt, confessed on his deathbed that he had murdered Wolfinger. George Donner's hand had become infected, which left four men to work at
14832-489: The murder was not kept secret, Kristin Johnson notes that "Foster was not greatly blamed" for it and spent the rest of his life without being troubled by the authorities —this can be attributed to the general attitude, as expressed by Lewis Petrinovich, that the lives of Native Americans "seemed to matter little". Not more than a few days later, the group stumbled into a Native American settlement looking so deteriorated that
14976-524: The neighbouring Bismarck Archipelago and for Australia . In the Congo Basin, there lived groups such as the Bankutu who hunted humans for food even when game was plentiful. The term innocent cannibalism has been used for cases of people eating human flesh without knowing what they are eating. It is a subject of myths, such as the myth of Thyestes who unknowingly ate the flesh of his own sons. There are also actual cases on record, for example from
15120-503: The now-discredited theory of humorism for cannibalism was that it was caused by a black acrimonious humor, which, being lodged in the linings of the ventricles of the heart, produced a voracity for human flesh. On the other hand, the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne understood war cannibalism as a way of expressing vengeance and hatred towards one's enemies and celebrating one's victory over them, thus giving an interpretation that
15264-410: The one they had just crossed, and "one of the most inhospitable places on earth" according to Rarick. Their oxen were already fatigued, and their water was nearly gone. The Donner Party pressed onward on August 30, having no alternative. In the heat of the day, the moisture underneath the salt crust rose to the surface and turned it into a gummy mass. The wagon wheels sank into it, in some cases up to
15408-431: The other side of the desert. They spent several days trying to recover cattle, retrieve the wagons left in the desert, and transfer their food and supplies to other wagons. Reed's family incurred the heaviest losses, and Reed became more assertive, asking all the families to submit an inventory of their goods and food to him. He suggested that two men should go to Sutter's Fort in California; he had heard that John Sutter
15552-512: The others from starving, a time-honoured practice formerly known as a " custom of the sea ". In other cases, cannibalism is an expression of a psychopathology or mental disorder , condemned by the society in which it occurs and "considered to be an indicator of [a] severe personality disorder or psychosis". Well-known cases include Albert Fish , Issei Sagawa , and Armin Meiwes . Fantasies of cannibalism, whether acted out or not, are not specifically mentioned in manuals of mental disorders such as
15696-463: The ox teams: Milford ("Milt") Elliott (28), James Smith (25) and Walter Herron (25). Baylis Williams (24) went along as handyman and his sister, Eliza (25), as the family's cook. Within a week of leaving Independence, the Reeds and Donners joined a group of 50 wagons nominally led by William H. Russell. By June 16, the company had traveled 450 miles (720 km), with 200 miles (320 km) to go before Fort Laramie . They had been delayed by rain and
15840-647: The oxhide webbing and discussed murdering Luis and Salvador for food. Eddy warned the two men and they quietly left. Jay Fosdick died during the night, leaving only seven members of the party. Eddy and Mary Graves left to hunt, but when they returned with deer meat, Fosdick's body had already been cut apart for food. After several more days—25 since they had left Truckee Lake—they came across Salvador and Luis, who had not eaten for about nine days and were probably close to death. William Foster shot both men, thus realizing his plans from before they had left; their bodies were butchered and their flesh dried for consumption. Though
15984-408: The party came across a tattered letter from Hastings. The pieces indicated there were two days and nights of difficult travel ahead without grass or water. The party rested their oxen and prepared for the trip. After 36 hours they set off to traverse a 1,000-foot (300 m) mountain in their path. From its peak they saw ahead a dry, barren plain, perfectly flat and covered with white salt, larger than
16128-531: The party rejoined the Donners, but their hardship continued. Native Americans chased away all of Graves' horses, and another wagon was left behind. With grass in short supply, the cattle spread out more, which allowed the Paiutes to steal 18 more during one evening; several mornings later, they shot another 21. So far, the company had lost nearly 100 oxen and cattle, and their rations were almost completely depleted. With nearly all his cattle gone, Wolfinger stopped at
