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History Question
Posted by Phil on Feb 21 2006
This is a serious question to which I have no difinitive answer.
What was the native Alaskan's concept of wanton waste 100 years ago?
I have this weird idea that "wasting meat is unethical" is a mostly middle-class concept. Someone please comment.
What started me thinking on this track was a book I read several years ago called "The People of the Deer". It was written in 1953 and is out of print (as far as I know). It chronicled the Inuit people who lived west of James Bay and depended almost completely on caribou (deer). To them, killing caribou meant food, clothing, shelter, and almost everything in their lives. Not enough caribou meant dying in the winter. Waste didn't even enter their mind (as far as I could understand). The hunter of the family killed as many caribou as he could near freeze-up and stacked them for later use. If he killed enough, the family survived. If he killed too many, they just rotted in the spring and returned to the earth. No big deal.
That (and watching a camp manager in Quebec kill his winter supply of meat) got me thinking about who is responsible for our ideas about wasting game meat.
So, educate me about Alaska.
Next: Thanks Phil Feb 23 2006
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