at being cannibals.
At least that’s what the documentary I saw last night said. And since it was on TV, and mostly black and white, it must be true. (They hadn’t figured out how to lie on TV back in the days of black and white).
Seriously, it was a documentary[1] on the grisly siege of Leningrad in World War II. Horrible starvation and privation, lots of death, and a densely packed urban population that was dying off with inadequate food.
They’d find bodies that the soldiers had buried … dug up… and women coming home with “steaks” or “veal”. One elderly woman was surprisingly frank about it.
Overwhelmingly, 80-90% of the cannibals were women.
One is left with rather mixed feelings. I suppose a number of women and children survived that would not have, but it certainly puts to rest ideas of the “gentler sex”. Kipling was right about the female of the species…
[1]Great citation “a documentary”, I know. It did feature Nigel Hawthorne narrating. So, hey, it must be true.
You can see more wolfe’s Musings at www.wolfesmusings.com
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/courses/fieldcri.jpg
Bit quiet over here. Not sure if you’ve ID’d your audience for this post.
It’s possible that women are more inclined to survival, especially where their children are involved. Men are more honorable, to the end. There are simply some lines they will not cross.
However, I don’t believe I would ever become cannibalistic under any circumstances. Hard to say, though, eh? I’ve been fairly hungry before, but never even close to starving.
@Teri I tend to agree. It’s Kipling’s “the female of the species” — oriented towards children.
@Z This is a deliberately quiet site. Dick is kind enough to give me quite high profile linkage on his main site. I’m trying to provide him, in turn, with an at least weekly item that’s relevant to mabtw, but has a nice ad for my (now) main blog.
Judging by traffic logs, it’s successful as a strategy.
I urge everyone to go to wolfe’s Musings
-wolfe