I just got done with about 4 days worth of anthropology videos, articles, and chapters. Along with the hallucinogenic tribal drugs, this was my favorite bit of knowledge I picked up:
This is a picture from the northern tip of Baffin Island when I went narwhal hunting with some Inuit people. Ant this man told me a marvelous story of his grandfather. The Canadian government has not always been kind to the Inuit people. And during the 1950s, to establish her sovereignty, Canada forced them into settlements.
This man’s grandfather refused to go. The family, fearful for his life, took away all of his weapons, all of his tools. Now, you must understand that the Inuit do not fear the cold. They took advantage of it. The runners of their sleds were originally made of fish wrapped in caribou hide. So this man’s grandfather was not intimidated by the Arctic night or the blizzard that was blowing. He simply slipped out side, pulled down his sealskin trousers, and defecated into his hand. As the feces began to freeze, he shaped it into the form of a blade. He put a spray of saliva on the shit knife and as it finally froze solid, he butchered a dog with it. He skinned the dog and improvised a harness, took the rib cage of the dog and improvised a sled, harnessed up an adjacent dog and disappeared over the ice flows, shit knife in belt. Talk about getting by with nothing….
The whole video is here, if you're interested :
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/wade_Leave a comment




















