Waste and Dishonour

[milegajo]

I had the pleasure of receiving a communication from a forum member today.

He wished to know how he may reduce the waste and fully utilise the parts of the animals he hunted. It was/is a firm belief featuring heavily in the mythology of hunting tribes that to do so is to honour and respect your prey, to neglect to, a sin and a crime.

I may know a smidgeon more than many regarding this field, but I cannot by any means claim to be an expert. I would guess they live in Africa and the Rainforests of South America, but I shall do my best in future posts to share what experience I do have and the knowledge I have gained.

Before I do, I have to say that it was the enquirers mention of having witnessed the people of Afghanistan and “seeing what they do” that really caught my attention and set the little cogs turning. I believe I understand what he is referring to.

When I was fifteen I had the privilege of visiting India. This was a profound experience that I have no doubt has shaped my present and will my future. I, a teenager at the time both blessed and cursed with having been born in an age of rampant technological progress and the economic boom of the 90's, seeing people living in abject financial poverty. These people had few to no possessions of monetary value and yet were seemingly happier and more content with their lot than any single person I had ever come across. From the overcrowded train carriage, a relic of a bygone age, I observed filthy young scamps very much enjoying a game of cricket in the Sun, wickets constructed from gnarled sticks, laughing and evidently happier than any of my fellows in Britain with their Playstations, televisions and mobile phones. An impossible number of houses lined the railway banks, constructed from a myriad of salvaged waste materials. Here was necessity mothering invention on an awesome scale though now the materials were not natural, rather the economic and industrial cast offs in an urban setting.

It is therefore little wonder that whilst my local tip proudly displays a sign claiming to have recycled 73% of the waste handled last year, countries such as India and those in Africa can easily claim over 95%. The common denominator? Money, or rather the lack of it.

Money is a magic bullet that can often bring about a desired outcome or secure an acquisition that outsources the challenge of manifestation to another. I view each pound sterling as a unit of time. Sometimes the exchange is very efficient, for instance an air rifle. How long would it take you to construct and manufacture such a device? If a good quality rifle costs £300 new, and you earn £50 a day, six days of paper shuffling/labouring/bin collecting/filing sees you outfitted with something that it is fair to say would have taken you a damn sight longer than that to make!

Conversely the hundreds of pounds spent heating, running, renting/buying your home each year and the hours spent working a repetitive job you ultimately resent and despise and keeps you from those you hold dear in order to meet those bills is an example of the insanity money perpetuates. I find it more efficient to live close to my family in a caravan with a wood burner and collect and process the wood myself. Gas for heating costs me £35 every five months! Barely a days labour if I do choose to sell my time...

Now it may seem that I have digressed, but the above is intended as a background illustration of why most of us (myself included to an extent) do not fully exploit the resource and opportunity each of our kills presents. We lack need.

I am told that food is the cheapest, for us wealthy countries, than it has ever been before. - We do not need to eat that rabbit.

Clothing is practically disposable, - No need for the fur.

No need to tan, - no need for the brain.

Needles are mass produced and lets face it, with clothes no longer mended who the heck needs those anyway, so – bones not required.

Glue is readily and cheaply available manufactured from chemicals, - no need to boil the scraps of hide/ eyeballs.

I daresay the list could go on but I think you catch my drift.

To the enquirer and the curious, as a start, I refer you to my 'Make Your Quarry Pay' post.

Regarding pigeons, it did seem somewhat shameful and criminal to use just the breasts, and with this in mind I experimented with skinning it in order to cook it like one would a chicken. Please see this post for further details. Unfortunately I do not believe in this case that the extra effort required is beneficial for anything but the conscience. Amazingly those birds are seemingly 95% breast!

Feathers are the most obvious usable item of avian quarry. Jays for the electric blue wing feathers, prized by fishermen, magpies I believe also.



For the remainder of my life I will endeavour to experiment, test and research further ways that I may honour that which I kill, but I will say this. In nature, ultimately, there is no such thing as waste. This is by no means a truth upon which we may excuse ourselves, only you can be the judge of the acceptability of your habits, but it is a truth nonetheless. Parts that are presently unusable to me, I 'offer to the woodland gods'. To date, no offering has thus far been rejected and in this knowledge my conscience is soothed.

