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Re: CROSSING THE BERING STRAIT? How ridiculous!GREENWALT ART E (sxaeg@aurora.alaska.edu)5 Dec 1996 20:07:02 GMT
: Kathy McIntosh <postmaster@vineries.demon.co.uk> wrote: : >In article <57ten5$hcf@news.alaska.edu>, GREENWALT ART E : ><sxaeg@aurora.alaska.edu> writes : > : >Snipping of some rubbish from Conrad, and a very sensible, patient reply : >from Art. : >> A caribou : >>herd supplied a pre-contact Alaskan with just about everything they : >>needed. Sinew for cord, bowstrings, fishing line, etc. Fur for : >>incredibly warm parkas, pants, boots, mittens. Meat and : >vegies(stomach : >^^^^^^^^^^^^^^contents). The bones could be formed into ladles, : >projectile poi^^^^^^^^^ : > : >nts, : >>tools, even flutes and needles. : >> More snipping, as above. : > : >Yuk! I nearly threw up on the keyboard! : > : >Seriously, Art, did they actually eat the stomach contents? Surely : >caribou eat grass, would it really have been that important to them? Yup....as terrible as it sounds, it was the only source of vegetable material available to them throughout the winter other than frozen berries they stored. Considering that the bacteria in the rumens would have begun digesting the cellulose, not only would they be getting the advantage of vegetable material during a season it is not normally available but the actual digestion problem (we people aren't too good at breaking cellulose down and waste a lot of nutrients in plant material as a result) would be somewhat overcome. If you really want to throw up on your keyboard (and who doesn't? *Grin*) consider a delicacy along many areas of the coast: stinky fishheads. Fishheads are buried in a pit and allowed to "ferment" for a period of time, then uncovered and eaten with considerable delight. I have not tried this and never intend to. But given the parameters of surviving up here any ability to more fully utilize the food sources available is a big plus. Cultural differences in food preferences aside, the prehistoric inhabitants of Alaska were darned resourceful when it came to making use of every scrap of edible substance, every bit of material that could be used as a tool or clothing or structure or what-have-you. It's rather amazing to look at what these people could do with such scant materials at hand. Even more amazing is that they had the leisure time to produce artwork, demonstrating they were interacting pretty effectively with their environment if they had the time to create some of the gorgeous ivory carvings they produced. ....Art, in Alaska...
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