Posted on 10/07/2006 3:43:02 PM PDT by blam
Here's what I found about the mushrooms.
"Perhaps no other ethnobotanical is more shrouded in mystery and intrigue than the Amanita Muscaria mushroom. Some scholars have suggested that the Viking berserkers ate the mushroom before battle to enter a frenzied state. Others have claimed that it is the legendary intoxicant Soma, worshipped as a God by early Hindus. In Western culture, it is the mushroom of fairy tales, a symbol of both poison and magic. For generations, the tribal shamans of Siberia and the Pacific Northwest have ingested Amanita Muscaria to enter Altered States of Consciousness."
extremely fascinating! i was a latin american studies major at the U of Pittsburgh 28 years ago and never heard of this civilization. but this piece says Kuelap was just discovered 35 years ago. so it makes sense that they wouldn't exactly be in the textbooks back then.
Yup. From the sound of things, you'd be hard pressed to find much in the books today too.
The hallucinogen in amanita muscaria is the only hallucinogen that is NOT metabolized by the human body and just goes right out in the urine. It may then be used by another devotee.
The Sa'ami in the far North of Scandinavia, used it in pursuit of visions in their old religion. The Apostolic Charismatic Church of the First Born in the United States, where it still uses a narcotic as a sacrament, uses peyote.
Try: http://www.evilchili.com/mediaview/4588/Swedish_Midsummer_Feast for a recent video on the situation.
It was processed through animals as well; reindeer in northeast Asia and cattle in India (sacred cows).
A lot of these details are in R. Gordon Wasson's writings.
Still, this little film is the best visual I've ever seen of people drunk on Amanita.
The nonpotable X on the plastic water jugs disguises the real substance in there. On some of the clips you can see that it is clearly urine!
Again, this is strictly in the interest of science so you should not let your eyes stray.
It's always the court jester who is a midget who has the magic dust. The highest incidence of dwarfism in any European group is among the Sa'ami.
And then there's Santa Claus, the red and white decor, the flying reindeer, helpers, etc.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
Gods, Graves, Glyphs PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
There's a program that just came on the Discovery Channel titled: Ice Age Columbus: Who were the first Americans? Looks interesting, it starts out in Iberia, hee, hee.
There are those who believe the Sa'ami "wintered over" in NW Scandinavia during the last glacial maximum.
Seems it never iced up ~
During that period of time they became somewhat "different" from the other European people, and vice versa.
Although some of the genetic differences are identified as disease, what we are talking about in modern times with modern populations is a statistical norm with some folks ending up with a bunch of "different" genes they didn't even know were in the family.
Northern European "problems" traced to Sa'ami origins are celiac disorder, Scandinavian porphyria (3 different genes for that one), extra sinus nodes in the heart muscle, varities of type II diabetes, and so on. I think a double count of red cones in the retina is part of the "package" as is the elimination of blue cones. THat way you can see a small fire many miles across the ice in the darkest of night.
All of these "conditions" are actually very normal for a population that never eats wheat, barley or rye, has only low glycemic index vegetables available, survives on high fat fish and sea mammals, and lives through a Polar winter many months long.
Eskimos have the same "problems".
Does that mean they would have dark eyes?
Technical error ~ big time ~ they got a guy suffering from scurvy. However, they've been out there eating seal after seal after seal.
Seal skin is full of vitamin C. They'd been chowing down on something better than oranges.
Another technical error ~ these people living at the edge of the ice for tens of centuries probably had the same adaptation so many Sa'ami appear to have ~ the body does not, when chilled, protect core heat. It lets your blood keep flowing to your arms and legs to save your life. So, the guy who fell in the ice would not have gone unconscious in that water so fast. His arms and legs would not have numbed up and quit working.
He'd simply dogpaddled to the breathing hole he fell in and they'd pull him out.
He's got about 4 hours to live before he has to get warm and dry BTW. Ordinary white people only have a half hour or so.
I see technical errors in almost all these 'made for tv' documentaries. When the girl was brought along on the 'hunt', I knew where they'd wind up.
They were convinced they'd found something different since it had European roots.
This is kind of a dramatization of what we were told about way back then.
Women never accompanied anyone on the "long hunts" since that wa for biological survival.
This was a "short hunt".
The logic of it all is so compelling just thinking about it you get an idea of how steeled they were to the harshest of discipline ~ without it, they were just seconds from death.
Seeing that blade I went over and looked at my own collection ~ got bunch of 'em. Hmmmm. Like a time machine seeing that.
Most interesting.
Meadowcroft?
J D Adovasio did most of the work there and has aretty good book titled, The First Americans.
However Stephen Oppenheimer (DNA) shows those people coming across Siberia 25,000 years ago and then becoming exiled during the Last Glacial Maximum.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.