 

[Tengu]

I for one have never heard of a tribe that does not waste what we would regard as useful bits of the animal.

But I understand what you are getting at; I for one do not like to see waste; its a problem that few people seem to tackle.

In our college is the poster for the General Studies lectures. Very few of them address issues like resources.

I think there is a generic enviromental one but I am not sure. (There is one on land use.)

There for sure aint one on population!

 

[milegajo]

I for one have never heard of a tribe that does not waste what we would regard as useful bits of the animal.

I'm sure they would say the same about us. One mans Trash is anothers Treasure Trove.... I have read of Native American tribal mythology and histories that document the attention to full use of the animals. The late and great Joseph Campbell's 'The Power Of Myth' is a superb book if you fancy something different.

 

[Tengu]

Im a firm believer in Joseph Campbell, yes, though I have many of his books, I will admit I havent read them in a long time.

Myth is one thing; I dont think many natives followed it at all regularly.

(Unless they were really hungry, as happens.)

The Ona indians, for instance, would only use an arrow once.

 

[Toddy]

I'm an archaeologist..........I can tell you truthfully, when there is plenty, in any nation, any people, any country, there is waste.......and that's true even when the waste could usefully be burnt to provide fuel for heat, light, security, comfort.
When there is ease in acquisition, then people do so to their advantage and often agin many of their own former 'cultural' mores. The native Americans for instance; it wasn't only white men who shot the buffalo in huge numbers. Before then the cliff jump was just as effective, and we find debris those from before the Mesolithic, and not just in America either.

Basically people have mostly seen animals as resources to be exploited. Anthropomorphism is a fine ideal, but reality often shows folks just don't bother.

In many ways the waste defines the culture........ours says a heck of a lot about our wealth of resources.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Gaudette]

Thank you for this post. Wondrrfully written and inspirational.


--------------------------------------------
"If we had some bacon we could have bacon and eggs, if we had some eggs"

 

[Sappy]

I like your idealised view of this.

The fact of the matter is humans annoyingly are humans and we will shape our environment to suit us, whatever we do is irrelivant, our plastic bags that take a hundred years to biodegrade will eventually form new life.

99% of all species that have ever existed are gone humanity sees itself as being here forever even though given the timeframe we have been here less than the blink of an eye.

Its fair to say all that we know now will not exist in 500,000 years which isn't a long time energy can not be created ot destroyed, we as humans want to preserve the status quo, humanity and our actions in the grand scheme of things are close to non existent

We will be gone and the earth will never remember, it'll do as its always done

 

[Toddy]

...............bet you we don't

Y'see, what can't change, dies.

We are constantly changing. Constantly developing, even our wars and genocides create new thrusts of knowledge.
We have no fangs, no claws, no poison, no massive size, no fur or scales..........yet we are the dominant species on this world.

What makes you think we should (or are going to) stop there ?

cheers,
Toddy.........who spends half her life in the past

 

[lub0]

The impoverished of developing countries don't have rich people in expensive clothes driving in expensive cars living right alongside them coupled with all the enviable content thrown in our faces 24/7 from the mass media and TV so they never get hacked off and enraged with a deep sense of unfairness like the poor and/or less well off do in developed countries like the UK.

 

[British Red]

milegajo,

Do you see partcipiating in an internet forum a useful use of electricity and a computer? I say this as in some countries that computer would be a massively important resource in education - and billions of people still live without electricity - or in cultures where even a tiny amount of bandwidth would be used to research a medical condition or to summon aid in a life threatening situation. Given that this is undeniably true, do you find using those resources to post on an internet forum a priority?

On the subject of pigeons, if they are not controlled, the UK population will import more food ( denying that same food to local populations) and consume finite fossil fuels into the bargain. Whilst it may be prefable to turn those birds bones into needles (that are far inferior to metal needles), do you believe that not turning those bones into needles is a reason to allow pigeons to flourish and hence remove food from the mouths of local populations when the British outbid them for their farmers produce? For that will surely be the result.

The world is imperfect. We must make the best of it - even when that is an imperfect solution

Red

 

[boatman]

If the poor of the world are so happy why can an angry mob be assembled in almost any of these "poor" nations at any time? They do of course have rich people close by in all of these countries. Rich people who conspire to drive them from their shanty towns whenever profit can be made. Of course people make the best of a bad lot anywhere in the world but it is false logic to draw a conclusion from temporarily happy children playing cricket as short-term escape.

