morokanth dottle

From: D M McNamara <D.M.McNamara_at_durham.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 11:01:19 +0100 (BST)


  What i always thought (and this is merely a pragmatic opinion in lieu of more valid knowledge) is that tobacco plants may well be growing wild in Prax. I've been reading Gould's 'Living Archaeology.' He followed this band of aboriginies around australia, observing what they ate and scribbling in his notebook (needless to say the aboriginies thought he was insane). Occasionally the aboriginies, on their travels, found a small tobacco patch, and picked some for smoking. They preferred to get hold of ready mades from trading posts, however. These were less
'westernised' aboriginies, by the way (aboriginies have tended to split
into two general camps - those who often live off welfare, and have come reasonably westernised, and live in camps and use 'western' material culture when possible, and those who still live mostly as they did before colonial conquest).
I imagine much of the outback may be less fertile than the better parts of prax (it looks that way from 'the flying doctors'), so i don't see why tobacco can't be growing there too. Having said this, my knowledge of australian landscape is pretty limited, and i don't know any gloranthan myths about tobacco either. I suppose you would also have to be semi-nomadic to be able to collect reasonable amounts of tobacco leaves.

I suspect that tobacco may well serve ritual purposes in morokanth society. Feel free to naysay me, but there is considerable evidence to support this in pre-capitalist societies in the RW. Some parts of Levi-Strauss support this too (see the raw-cooked-rotten triangle in 'the origin of table manners'). He suggests that because substances like tobacco or honey transcend the traditional culture:nature dualities in human cognition, they are believed to hold magic power - hence their common usage in rituals of many kinds. This is because tobacco must be consumed by 'culture' ie. fire, before it is used (the smoke inhaled), therefore it is uncannily 'over-cultural.' Honey is already often found
'ready-processed' in hollow logs, etc. so it is considered to be
'over-naturalised.' This is in contrast with most normal food items,
which usually move from 'nature' to 'culture' in consumption - for example, raw to cooked.
Funnily enough, similar taboos still existed in the victorian dinner party. For example, 'wet' and 'dry' foods were often not mixed in the mouth, and similarly 'hot' and 'cold.' The problem with morokanth is that consumption of tobacco by fire has
'yelmish' connotations (and they are primarily darkness rune linked
people). I suppose there has to be a way round this though (certainly i would not deny that Levi-Strauss' structuralist analysis can be dangerously schematic and determinist).
Just some thoughts whizzing round my head. Feel free to ignore them. Dominic.


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