Re: Anthropophagy
Kevyn Loren Winkless (umwinkl0@cc.umanitoba.ca)
21 Dec 1994 20:00:25 GMT
In <3d8h4q$e62@rebecca.albany.edu> al2032@csc.albany.edu (allen lutins) writes:
>>the other meat which was rolled down the pyramid steps? Without cattle, or
>>sheep, or domesticated pigs, the mesoamerican civilisations had a notable
>>lack of farmed flesh. [...]
>...arguments such as these (this man's obviously studied his Marvin
>Harris) fail to consider something: there are over 500 million
>vegetarians in India today, and they are *not* dying off for lack of
>protein...it is *not* that difficult for the human body to synthesize
>protein from amino acids if the proper foods are eaten in the proper
>combinations...these combinations (present in maize/beans/squash, for
>example) were certainly available to the Aztecs...and there was
>certainly supplementary meat around (peccary, deer, rabbit, etc.)...
But in India, those 500 million vegetarians _do_ have access to cattle
etc,and therefore to dairy products. It _is_ difficult for the human
body to synthesize all the amino acids it needs; in fact there are two or
three which cannot be synthesized, and must be absorbed through food
sources.
As for hunted meat sources in Mesoamerica, the fact is that it would have
worked for a while for the Aztecs to hunt for their meat (in fact this is
probably what occured in any outlying villages) but the population
density was such around the cities that the population of game animals
would quickly be depleted. No domestic animals, no game animals - where
does one get unsynthesizeable amino acids? OK, plants are a source, but
not all of them. It would not be suprising to discover that one of the
reasons for Aztec sacrifice was for "anthropophagy"
"...I drank WHAT!!?" - Socrates umwinkl0@cc.umanitoba.ca
|