Weird isn't how many want to leave these nirvanas to try and live in the sinks of misery such as the USA and the UK, must be masochists?

 

[santaman2000]

If the poor of the world are so happy why can an angry mob be assembled in almost any of these "poor" nations at any time? They do of course have rich people close by in all of these countries. Rich people who conspire to drive them from their shanty towns whenever profit can be made. Of course people make the best of a bad lot anywhere in the world but it is false logic to draw a conclusion from temporarily happy children playing cricket as short-term escape.

Weird isn't how many want to leave these nirvanas to try and live in the sinks of misery such as the USA and the UK, must be masochists?

+1. You and I debate more often than we agree. But not this time.

 

[santaman2000]

I'm an archaeologist..........I can tell you truthfully, when there is plenty, in any nation, any people, any country, there is waste.......and that's true even when the waste could usefully be burnt to provide fuel for heat, light, security, comfort.
When there is ease in acquisition, then people do so to their advantage and often agin many of their own former 'cultural' mores. The native Americans for instance; it wasn't only white men who shot the buffalo in huge numbers. Before then the cliff jump was just as effective, and we find debris those from before the Mesolithic, and not just in America either....

Agreed. Taking it a step further, it isn't just humans either. I've frequently seen other species kill for nothing more than the joy of killing and then leave the unwanted carcass. that said, there really is no waste in the end. Carrion (or at the least, bacteria) will feast on it.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

I've frequently seen other species kill for nothing more than the joy of killing

Applying human emotions to animal behaviour isn't really appropriate............surplus killing is well known in predators but it's probably the circumstances that trigger this behaviour rather than a pulsion to satisfy their 'blood lust'

 

[blacktimberwolf]

says a heck of a lot about our wealth of resources.

Rather our belief that resources are not finite..................... that & the short term financhial gain for multi nationals who encourage us to squander them.

 

[Toddy]

Ah, but then, that waste.....that in itself is, and will, become a resource to be exploited.
It's all just energy in one form or another, and it can't be lost, just transformed

cheers,
M

 

[21st century pict]

. The native Americans for instance; it wasn't only white men who shot the buffalo in huge numbers. Before then the cliff jump was just as effective, and we find debris those from before the Mesolithic, and not just in America either.

Basically people have mostly seen animals as resources to be exploited. Anthropomorphism is a fine ideal, but reality often shows folks just don't bother.

I have heard about Native Americans killing buffalo and only harvesting the tongue.

 

[Toddy]

To be fair I think that was really only likely once the people had access to firearms and plentiful ammunition.
The sheer volume of meat and skins obtained from one cliff fall trapped herd though, must have swamped the abilities of a band of people to process in timely fashion. Presumably why we find such sites in the archaeological record.

If you have to make your weapons, make every single arrow from scratch, then I suspect that there's more effort to make the most of every shot.

That said, there were deer skeletons found at Star Carr which had been shot twice. We know that because the flint arrowheads had shattered when they hit bone, but the bones had started to heal before another hunting attack, which again the deer seems to have escaped from. At least one ended up in a mire and died there, and as the carcass was unbutchered, presumably it wasn't found by the hunters.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Ah, but then, that waste.....that in itself is, and will, become a resource to be exploited.

You're probably right, the toxic waste western Europe ships over to India & West Africa to be 'processed' enables hundreds of people to earn a living, not for long mnd but there's plenty more to take their place.

Recycling waste is big buisness now .

 

[blacktimberwolf]

I think it's a romantic mythe to believe that primitive peoples " lived in harmony" with nature. Human beings have never lived in harmony with nature & only their small numbers & limited technology prevented them from doing much damage. We are today just doing what we have always done, exploiting our enviroment & producing a lot of waste.
I can understand people wanting to cling onto misconceptions about how we used to be, in this artificial world, many are looking for a supposed authenticity, a more moral way of doing things based on a respect for nature but unfortunately however we chose to live our impact on the enviroment is just too great. We can only strive to reduce the nefast effects of our passage on this planet which is already a step in the right direction, even if it's in vain.