>>24255

The quoted book IS a scholarly publication, published by a serious academic publisher who peer-reviews its books. In the introduction the author discusses the veracity of the referenced accounts, noting that while some details may be off, in many cases there are multiple independent accounts written by different people that are in basic agreement with each other, which typically indicates that they are to be taken seriously and likely at least close to the truth.

For more info on historical practices, including links to references, Wikipedia is indeed a good starting point. In addition to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cannibalism
,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_cannibalism
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_cannibalism
are also worth checking out.