Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History

by Bill Schutt

So were European fears about cannibalism simply an invention used to justify conquest, or were there cultures, including those encountered by the Spaniards, where the consumption of humans was regarded as normal behavior?

phenotypic plasticity: When changing environmental conditions allow multiple phenotypes (observable characteristics or traits) to arise from a single genotype (the genetic makeup of an organism).

cannibalism enables individuals of some species to accelerate their developmental process, thus allowing them to quickly outgrow a stage in which they might be preyed upon or perish due to unpredictable environmental conditions.