16272-473: The pass summit, and camped near a cabin that had been built two years earlier by members of the Stephens–Townsend–Murphy Party . The Eddys and the Kesebergs joined the Breens, attempting to make it over the pass, but they found 5–10-foot (1.5–3.0 m) snowdrifts and were unable to find the trail. They turned back for Truckee Lake and within a day all the families were camped there except for
16416-404: The period that some Mongol soldiers ate human flesh because of its taste rather than (as had also occurred in other times) merely in cases of necessity. He added that they enjoyed torturing their victims (often children or women, whose flesh was preferred over that of men) by roasting them alive, in "large jars whose outside touched the fire [or] on an iron grate". Other victims were placed "inside
16560-400: The repast" at feasts for chiefs and warriors. The ethnologist Felix Speiser [ de ] writes: "Apart from the breasts of women and the genitals of men, palms of hands and soles of feet were the most coveted morsels." He knew a chief on Ambae , one of the islands of Vanuatu, who, "according to fairly reliably sources", dined on a young girl's breasts every few days. When visiting
16704-444: The rescue party turned back, but seven forged on. On February 18, the seven-man rescue party scaled Frémont Pass (now Donner Pass); as they neared where Eddy told them the cabins would be, they began to shout. A haggard Mrs. Murphy appeared from a hole in the snow, stared at them and asked, "Are you men from California, or do you come from heaven?" The relief party doled out food in small portions, concerned that it might kill them if
16848-401: The river valley, they found only a migrant couple who had been separated from their company and were near starvation. Two guides deserted Reed and McCutchen with some of their horses, but they pressed on farther up the valley to Yuba Bottoms, walking the last mile on foot. Reed and McCutchen stood looking up at Emigrant Gap, only 12 miles (19 km) from the top, blocked by snow, possibly on
16992-471: The same day the Breens attempted to lead one last effort to crest the pass from the east. Despondent, they turned back to Sutter's Fort. Much of the military in California were engaged in the Mexican–American War, and with them the able-bodied men. Throughout the region, roads were blocked, communications compromised and supplies unavailable. Only three men responded to a call for volunteers to rescue
17136-727: The same sentiment. In many cases, human flesh was also described as particularly delicious, especially when it came from women, children, or both. Such statements are on record for various regions and peoples, including the Aztecs, today's Liberia and Nigeria , the Fang people in west-central Africa, the Congo Basin, China up to the 14th century, Sumatra , Borneo , Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Vanuatu , and Fiji. Some Europeans and Americans who ate human flesh accidentally, out of curiosity, or to comply with local customs likewise tended to describe it as very good. There
17280-442: The snow. Patrick Breen began keeping a diary on November 20. He concerned himself primarily with the weather, marking the storms and how much snow had fallen, but gradually began to include religious references in his entries. Life at Truckee Lake was miserable. The cabins were cramped and filthy, and it snowed so much that people were unable to go outdoors for days. Diets soon consisted of oxhide, strips of which were boiled to make
17424-400: The snowdrifts, and no one was strong enough to carry them. Margret Reed faced the agonizing predicament of accompanying her two older children to Bear Valley and watching her two frailest be taken back to Truckee Lake without a parent. She made rescuer Aquilla Glover swear on his honor as a Mason that he would return for her children. Patty told her, "Well, mother, if you never see me again, do
17568-474: The spring of 1846, almost 500 wagons headed west from Independence. At the rear of the train, a group of nine wagons containing 32 members of the Reed and Donner families and their employees left on May 12. George Donner was about 60 years old and living near Springfield, Illinois . With him were his 44-year-old wife Tamsen , their three daughters Frances (6), Georgia (4) and Eliza (3), and George's daughters from
17712-525: The steep incline from Alder Creek to Truckee Lake, later writing "such pain and misery as I endured that day is beyond description". George Donner's arm was so gangrenous he could not move. Twenty-three people were chosen to go with the rescue party, leaving 21 in the cabins at Truckee Lake and twelve at Alder Creek. The rescuers concealed the fate of the snowshoe party, informing the rescued migrants only that they did not return because they were frostbitten . Patty and Tommy Reed were soon too weak to cross
