> So it will be easy for you to meet my challenge:
> Please specify the *animal* foods aboriginals derived 77% of their
calories
> from.
this topic is a lot more complex than i first considered. It's easier to
talk about the animal foods they ate rather than the actual proportions of
plant v animal. to do that we need, as another postee said, to consider the
wide range of climates and tribal cultures. tribes and individuals were
also bound by taboos not to eat certain plants or animals. because of this
complexity i regard Cordain's figure with considerable scepticism, not so
much because it must be wrong but because it would be a big task to find out
who ate what and how much when and where! But some general points on high
fat animals...
1. emu. since the male emu sits on the nest for up to 6 months he
accumulates a large store of fat, between 10-20kg, up to the nesting time.
makes quite a meal with 30kg of meat and 20-50 eggs weighing 500 grams each.
2. goanna. the oil was used for a body rub, so i guess there must have been
enough to not need to eat it. [trying to find out more here].
3. dugong or sea cow, on queensland coast. tonnes of fat here and still
hunted by torres strait islanders. seals on south australia coast
4. eggs of various species of ducks, geese, other water fowl. since
migratory species nest in the same place every year they are easy to
collect. flocks of thousands nest near watercourses and billabongs. eggs
coming out your ears. some non-flying species like scrub turkey, as well as
goanna and emu eggs. easy to collect.
5. eggs of turtles, laying their thousands once a year. take the turtles
themselves.
6. ubiquitous freshwater fish - mullet and yellowbelly. high fat [about 10%]
equiavalent to salmon. older yellowbelly accumulate large amounts of fat
7. murray cod..can grow up to 100kg. collects fat in a layer between skin
and msucle, unusual for fish. would be kilos of fat in a big one.
8. freshwater eel. slow moving rivers with debris of logs etc ideal habitat.
eels are generally quite fatty. one website shows a large eel and the
comment they [ie a big one] could feed 10 people. trapped with nets.
9. platypus. acumulates fat stores in its tail - about 100 grams. osme other
creatures do this too, to survive drought, such as some lizards.
10. galahs/cockatoos/plovers who fatten up on nectar and fruits.
11. witchetty grubs. a favourite food. around 25% fat, weigh up to 60 grams
each.
12. bogong moths around sydney area. high fat content.
13. dingo pups.
14. echidna [our porcupine]. these last two often reserved for older people.
sometimes aborigines used different words to specify the state of the
animal; eg in one langauge the term for wandering whistling duck is "Djudea"
when they are fat, and "Djillegwarebee" when thin.
the challenge was to determine when any given animal was fattest and most
suitable for eating, so over millenia tribes used careful observation of
weather, plant growth and animal movements to develop their 'seasons.' a
good summary:
We have to know through each season, what we can hunt and gather to maintain
species numbers. We look to the insects, weather, plant, trees, animals,
ocean , land and stars who tell us what is fat or ready to eat
http://www.green.net.au/environs-kimberley/paul-foulkes/lurujarri.html
notice the 'fat' ! i'll rest my case for the moment here :)
andrew
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