SC - Cooking, anthropology, anthropophagy, OOP partly OT
James Prescott
prescotj at telusplanet.net
Thu Mar 15 21:45:44 PST 2001
Thorvald here with one last kick at the cat:
If you want the cooking connection, skip to the end.
Otherwise, to hit _both_ parts of this OT OOP topic, some people
might like to look for Freuchen, Peter, "Book of the Eskimos",
World Publishing, Cleveland, 1961.
Mr. Freuchen was a Dane who lived for many years with and among
the Inuit of Greenland and northern Canada from about 1906 to
about 1933, with frequent visits in later years, being in so far
as it was possible one of them. He was _not_ an anthropologist,
nor an academic.
This was before and during the period during which the Inuit
societies he was living with began to change greatly in response
to outside forces -- such as Mr. Freuchen himself.
He describes sexual behaviour among the young people that is
without any falsity. What he writes strongly suggests that
what Margaret Mead described in Samoa for young women is
entirely credible.
If Margaret Mead did in fact get it all wrong with respect to
Samoa, then she could have gone to live among the Inuit where
she could have written substantially the same thesis -- though
with all the details changed.
In fact, at a larger settlement there will always be a house
called the Young People's House where young people can sleep
together just for the fun of it, with no obligation outside
of that certain night. Nobody takes offense at this practice,
for no marriage can be a success, Eskimos believe, without
sexual affinity. (pp 121-122)
By 'young people' is meant unmarried women where the age of
marriage was typically 12 to 14; and unmarried men where the
age of marriage was typically 18 to 20.
Mr. Freuchen also describes hearing at close, though not first
hand, of tragic isolated acts of cannibalism.
One such took place in 1921 to some Inuit from Igloolik. An
Inuit comes across two wretched women in a collapsed igloo.
After a long pause Patlok asked again, "Have human beings
been eaten here?" "One knows nothing," the old woman
answered, but she pointed to a big snowpile behind the
remains of an igloo. When Patlok looked further, he found
the bones of the other people, those who had starved to
death. Some of the larger bones had been split in two to
remove the marrow. (p 427)
Mr. Freuchen was told this story by the old woman herself.
To bring the topic back to cooking, Mr. Freuchen gives some
absolutely dynamite recipes. You need to try the "Whole Sealskin
Stuffed with Whole Rotted Auks".
Frozen meat always has an enticing taste, and as it dissolves
in the mouth, you get the full aroma of the raw fermented
bird. It is incredible how much you can down, unbelievable
how hard it is to stop. If you happen to come across a
fully developed egg inside a bird, it tastes like a dream.
(p 148)
Thorvald
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