Editing Human cannibalism (section)

=== Breasts, palms, and soles ===
{{multiple image
| total_width       = 300
| image2            = Palm, fingers.jpg
| alt2              = Front of a human's left hand
| image3            = Bare soles soft.jpg
| alt3              = Bare soles on the beach
| direction         = horizontal
| footer            = Human [[Palm of the hand|palms]] and [[Sole (foot)|soles]] made popular eating in various parts of the world
}}

Various accounts from around the world mention women's [[breast]]s as a
favourite body part. Also frequently mentioned are the [[palm of the hand|palms of the hand]]s and sometimes the [[sole (foot)|soles of the feet]], regardless of the victim's gender.

[[Jerome]], in his treatise ''[[Against Jovinianus]]'', claimed that the British [[Attacotti]] were cannibals who
regarded the [[buttocks]] of men and the breasts of women as delicacies.<ref name=Jerome-Jovinianus>{{Cite book
|title=A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church
|volume=6
|contribution=Against Jovinianus – Book II
|date=1893
|publisher=The Christian Literature Company
|location=New York
|access-date=May 20, 2023
|page=[https://archive.org/details/selectlibraryofn06schauoft/page/394 394]
|url=https://archive.org/details/selectlibraryofn06schauoft
|editor1-first=Philip
|editor1-last=Schaff
|editor2-first=Henry
|editor2-last=Wace
}}</ref>
During the [[Mongol invasion of Europe]] in the 13th century and their subsequent rule over China during the [[Yuan dynasty]] (1271–1368), some [[Mongols|Mongol]] fighters practised cannibalism and both European and Chinese observers record a preference for women's breasts, which were considered "delicacies" and, if there were many corpses, sometimes the only part of a female body that was eaten (of men, only the [[thigh]]s were said to be eaten in such circumstances).{{sfn|Siefkes|2022|pp=270–271}}

After meeting a group of cannibals in West Africa in the 14th century, the Moroccan explorer [[Ibn Battuta]] recorded that, according to their preferences, "the tastiest part of women's flesh is the palms and the breast."<ref name=Levtzion-Hopkins-p298>{{cite book |editor1-last=Levtzion |editor1-first=N. |editor2-last=Hopkins |editor2-first=J. F. P. |title=Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History |date=1981 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |pages=298}}</ref>
Centuries later, the anthropologist {{interlanguage link|Percy Amaury Talbot|fr}} wrote that, in southern [[Nigeria]], "the parts in greatest favour are the palms of the hands, the fingers and toes, and, of a woman, the breast."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Talbot |first1=Percy Amaury |title=The Peoples of Southern Nigeria |date=1926 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |volume=3 |page=827}}</ref>
Regarding the north of the country, his colleague [[Charles Kingsley Meek]] added: "Among all the cannibal tribes the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet were considered the tit-bits of the body."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Meek |first1=C. K. |author-link1=Charles Kingsley Meek |title=The Northern Tribes of Nigeria |volume=2 |date=1925 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=London |page=55 |url=https://archive.org/details/the-northern-tribes-of-nigeria_202208}}</ref>
Among the Apambia, a cannibalistic clan of the [[Azande people]] in Central Africa, palms and soles were considered the best parts of the human body, while their favourite dish was prepared with "fat from a woman's breast", according to the missionary and ethnographer F. Gero.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gero |first1=F. |title=Cannibalism in Zandeland: Truth and Falsehood |publisher=Editrice Missionaria Italiana |location=Bologna |pages=79, 82}}</ref>

Similar preferences are on record throughout [[Melanesia]]. According to the anthropologists [[Bernard Deacon (anthropologist)|Bernard Deacon]] and [[Camilla Wedgwood]], women were "specially fattened for eating" in [[Vanuatu]], "the breasts being the great delicacy". A missionary confirmed that "a body of a female usually formed the principal part of the repast" at feasts for chiefs and warriors.{{sfn|Siefkes|2022|p=195}}
The ethnologist {{interlanguage link|Felix Speiser|de}} writes: "Apart from the breasts of women and the genitals of men, palms of hands and soles of feet were the most coveted morsels." He knew a chief on [[Ambae]], one of the islands of Vanuatu, who, "according to fairly reliably sources", dined on a young girl's breasts every few days.{{sfn|Speiser|1991|p=217}}{{sfn|Siefkes|2022|p=195}}
When visiting the [[Solomon Islands]] in the 1980s, anthropologist Michael Krieger met a former cannibal who told him that women's breasts had been considered the best part of the human body because they were so fatty, with fat being a rare and sought delicacy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Krieger |first1=Michael |title=Conversations with the Cannibals: The End of the Old South Pacific |date=1994 |publisher=Ecco |location=Hopewell, NJ |page=187}}</ref>{{sfn|Siefkes|2022|p=195}}
They were also considered among the best parts in [[Fiji]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sahlins |first1=Marshall |editor1-last=Brown |editor1-first=Paula |editor2-last=Tuzin |editor2-first=Donald |title=The Ethnography of Cannibalism |date=1983 |publisher=Society of Psychological Anthropology |location=Washington, D.C. |page=82 |chapter=Raw Women, Cooked Men, and Other 'Great Things' of the Fiji Islands |author-link1=Marshall Sahlins |quote=From the gourmet point of view, [it was] generally agreed that the breasts of young women made the choicest repast.}}</ref> [[New Guinea]], and the [[Bismarck Archipelago]].{{sfn|Siefkes|2022|p=194}}{{sfn|Hogg|1958|p=151}}