Meredith Westfall writes--
>And for a bizarre question. I apologize in advance to anyone who is offended
>by what I'm going to write. I'm curious to know if there is a connection
>between an almost raw diet and a very minimal use of toilet paper. I
>doubt that this is grounded in theory, so a simple "yes" or "no" based on
>anecdotal experiences will suffice. This is what I've been noticing. Is
>there a connection or is it coincidence?
Hey, Meredith, if you're interested in this question, you might be
interested to know I am considering making this one of the optional
discussion topics for an upcoming issue of the NH M2M that I put out.
(Participant Bob Avery is interested in these sorts of things and suggested
it.)
At any rate, here are some interesting excerpts from Jane Goodall's "The
Chimpanzees of Gombe" (1986) about the use of "leaf napkins" by chimps. Not
that we necessarily need extrapolate directly from chimps to humans, but
for an interesting comparison, here's from the chart on page 546--
Table 18.2--Chimpanzee use of leaf napkins over a 6-year period, 1977 to 1982:
Usage No. of obsvtns Feces Urine Semen Blood Other
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TO WIPE SELF
Own penis (after mating) 77 ? x
Own bottom
After defecation 37 x
After urination 5 x
After mating 6 x
When menstruating 1 x
To remove--
Feces of other 31 x
Urine of other 11 x
Fruit juices 15 x
Mud 1 x
Stranger's touch 2 x
Rain 3 x
To dab wound 22 x
TO WIPE OTHER
Wound 10
Bottom 7 x
Nose 1 x
Urine 1 x
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL 230 75 17 83 33 22
% of Total 34% 8% 36% 14% 9%
Narrative excerpts from pp. 545-548--
"Chimpanzees are quite fastidious, and if their bodies become soiled with
dirt (feces, urine, mud, and so forth) they often use leaves to wipe
themselves. They also use leaf napkins to dab at bleeding wounds and
(occasionally) to rub themselves during or just after heavy rain. [chimps
do not like rain--Ward]..."
"By far the most common context was penis wiping by males after mating. To
give some idea of the frequency of this behavior, the number of times that
individual males wiped was calculated as a percentage of the number of
occasions when they were seen to mate. [Average percentage roughly in the 3
to 3.5% range of matings; not very much of the time, actually.--Ward]..."
"Bottom wiping by females after copulation, by contrast, was observed only
rarely. In part this is because the male's penis is visible to him after
the sexual act and he can see the remains of ejaculate clinging to the
tip..."
"The Gombe chimpanzees, in fact, seem to have an almost instinctive horror
of being soiled with excrement and only very rarely have been seen to touch
feces (their own or another's) with their bare hands. If a chimpanzee
accidentally becomes smeared with the feces of another, the offending
substance is wiped off carefully with leaves... Mothers usually clean
themselves at once if they are accidentally dirtied by the excrement of
their infants. Individuals with diarrhea [yes, even chimps in the wild
eating natural diets get sick, you should see the list, but that's another
story--Ward] may wipe themselves with leaves..."
And a rather humorous observation quoted from another researcher about
captive chimpanzees: "Kohler observed a similar fastidiousness and made a
further interesting observation.... [W]hen they became accidentally
soiled--if for example 'one of them steps in excrement, the foot cannot, as
a rule, tread properly after... The creature limps off till it finds an
opportunity of cleansing itself.'..." :-)
More humor: "If a chimpanzee is accidentally sprinkled with urine (by a
companion above him, for example), it too may be wiped off with leaves, but
the behavior is not so frantic and sometimes the victim merely glances up
and calmly moves out from under the remainder of the shower...." :)
"As we have seen, chimpanzees sometimes use leaves to wipe sticky fruit
juice from themselves. The eating of unripe strychnos fruits causes copious
salivation, and it was in this context that 11 of the 15 instances of food
wiping were seen during the 6 years under review...."
"Chimpanzees often dab at bleeding wounds with leaves, which they then
lick; they may repeat the process many times. Young Gremlin once got a bad
cut on her bottom. For 2 days she picked large handfuls of leaves rather
frenziedly while she was urinating and pressed them to her bottom as soon
as she had finished; probably the urine hurt or stung the wound. An
adolescent female wiped her bottom with leaves when she was first observed
to menstruate...."
"Occasionally a chimpanzee uses leaves to wipe a companion. During the 6
years this was seen 19 times and involved only family members. One infant,
Frodo, wiped his mother's bottom when she was in estrus, removing smears of
feces.... Melissa 4 times used leaves to wipe her twins after one of them
had defecated... 10 times youngsters dabbed at the wounds of others: 6
times Prof gently wiped the severe wound of his infant sibling, and 4 times
Gimble dabbed at a bleeding wound sustained by his mother. [one lengthy
account of accidental urine contact of another eliminated]... The last case
was seen when infant Pax sneezed. His brother, Prof., gazed intently at the
thick mucus that dribbled from his nostrils, picked some leaves, and
carefully wiped it away."...
--Ward Nicholson <[log in to unmask]> Wichita, KS
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