Talk:Cannibalism

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• Finally they fell into the hands of a cacique who massacred Valdivia and some of his companions, sacrificing them in honour of his zemes, and afterwards eating them in company with his invited friends. These natives only eat enemies or strangers whom they catch by chance, abstaining at all other times from human flesh. Geronimo d'Aguilar and six of his companions were kept to be eaten three days later; but during the night they escaped from this cruel tyrant, breaking their bonds and taking refuge with a neighbouring cacique, before whom they presented themselves as suppliants. They were received, but as slaves.
• A very sad thing is told concerning the mother of Aguilar. When informed of the fate of her son, she suddenly became crazed by sorrow. She had vaguely heard that her son had fallen into the hands of barbarians who eat human flesh, and whenever she saw meat, either boiled or fixed on spits, she made the house ring with her cries, saying "This is the flesh of my son! Am I not the most unhappy of mothers?"
  • Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, De Orbe Novo, Fourth Decade, Book VI (1530, translated by Francis Augustus MacNutt, 1912)

Thanks for starting this page and your contributions to it! But I think we should be a bit careful about what more to add from Peter Martyr d'Anghiera. Generally, we cannot include every mention of cannibalism and he's generally considered fairly unreliable. I think the first quote, about people escaping from being eaten, may be a good one, but I wouldn't add the second one, as it's just about someone who had "vaguely heard" something. Gawaon (talk) 08:18, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

I mostly agree. Although I think the bit from Aguilar's hysterical mother is memorable, even if she was presumably mistaken about her son's death -- probably needs a brief note to the reader Ficaia (talk) 15:47, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

Rename to "Cannibalism"?

Hey User:Ficaia and others here, what would you think about renaming this page to just Cannibalism? Wikipedia describes cannibalism among animals under that name, but we aren't bound by Wikipedia's naming schema and we don't have a page with that name yet. I also doubt there'll be many notable quotes about animal cannibalism. Choosing the simpler name might also make this page easier to find – right now I see it in the top 10 when I google "quotes human cannibalism" (few people will do that), but not when I google "quotes cannibalism". So what do you think about that renaming (leaving the current page name as a redirect)? Gawaon (talk) 08:55, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

I agree Ficaia (talk) 11:51, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

Great, thanks for renaming the page! Gawaon (talk) 08:30, 6 October 2024 (UTC)