Banning Food and Drugs! from ANDOVER_at_delphi.com on 1996-08-07 (Glorantha Digest Vol 03)

From: ANDOVER_at_delphi.com
Date: Wed, 07 Aug 1996 01:05:13 -0500 (EST)

First, there are all kinds of things that are banned for religious reasons -- including alcohol, beef, pork, and so on in the RW in our history. It might be interesting to think of similar food or beverage bans for various Glorantha cultures, not to mention fast days, and so on. The geas cults do have requirements that one eat or not eat various substances in certain seasons or times, of course (like Ramadan, Lent, fish on Fridays, & so on). Second, even governments that weren't concerned with the health of their own people were concerned with balance-of-payments questions. One of the key aspects of the politics of the opium trade with China was that the British finally found something to sell to the Chinese for their silk and spices and china. The Roman Empire at varioustimes banned the import of silk products in a futile attempt to prevent the drain of specie to the East. So one doesn't have to assume a particular modern interest

in people's health in order to ban hazia -- if it causes currency to drain out of the Empire they will try to limit it or outlaw it! Finally, in fact the history of temperance and of tobacco shows that efforts to ban or limit consumption have existed throughout their history. Sometimes inspired by religion, sometimes by fears as to health, sometimes by groups interested in improving the condition of the people. I already mentioned that James the First of England tried to ban tobacco in the early 17thg century. Some cultures and religions have tried to do the same to coffee and/or tea.

And, of course, there are political struggles, ideological struggles, and financial interests involved in all these bans, so they can be a fun part of any ongoing campaign. Just consider that at the beginning of this century, Coca-cola was called "coke" because it contained coke! And old ladies swallowed or injected the stuff. The hodge-podge of alternate de facto and de jure legalization and prohibition, together with drug-and-alcohol-running, gang violence, police corruption, and so on, of 20th century America is not new. It exists in all "advanced" bureaucratic societies all the way back to Ancient Egypt.

Jim Chapin