Libum (was RE: SC - OT Dogs vs Cats...)

[Wendy]

Lord Ras wrote:
>You woundn't be too far off. Most of the urban/suburban denizens of the list
>are always forgetting that the MA were peoples by an agricultural society. I
>have absolutely no surprise at hearing that eggs were in the top 2 source of
>protien foods duing that era. Many of the feast discriptions we have use
>60000 or more eggs for the entire series of meals. Virtually every household
>would have had at least a few chickens in the yard as wellas a pig or 2 even
>city folks.
>
>Think apricultural and you will seldom find many surprises in descriptions of
>medieval life. Certainly some  folks lived in cities but they were a decided
>minority and most likely had an herb garden and chickens as wellas a dovecot.
>We  moderns have unnaturally divorced ourselves from a lifestyle that was
>virtually universal up until a hundred years ago.

My experience spending a couple years in Indonesia's largest city, Jakarta,
in 1978-80 showed that even in urban environments, people will raise food
animals. I lived in an Indonesian neighborhood, nowhere near where the
ex-pats (foreigners working in Indonesia) all lived. It was a narrow
"street", called a "gang", barely wide enough for a betjak (pedi-cab) (few
Indonesians own motor vehicles - a motor scooter is a big deal). There were
chickens wandering around all day (i was never sure where they went at
night).

Vendors wandered through with baskets on poles over their shoulders selling
fish, and vegetables, and herbal medicinals during the day. At snack time
(around 3 or 4 PM when folks got up from their naps) other wandering
vendors sold prepared foods. Then late at night, around 10 or 11 PM, more
vendors came through the gang with different prepared-to-order food (satay,
stir fried noodles, and steamed sweets). Each had a unique sound to
recognize them by - some called their wares, but others banged rhythmic
patterns on their push carts, or made distinctive vocal sounds.

In the wetter parts of town, some people kept ducks - i accidentally bought
some duck eggs - i didn't know that's what the pale aqua slightler larger
than chicken eggs were until i ate them - they tasted *very* different.

Some of my neighbors had dovecotes on their roofs, but i doubt they were
eating them - Indonesians just like to keep birds. One family kept a pure
white turkey (standard meat breed in the US) as a pet in their yard. Many
others kept jungle fowl cocks, wild chickens essentially, because they're
pretty - iridescent black plumage (i don't know what the hens look like).

In the Chinese neighborhoods, some families kept a pig or two.

Meanwhile, back in the states, even in West LA in the late 1970's, there
were families raising chickens in their fenced-in backyards (and this was a
"nice" neighborhood").

There are still touches of the agricultural in the urbs of today.

Anahita Gaouri bint-Karim al-Fassi


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