Yukky Fungi….. Thoughts About Eating People - Plus…. Time-travel to Ramsay…..
by Bernie Bell - 09:24 on 03 November 2023
Yukky Fungi…
I quote from ‘Mushrooms and other fungi of Great Britain & Europe’ by Roger Phillips…
“Scarlet Caterpillar Fungus. Habitat on dead larvae and pupae of butterflies and moths buried in the soil, the mycelium of the fungus replacing the insides of the insect. Occasional. Not edible.”
A bit gruesome – but I still likes them. They’re at the base of a small birch tree in our garden…
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Thoughts About Eating People - Plus….
A mutual appreciation of the work of Eddie Cummins…
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16438
…..led to my having an email exchange with John Hamilton Louch. John then sent me two books – one of his stories & essays and one of his poetry. He had these published privately and they’re not available to the general public.
When I read the stories I was impressed by his imagination and how his tales are constructed – I encouraged him to give them a wider readership and I hope that he does so, one day.
Meanwhile, I’m now reading his essays and I think it’s best to say that we would have to agree to differ on some things! However, they are well written and contain much of interest.
The essay entitled ‘Primitive Peoples’ is one that I can comment on without the reader of this, needing to have read that!
John writes of his experiences during his time in Africa, including an incident when he and his companions were given human flesh to eat. The person who gave them this did so with entirely good intent – it was the way among his people, and he was doing them a favour – giving them meat.
So – here are my musings prompted by reading John’s very open minded and sympathetic essay.
In some cultures, it was/is a mark of respect to eat a person – there is a desire to take that person - their way of being - into your being. In some, it was/is simply a way of not wasting a good source of protein. In some, it was/is a way of showing ultimate domination. Having killed an enemy, eating them really puts an end to them!
Some years ago I was talking with a friend about how John Rae and his crew discovered the fate of the Franklin Expedition……
https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/07/31/the-two-johns-a-personal-perspective/
…….including the fact that they had resorted to cannibalism - which led to us discussing the general idea of the rights and wrongs of eating people. We agreed that we’d feel more inclined to accept the idea of eating someone that we think well of – something like the idea of honouring them by eating them - but would be less inclined to countenance eating someone horrid - we agreed that that would feel like some kind of pollution of our self.
John’s story of a tribe in which folk who know that death is coming, prepare a place in which to lay down and die reminded me of a similar tale. We’ve recorded and are watching ‘The Ascent of Man’ presented by Jacob Bronowski….
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001p2xc/the-ascent-of-man-1-lower-than-the-angels
Readers of a certain vintage might remember when this series was on television in 1973.
In one episode, Mr Bronowski tells of a group of nomadic herdsmen who if, when on their wanderings, they encounter an obstacle – for example a river in flood – which the hale and hearty can manage, but the old or infirm can’t - those who can’t, simply sit down and wait to die while the rest of the group carry on, on their journey.
This is for the good of the whole group, and is accepted as such.
In the programme, there was a ‘shot’ of an old man sitting among some rocks, accepting his fate. And with him was his dog. I wondered – what did the dog make of it? It was probably a working dog, and the bond between a working dog and it’s human is very strong.
I wondered – did the dog know?
PS
John asked me to make it clear that he.... "would not knowingly eat human flesh, and indeed, things have moved on since those colonial days, and such pockets of human isolation are probably very much in the past."
He told me another extra-ordinary tale - and I do hope that he will publish these tales himself, some day.
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Time-travel to Ramsay…..
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2023/11/02/ramsay-update/
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/04/02/hares-and-spirals-shadow-and-light/
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