17856-418: The traditional trail, follow the tracks left by the Harlan–Young Party through the difficult terrain of Weber Canyon or forge their own trail in the direction that Hastings had recommended. At Reed's urging, the group chose the new Hastings route. Their progress slowed to about one and a half miles (2.4 km) a day. All able-bodied men were required to clear brush, fell trees and heave rocks to make room for
18000-513: The trail, close to Alder Creek , the Donner families hastily constructed tents to house 21 people, including Mrs. Wolfinger, her child and the Donners' drivers: six men, three women and twelve children in all. It began to snow again on the evening of November 4—the beginning of an eight-day storm. By the time the party made camp, very little food remained from the supplies that Stanton had brought back from Sutter's Fort. The oxen began to die, and their carcasses were frozen and stacked. Truckee Lake
18144-486: The wagons. As the Donner Party made its way across the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains , the Graves family, who had set off to find them, reached them. They consisted of Franklin Ward Graves (57), his wife Elizabeth (45), their children Mary (20), William (18), Eleanor (15), Lovina (13), Nancy (9), Jonathan (7), Franklin, Jr. (5), Elizabeth (1) and married daughter Sarah (22), plus son-in-law Jay Fosdick (23) and
18288-448: The way, although a couple of days crossing a 30–40-mile (48–64 km) dry lake bed would be necessary. Reed was very impressed with this information and advocated for the Hastings Cutoff. None of the party received Bryant's letters; in his diary account, Bryant states his conviction that Bridger deliberately concealed the letters, a view shared by Reed in his later testimony. At Fort Laramie, Reed met an old friend named James Clyman who
18432-480: The world mention women's breasts as a favourite body part. Also frequently mentioned are the palms of the hands and sometimes the soles of the feet , regardless of the victim's gender. Jerome , in his treatise Against Jovinianus , claimed that the British Attacotti were cannibals who regarded the buttocks of men and the breasts of women as delicacies. During the Mongol invasion of Europe in
18576-551: The world, but such views have been largely rejected as irreconcilable with the actual evidence. The word "cannibal" is derived from Spanish caníbal or caríbal , originally used as a name variant for the Kalinago (Island Caribs), a people from the West Indies said to have eaten human flesh. The older term anthropophagy , meaning "eating humans", is also used for human cannibalism. Cannibalism has been practised under
18720-498: The world. After the Battle of Uhud (625), Hind bint Utba ate (or at least attempted to) the liver of Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib , an uncle of Muhammad . At that time, the liver was considered "the seat of life". French Catholics ate livers and hearts of Huguenots at the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572, in some cases also offering them for sale. In China, medical cannibalism
18864-591: The world. At the archaeological site of Herxheim , Germany, more than a thousand people were killed and eaten about 7000 years ago, and the evidence indicates that many of them were spit-roasted whole over open fires. During severe famines in China and Egypt during the 12th and early 13th centuries, there was a black-market trade in corpses of little children that were roasted or boiled whole. In China, human-flesh sellers advertised such corpses as good for being boiled or steamed whole, "including their bones", and praised their particular tenderness. In Cairo , Egypt,
19008-788: Was baked in steam on preheated rocks or in earth ovens (a technique widely used in the Pacific), smoked (which allowed to preserve it for later consumption), or eaten raw. While these modes were used in both exo- and endocannibalism, another method that was only used in the latter and only in the Americas was to burn the bones or bodies of deceased relatives and then to consume the bone ash. After analysing numerous accounts from China, Key Ray Chong similarly concludes that "a variety of methods for cooking human flesh" were used in this country. Most popular were " broiling , roasting, boiling and steaming", followed by " pickling in salt, wine, sauce and
19152-532: Was "gloomy, sad, and dispirited" at the thought of turning off the main trail on the advice of Hastings, whom she considered "a selfish adventurer". On July 31, 1846, the Donner Party left Blacks Fork after four days of rest and wagon repairs, eleven days behind the leading Harlan–Young group. Donner hired a replacement driver, and the company was joined by the McCutchen family, consisting of William (30), his wife Amanda (24), their two-year-old daughter Harriet and
19296-602: Was accompanied on the journey by his wife Margret (32), stepdaughter Virginia (13), daughter Martha Jane ("Patty", 8), sons James and Thomas (5 and 3) and Sarah Keyes, Margret's mother. Keyes was in the advanced stages of tuberculosis and died at a campsite they named Alcove Springs . She was buried nearby, off to the side of the trail, with a gray rock inscribed, "Mrs. Sarah Keyes, Died May 29, 1846; Aged 70". In addition to leaving financial worries behind, Reed hoped that California's climate would help Margret, who had long suffered from ill health. The Reeds hired three men to drive
