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every part of this was disturbing, but i think most disturbing of all was this:

"the innocent just knelt down silently, no begging, no cursing, no arguing, and not the slightest show of a willingness to resist…. Not one act of direct physical heroism is recorded by Zheng Yi… no-one died in a physical attack on a murderer"

just the passive acquiescence of the victims and bystanders--behavior that could only have been conditioned by culture.

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May 6, 2022·edited May 6, 2022Liked by Stone Age Herbalist

I found this post very fascinating and informative. Thanks for the long-ranging historical and categorical overview!

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May 6, 2022Liked by Stone Age Herbalist

All due to overpopulation. I could hardly read the actual descriptions of how people mutilated themselves. Insane, but worse than that to feed the young to the old. I think that same thing is about to happen all over as these rich elite begin to fail. I read the book Farmers for Forty Centuries.

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I wonder how much we can trust the recordists of the past given the human 'taste' for purple prose. That is not to say cannibalism did not happen or that it did not have cultural support, but that the depictions may not be as accurate as they seem.

There is no doubt that humans throughout history have resorted to and practised cannibalism so I am not sure the Chinese are exceptional in regard to it. Then again, they say 'the Chinese will eat anything!'

Cannibalism was also common amongst Aboriginal peoples in Australia and has been recorded in probably most cultures, for reasons ranging from 'honouring the dead,' punishing the enemy - you literally 'shit' on them, and for hunter-gatherers, the primitive version of 'fast food,' where you select a plump child or female for dinner.

Fascinating material all the same.

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Makes me think of The Good Earth and its poignant scenes of starvation. Buck, for all her cultural assimilation, still had a Christian heart.

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