Jamestown Necrocannibals

From here:

I’ve pitted the eating of other people’s faces, but I never thought I’d temper that with, “but at least the victim was alive.” Yeesh. Sure, the Jamestown settlement was a long time ago, but the evidence has only now been uncovered. If the madness of hunger drove these people into a blameless state, then I pit that.

I suppose we could pit the drought of that time, or the general awful inhospitableness of the world. But if you can help it, folks, under whatever conditions, do please refrain from consuming the corpses.

Those poor women. If only those crazed necrocannibals hadn’t brutally preyed on them, they might be alive toda…wait a minute.

It is not exactly news that cannibalism occurred at Jamestown. It is mentioned directly and obliquely in several accounts of the time.

I just hope we’re better prepared when we start sending people to Mars.

Not that I’m specifically looking for recipes for killing and eating my wife, but on the off chance it does come up, what does it mean to “powder” a meat? Is it just a synonym for salting?

“Powdered” meat. Yes, it’s synonymous with “corned” or “salted”.

I understand if the mods want to move this to Cafe Society.

Or at the very least rename the Pit to the Carbonado.

At the risk of a whoosh, I’m not sure I understand why being eaten alive is better than being eaten after death.

I’m probably going to hell for this, but the fact that Smith pondered what might be better ways of preparing the corpse cracked me up…

I think they mean “at least the victim survived”.

I’m guessing the OP slept through history class back in high school if he’s never heard of this kind of thing happening. Seriously dude, you’ve never heard of “survival cannibalism?” The Donner party? That Chilean soccer team that crashed in the Andes – they even made a movie about it!

History is rife with these kinds of stories.

Eating dead people is only wrong if your culture says it is. Killing people to eat them is another matter, but that isn’t the only thing you appear to be Pitting.

Of all the horrible shit that happened in Jamestown, this is pretty low on the list. I would however like to see an expansion at nearby Colonial Williamsburg to capture the moment.

I’m frankly disappointed that Try2B has missed an obvious opportunity to blame the Brits for their cannibal tendencies.

In grade school we all had to draw pictures of the 1st Thanksgiving. Mine had the Pilgrims murdering the Indians and eating them. Some of the Pilgrims also raped the Indians. My mother has almost as humiliated as she was after the marijuana drawings my brother made in kindergarten. At least he didn’t see the school counsellor.

Quick, so we can capitalize on Zombies!

Me too. Almost seems like he was going for a laugh there. Did they have humor back then?

I would imagine that his joking about it was, in itself, a survival mechanism. After seeing four out of five settlers starve to death, you would have to do something to keep your sanity. Making jokes is one way to distance yourself from the horror happening around you.
On another note - Why, exactly, is this in the Carbonado?

Jamestown.
Donner Party.
Alferd Packer.
Andean plane crash.

Are there more survival-based cannibal rifenesses? (Vs. criminal-nutcase ones; even Packer is borderline.)

M&M Mars? I really don’t see that as being an issue.