ABSTRACT
It has been proposed that cannibalism was practiced by prehistoric populations in the southwestern United States for about 4 centuries, beginning around AD 900 (Turner and Turner, 1999). Evidence for cannibalism has centered along the Little Colorado River and in the Four Corners region at the Anasazi sites during the Pueblo III phase, approximately AD 1075 to 1300, although evidence for cannibalism is also claimed at a small number of sites dated earlier in time and located outside this region (Billman et al., 2000; Fagan, 1995; Turner and Turner, 1999; White, 1992). Although the existence of Anasazi cannibalism in the Southwest is widely accepted by many archaeologists (Billman et al., 2000; Preston, 1998; White, 1992), the issue is still highly controversial (Arens, 1979; Darling, 1999; Dongoske et al., 2000).
