SC - Cooking, anthropology, anthropophagy, OOP partly OT

[James Prescott]

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