# Where did the Cannibal image of people in a cooking pot originate?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-cannibal-image-of-people-in-a-cooking-pot-originate/565778>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 30, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-cannibal-image-of-people-in-a-cooking-pot-originate/565778 "2010-12-30T01:43:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-cannibal-image-of-people-in-a-cooking-pot-originate/565778/1 "2010-12-30T01:43:41Z")

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Una’s cartoon got me to thinking about people in cooking pots.

> **[Are more male babies born after wars?](https://www.straightdope.com/21344064/are-more-male-babies-born-after-wars)**

I recall old movies from the 1930’s & 40’s with scenes like this. I think there was even a cooking pot scene in Sharon Stone’s early movie _King Solomon’s Mines_ or maybe a movie in the 70’s based on Allan Quatermain.

I’m curious when this appeared in literature. I’m thinking it must be either H. Rider Haggard’s Allan Quatermain stories or Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan series. There were other lesser know authors that wrote adventure stories based on Africa.

It’s a given that these early adventure books had unpleasant racial and gender overtones. My teachers discussed this extensively in my junior high literature classes. I’d prefer focusing on the cooking pot myth in this thread.

It is an odd myth because anyone that hunts knows a large animal must be field dressed before cooking. Otherwise the intestines will spoil the dinner. Even nicking the intestines will spoil deer meat when you field dress it.

Any ideas when the cooking pot with live people first appeared in literature?

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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-cannibal-image-of-people-in-a-cooking-pot-originate/565778/2 "2010-12-30T02:38:25Z")

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This article may give some clues.

[http://daha.best.vwh.net/boiled/history.html](http://daha.best.vwh.net/boiled/history.html)

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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-cannibal-image-of-people-in-a-cooking-pot-originate/565778/3 "2010-12-30T02:41:12Z")

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More from the same site. Illustration may be NSFW so I’ll make the link not live.

[http://daha.best.vwh.net/boiled/main.shtm](http://daha.best.vwh.net/boiled/main.shtm)

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**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-cannibal-image-of-people-in-a-cooking-pot-originate/565778/4 "2010-12-30T02:42:16Z")

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> **[Death by boiling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_boiling)**
>
> Death by boiling is a method of execution in which a person is killed by being immersed in a boiling liquid. While not as common as other methods of execution, boiling to death has been practiced in many parts of Europe and Asia. Due to the lengthy process, death by boiling is an extremely painful method of execution.
> Executions of this type were often carried out using a large vessel such as a cauldron or a sealed kettle filled with a liquid such as water, oil, tar, or tallow, and a hook and pu...

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2010, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-cannibal-image-of-people-in-a-cooking-pot-originate/565778/5 "2010-12-30T03:09:51Z")

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Interesting. I hadn’t thought of criminal execution by boiling. I can see how that could get transferred to cannibals boiling & eating missionaries.