Introduction

Aaron Mankey: The Donner party has a way of stopping us in our tracks. We are morbidly fascinated with their tragic journey, but even more so, we are amazed at how far they went to stay alive. Their story forces us to look straight into the face of a fear that most people buried deep beneath the surface - cannibalism. Some humans have been confronted with cannibalism for a very long time. In some instances, the reasons have clearly been ritualistic, while others have been driven by food shortages.