# Jamestown Necrocannibals **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 2, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290 "2013-05-02T04:43:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/61 "2013-05-03T08:27:20Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I just hope we’re better prepared when we start sending people to Mars. > [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Prepared as in “ready”, or prepared as in “diced”? It’s a cookbook! ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/62 "2013-05-03T09:01:25Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > 2 movies, and they were Uruguayan. Well, you go uruguay . . . and we’ll eat your corpse. > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Hence, “necrocannibals”. I think digging up graves to eat the contents is going yet one more step. YMMV. Really it’s a _previous_ step rather than one more step. The fact that the dead were given a proper burial indicates a _rejection_ of cannibalism. It’s only after the fact, when desperation truly sets in that they finally say “Aww, hell, dig her up!”. It’s when they immediately move Betty from the deathbed to the oven that they’ve truly surrendered to cannibalism. The extreme step is when they start saying, “Well, at the moment we have no dead people to eat so . . . let’s remedy that!” ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/63 "2013-05-03T09:44:01Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Well, I think it is another degree of bad to kill your family and eat them. Worse still to dig up a buried and partly-rotted corpse and chow down- that’s what I’m really putting the label ‘necrocannibal’ onto. Obviously most cannibalism victims are going to end up dead… anyway, it is hard to believe that people would not prefer death to eating something out of a grave. > Sorry, hmmm, let’s see… What did the Brit say after he ate his wife? > > Bloody good! > > How’s that? > But they only now have physical evidence for this one. Before now it could be doubted- and since this goes a step further than the other stories, I preferred it that way. Pardon me if my monocle pops out into my tea when archaeology confirms stories like this. > I’ve read about it happening during the siege of Rome. Also, there is evidence of cannibalism among the Puebloan Indians of the Southwest, but it isn’t clear if it was for reasons of survival or if they cracked up in some other way. Seems pretty rare overall. It’s worse to eat someone already dead than to murder someone so that you can eat them? After reading quite a bit about the Uruguayan rugby players, I’m also not so certain that most people would choose death. However, if you are going to pit necrocannibals, they might be a better target, since most of them are still, famously, Alive. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/64 "2013-05-03T10:21:07Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > From the cite in the OP: > > Hence, “necrocannibals”. I think digging up graves to eat the contents is going yet one more step. YMMV. > > I’d go for ‘die fishing’ as a worst-case scenario. I mean, tree bark, hello? I haven’t seen stories of the natives in this area resorting to cannibalism at the same time. It’s the fucking Chesapeake. It was packed with food. But it was a perfect storm: the settlers were mostly urbanites or gentlemen who lacked the knowledge, temperament or skills to exploit their environment, the Indians kept them pretty hemmed in to their walled settlement, and wave after wave of disease left them physically devastated all the time anyway. The death rate was beyond imagining, and as ship after ship of new settlers were sent over to a mostly-empty settlement, institutional memory had no chance to develop. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/65 "2013-05-03T11:33:47Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > It’s the fucking Chesapeake. It was packed with food. But it was a perfect storm: the settlers were mostly urbanites or gentlemen who lacked the knowledge, temperament or skills to exploit their environment, the Indians kept them pretty hemmed in to their walled settlement, and wave after wave of disease left them physically devastated all the time anyway. The death rate was beyond imagining, and as ship after ship of new settlers were sent over to a mostly-empty settlement, institutional memory had no chance to develop. In fairness to them, it was the worst drought in 800 years and the Indians food supplies were low as well (which is why they had no interest in trading with the settlers). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/66 "2013-05-03T11:43:52Z")
Hard to believe this is news. I’d read about cannibalism at the Eurpean settlements before. Heck, in some places they were reduced to not only eating Induian food stores, but digging up and eating _buried Indian corpses_. Cannibalizing theor own fresh dead must seem positively civilized by compasrison. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/67 "2013-05-03T12:36:33Z")
Thankfully there was the early emphasis on tobacco planting. Instead of food crops you could focus on having a good smoke after eating your neighbor. Care for a Chesterfield? Yeah, and then let’s have a cigarette. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/68 "2013-05-03T12:38:41Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > In Charles Mann’s _1493_, he claims that in Smith’s memoirs as a whole there are something like four different stories of his life being saved by a love-struck beautiful maiden. He also talks a great deal about the early colony: it’s a great read. Reading Smith’s works you get the impression he introduced himself as “Smith… John Smith. I’ll have an ale, shaken, not infested.” He’d actually be a cool inspiration for some tongue in cheek Shakespearean era spy novels. I’ve read _1491_ but haven’t read _1493_; I’ll have to check that out. (Literally; I think it’s here in the library where I work.) * * * So Virginia Cannibals or Illinois Nazis- if you could only hate one, which would you choose? ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/69 "2013-05-03T12:49:49Z")
