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Show Cannibalism Just Traveler's M th, Declares Scientist lty KMII.Y C. DAVIS "Cannibalism is a pure traveler's myth." This statement, which will surprise many people, comes from Prof. M. F. Ashley-Montagu, Ashley-Montagu, anthropologist of New York university. Professor Ashley - Montagu hns grown weary of what he considers unfair tactics in accusing certain inhabitants of the earth of cannibalism. cannibal-ism. It is particularly unfair, he feels, to call prehistoric men Oils hard name because they cannot possibly pos-sibly arise to sue for libel. What happens, as he points out In a report to the journal Science, is this: When charred human bones are found at some campfire that burned out thousands of years ago in the Old Stone age, it is generally assumed as-sumed that cannibals feasted there. And if the human bones are cracked, indicating that a human being extracted marrow, why, that settles all doubt These folk were cannibals, which suggests to most minds that they had the low habit of gobbling up other humans as unconcernedly un-concernedly as they would eat elephant ele-phant steak. No "Missionary Stew." But, Professor Ashley - Montagu does not find such evidence convincing, convinc-ing, and he declares that it would not stand up in any Primate court He points out that in modern times, starving primitives and even civilized men have been known to kill and eat their young. But no one would call these people peo-ple cannibals. He also points out that many primitive tribes do occasionally oc-casionally consume certain parts of the human body for ritual purposes. "But," he adds emphatically, "no people of whom we have any knowledge knowl-edge makes any habit of cannibalism." The argument sums up to this: Men, even civilized men, have been known to eat their fellows, undeniably. unde-niably. But Professor Ashley-Montagu would have us relegate to fairy-tale realm those ghoulish pictures pic-tures of savages gleefully dancing around a pot of missionary stew for an ordinary Thursday night meal. |