19440-476: Was born on the trail. Two young single men named Spitzer and Reinhardt traveled with another German couple, the Wolfingers, who were rumored to be wealthy; they also had a hired driver, "Dutch Charley" Burger. An older man named Hardkoop rode with them. Luke Halloran, a young man with tuberculosis, could no longer ride horseback; the families he had been traveling with no longer had resources to care for him. He
19584-433: Was coming from California. Clyman warned Reed not to take the Hastings Cutoff, telling him that wagons would not be able to make it and that Hastings' information was inaccurate. Fellow pioneer Jesse Quinn Thornton traveled part of the way with Donner and Reed, and in his book From Oregon and California in 1848 declared Hastings the " Baron Munchausen of travelers in these countries". Tamsen Donner, according to Thornton,
19728-470: Was exceedingly generous to wayward pioneers and could assist them with extra provisions. Charles Stanton and William McCutchen volunteered to undertake the dangerous trip. The remaining serviceable wagons were pulled by mongrel teams of cows, oxen and mules. It was the middle of September, and two young men who went in search of missing oxen reported that another 40 miles (64 km) of desert lay ahead. Their cattle and oxen were now exhausted and lean, but
19872-459: Was most typically boiled , with roasting also used to prepare the bodies of enemies and other outsiders in exocannibalism , but rarely in funerary endocannibalism (when eating deceased relatives). But an analysis of 60 sufficiently detailed and credible descriptions of institutionalized cannibalism by anthropologist Paul Shankman failed to confirm this hypothesis. Shankman found that roasting and boiling together accounted for only about half of
20016-407: Was not yet frozen, but the pioneers were unfamiliar with catching lake trout. Eddy, the most experienced hunter, killed a bear, but had little luck after that. The Reed and Eddy families had lost almost everything. Margret Reed promised to pay double when they got to California for the use of three oxen from the Graves and Breen families. Graves charged Eddy $ 25—normally the cost of two healthy oxen—for
20160-545: Was partaken of by soldiers", supposedly out of a belief that this would give them "the courage their enemies had displayed". In World War II, Japanese soldiers ate the livers of killed Americans in the Chichijima incident . Many Japanese soldiers who died during the occupation of Jolo Island in the Philippines had their livers eaten by local Moro fighters, according to Japanese soldier Fujioka Akiyoshi. During
20304-659: Was practised over centuries. People voluntarily cut their own body parts, including parts of their livers, and boiled them to cure ailing relatives. Children were sometimes killed because eating their boiled hearts was considered a good way of extending one's life. Emperor Wuzong of Tang supposedly ordered provincial officials to send him "the hearts and livers of fifteen-year-old boys and girls" when he had become seriously ill, hoping in vain this medicine would cure him. Later private individuals sometimes followed his example, paying soldiers who kidnapped preteen children for their kitchen. When "human flesh and organs were sold openly at
20448-471: Was prepared with "fat from a woman's breast", according to the missionary and ethnographer F. Gero. Similar preferences are on record throughout Melanesia . According to the anthropologists Bernard Deacon and Camilla Wedgwood , women were "specially fattened for eating" in Vanuatu , "the breasts being the great delicacy". A missionary confirmed that "a body of a female usually formed the principal part of
20592-498: Was taken in by George Donner at Little Sandy River and rode in their wagon. To promote his new route (the " Hastings Cutoff "), Lansford Hastings sent riders to deliver letters to traveling migrants. On July 12, the Reeds and Donners were given one. Hastings warned the migrants they could expect opposition from the Mexican authorities in California and advised them to band together in large groups. He also claimed to have "worked out
20736-477: Was the first to die; Franklin Graves was the next casualty. As the blizzard progressed, Dolan began to rant deliriously , stripped off his clothes and ran into the woods. He returned shortly afterwards and died a few hours later. Not long after, possibly because Murphy was near death, some of the group began to eat flesh from Dolan's body. Lemuel's sister tried to feed him some, but he died shortly afterwards. Eddy, Salvador and Luis refused to eat. The next morning,
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