Well, you know one of them will provide a meal. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/70 "2013-05-03T13:10:20Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Thankfully there was the early emphasis on tobacco planting. Instead of food crops you could focus on having a good smoke after eating your neighbor. > > Care for a Chesterfield? > Yeah, and then let’s have a cigarette. That’s three times in one thread I LOL’ed, literally. Poop threads, and cannibalism - both bring out the best in **lieu**. This means - something. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/71 "2013-05-03T14:05:34Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > It’s worse to eat someone already dead than to murder someone so that you can eat them? I don’t know. Putting aside blame for a minute to focus on ‘the madness of hunger’, which person has been driven to a more depraved state of madness? The guy who says, “We’re both dead, love, but you’re especially far gone so how’s about I give you a little nudge into this here crockpot?” or the guy strolling through the graveyard hallucinating that the stones read, “Here lies supper”, then grabbing a trowel and getting to work? I dunno, maybe I can’t see the issue clearly through my disgust but I can’t think of anything more disgusting and mad than eating an exhumed corpse. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > Hard to believe this is news. I’d read about cannibalism at the Eurpean settlements before. Heck, in some places they were reduced to not only eating Induian food stores, but digging up and eating _buried Indian corpses_. Cannibalizing theor own fresh dead must seem positively civilized by compasrison. Ok, that lasted about 30 seconds. Yep, even worse than necrocannibalism is kleptonecrocannibalism. Thank you **CalMeacham** for excavating a yet lower level of the pit! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/72 "2013-05-03T14:09:29Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > So Virginia Cannibals or Illinois Nazis- if you could only hate one, which would you choose? Say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it’s an ethos. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/73 "2013-05-03T14:29:22Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I don’t know. Putting aside blame for a minute to focus on ‘the madness of hunger’, which person has been driven to a more depraved state of madness? The guy who says, “We’re both dead, love, but you’re especially far gone so how’s about I give you a little nudge into this here crockpot?” or the guy strolling through the graveyard hallucinating that the stones read, “Here lies supper”, then grabbing a trowel and getting to work? I dunno, maybe I can’t see the issue clearly through my disgust but I can’t think of anything more disgusting and mad than eating an exhumed corpse. > > Ok, that lasted about 30 seconds. Yep, even worse than necrocannibalism is kleptonecrocannibalism. Thank you **CalMeacham** for excavating a yet lower level of the pit! It’s certainly worse for the person who’s murdered. Waiting til someone is dead is much politer. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/74 "2013-05-03T15:14:17Z")
**Man:** I see. Um. Well, I… I’m not very sure. She’s definitely dead. **Undertaker:** Where is she? **Man:** In this sack. **Undertaker:** Let’s 'ave a look. Umm, she looks quite young. **Man:** Yes, she was. **Undertaker:** (over his shoulder) FRED! **Fred:** (offstage) Yeah? **Undertaker:** I THINK WE’VE GOT AN EATER! **Fred:** I’ll get the oven on! **Man:** Um, er…excuse me, um, are you… are you suggesting we should eat my mother? (pause) **Undertaker:** Yeah. Not raw, not raw. We cook her. She’d be delicious with a few french fries, a bit of stuffing. Delicious! (smacks his lips) **Man:** What!? (pause) **Man:** Actually, I do feel a bit peckish - No! NO, I can’t! **Undertaker:** Look, we’ll eat your mum. Then, if you feel a bit guilty about it afterwards, we can dig a grave and you can throw up into it. **Man:** All right. – From Monty Python (as if you didn’t already know) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/75 "2013-05-03T15:24:21Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Reading Smith’s works you get the impression he introduced himself as “Smith… John Smith. I’ll have an ale, shaken, not infested.” He’d actually be a cool inspiration for some tongue in cheek Shakespearean era spy novels. In the comics, Hawkman is the reincarnation of Captain John Smith in all his _I’m-Quite-Good-With-Sword-And-Pistol-But-Let-Us-Now-Duel-With-Axes_ glory. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/76 "2013-05-03T15:50:09Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > It’s worse to eat someone already dead than to murder someone so that you can eat them? > > After reading quite a bit about the Uruguayan rugby players, I’m also not so certain that most people would choose death. However, if you are going to pit necrocannibals, they might be a better target, since most of them are still, famously, Alive. At least the rugby team had refrigerated meat, I can’t imagine how ripe a buried-in-dirt corpse would be after just a little while. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/77 "2013-05-03T16:04:40Z")
> [@Gary\_Kumquat](#): > > I’m frankly disappointed that Try2B has missed an obvious opportunity to blame the Brits for their cannibal tendencies. That’s only a problem in the Royal Navy. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/78 "2013-05-03T17:29:15Z")
Hey! That hardly happens anymore. A few times a week, at most. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/79 "2013-05-03T17:46:59Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Reading Smith’s works you get the impression he introduced himself as “Smith… John Smith. I’ll have an ale, shaken, not infested.” He’d actually be a cool inspiration for some tongue in cheek Shakespearean era spy novels. > I’ve read _1491_ but haven’t read _1493_; I’ll have to check that out. (Literally; I think it’s here in the library where I work.) I’d suggest [American Colonies](http://www.amazon.com/American-Colonies-Settling-America-Penguin/dp/0142002100/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367603038&sr=8-1&keywords=american+colonies) by Professor Alan Taylor. It’s a very interesting, surprisingly manageable read. He talks about the history of American colonization and discusses each region in turn. I took his class last year and brought up Mann’s 1491. He just looked at me and said, “Mann’s not a historian. Don’t use him.” This revelation cracks me up because a lot of the rhetoric at the time was that the Indians were flesh-eating savages and needed to be protected from themselves by the English. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290/80 "2013-05-03T17:53:09Z")
Would it be morally okay to eat the dude who was executed after being convicted of cannibalizing his wife? On its face, it seems like a no-brainer, but you can see how that situation would be ripe for abuse! (How many puns can I fit into one morbid sentence?). I mean, after the fifth “guilty” verdict, you’d begin to wonder if he’s meting out justice or scrounging for dinner. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jamestown-necrocannibals/657290.md?page=5)