422 

 XXXVI. Pkoceedings of the Scientific Societies of London. 



1, Ethnological Society. (4, St. Martin's Place.) 

 Feb. 21st, 1865. 



The following paper was read : — 1. " On Cannibalism in Eelation 

 to Ethnology." By Mr. J. Crawfurd, E.E.S.— The anther's conclu- 

 sions, from the facts stated in his paper, were, that it is highly 

 probable that the races of man, in their tedious march towards 

 civilization, must have passed through all the usual stages, not ex- 

 cepting that of cannibalism. Man was more naked than the beasts 

 of the field, and in this respect came only to be on an equality with 

 ihem after he had robbed them of their clothing. His food consisted 

 of raw flesh or of raw fish cast dead on the shore. To this he added 

 a few wild roots and fruits, also eaten raw. His dwelling consisted 

 of caves and the hollows of old trees. In this matter, therefore, he 

 was on a parity with the bear and the opossum, but far worse accom- 

 modated than the beaver or even the fox or hyena. The superior 

 qualities of his brain were now called into exercise. Then were 

 invented implements of stone and bone, with fire ; and man lived 

 almost exclusively by hunting and fishing. In this state of difficult 

 subsistence, and rancorous hatred of one tribe against another, con- 

 tending for food, most probably induced the practice of eating one 

 another's flesh. In the third stage, to the implements, still of bone 

 or stone, there were added the net and the canoe, and a few plants 

 began to be cultivated, and in some places a few animals to be do- 

 mesticated. This was found to be the state of society in the great 

 islands of Hispaniola and Cuba, and of several of the islands of the 

 Pacific Ocean, in some of which cannibalism had ceased, whilst it 

 continued in others. In Asia and its islands we have no examples 

 of a people in the stage just named, and we are only assured of its 

 having existed in Europe through the discoveries of modern science. 

 The pile-builders of the Swiss lakes appear to have been exactly in 

 this stage. In Prance, Germany, Spain, and the most civ'Uzed parts 

 of Britain, 2000 years ago, cannibalism had ceased, but human sacri- 

 fices continued in Prance and Britain to a hideous extent. With 

 the exception that they did not partake of the flesh of their victims, 

 the ancestors of most of the present civilized nations of Europe were 

 in the same state as are now the Bataks of Sumatra, and the Dyaks 



