Kristin Johnson finished up. “So when and if this new site is excavated, we may have to modify our thinking about all sorts of things related to the Alder Creek camps”—most importantly, where they were actually located.
Minutes later we were hiking out of the 19th century and back to the parking area. Letting my gaze fall on the clusters of tiny white flowers that covered the meadow, I couldn’t help thinking about another blanket of white that had vexed the Donner Party, perhaps at this very spot, during the long and horrible winter of 1846–1847. Though the air temperature had risen even higher since our arrival that morning, I shivered at the thought. Then I turned my face toward the warm, late-June sun and headed for my car.
We’ve already learned that cannibalism occurs across the entire animal kingdom, albeit more frequently in some groups than others. When the behavior does happen, it happens for reasons that make perfect sense from an evolutionary standpoint: reducing competition, as a component of sexual behavior, or an aspect of parental care.
Cannibalism in nature is also widely seen as a natural response to stresses like overcrowding and food shortages. The unfortunates involved in shipwrecks, strandings, and sieges have also resorted to cannibalism, and by doing so they exhibited biologically and behaviorally predictable responses to specific forms of extreme stress. Although the conditions may have been unnatural, the actions that resulted were not.
Additionally, like male spiders that give up their lives and bodies to their mates, ultimately increasing the survival potential of their offspring, so too did the bodies of Donner Party members like Jacob Donner serve a similar function for their families.
Finally, in cannibalism-related tragedies like the Donner Party, survivors have been given something like a free pass for committing acts that would otherwise be considered unforgivable by their cultures.
But where did this taboo come from? Why is the very idea of human cannibalism so abhorrent that except in a very few cases it justified the torture, murder, and enslavement of those accused of being cannibals?
* * *
16 The tale of the Donner Party wasn’t the only cannibalism-related story to emerge from the American West. In February 1874, gold prospector Alfred (or Alferd) Packer led a party of five men into Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. When weather conditions deteriorated, he murdered and ate them. When the bodies were discovered the following spring, four of the five had been completely stripped of flesh. Although the skeletons showed signs of butchering, each was relatively complete and the bones showed no signs of smashing or cooking. Packer had no need to process the skeletons further, presumably because he had enough meat to survive until the spring. During Packer’s sentencing, the judge was rumored to have made the following statement: “There were only seven Democrats in Hinsdale County, and you ate five of them, you depraved Republican son of a bitch!”
17 Alternately known in the literature as the “snowshoe group,” I used “The Forlorn Hope” to avoid confusion.
18 The Nisenan (sometimes referred to as the Maidu) were the indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada foothills.
19 I.e., debilitated, lacking strength or vigor.
20 Fasting or starving people often exhibit increased sensitivity to cold.
21 Catabolic reactions (from the Greek kata = downward + ballein = to throw) are those in which larger molecules are broken down into smaller molecules, releasing energy. Anabolic reactions work in the opposite direction.
22 In a system designed to maximize industrial output, Leningrad’s blue-collar workers received the greatest food allowance, followed by white-collar workers, and finally dependents (who received as little as the equivalent of one and a half slices of additive-adulterated bread per day). Rations were reduced a total of five times between September and November 1941.
23 Most estimates put the eventual civilian death toll at somewhere between 800,000 and 1.5 million.
24 During the Stalin era, the NKVD was a law enforcement agency, closely associated with the Soviet secret police.
25 Starved Camp is thought to been in Summit Valley, California, just west of Donner Pass.
26 The subtitle was subsequently eliminated from the online version of the article after complaints by readers.
27 The short-term, positive effects of cortisol release include a burst of energy (through an increase in blood sugar levels) and a lower sensitivity to pain (by reducing inflammation).
13: Eating People Is Bad
Baby, baby, naughty baby,
Hush you squalling thing, I say.
Peace this moment, peace or maybe,
Bonaparte will pass this way.
And he’ll beat you, beat you, beat you,
And he’ll beat you all to pap,
And he’ll eat you, eat you, eat you,
Every morsel snap, snap, snap.