A short thread about truth:
Certain African (iirc) tribes have evolved complicated cooking rituals to prepare specific plants, because otherwise you’ll be cursed by the ancestors or some similar explanation of calamity;
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Conversation
When British colonists showed up, they thought ‘ancestor-curses are silly,’ and prepared the plants in a simple way before eating;
they then died of poisoning because the ancestor-curse avoidance strategy was actually a complex series of chemical reactions to denature the poison.
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So, here’s an epistemological question:
Is the ancestor curse true or false?
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(I don’t know where I read this story originally, or if I’ve gotten the details right - I’m still trying to rediscover the source. Please let me know if you have any leads!)
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Ok, I’ll do a poll.
Is the ancestor curse:
- True56.5%
- False43.5%
223 votesFinal results
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I’ve heard the Central American rather than African version (nixmatalization of corn). I think there’s several such examples. researches this stuff and has a zillion examples up his sleeve.
as a plant I am sorry to report that we are trying to kill you at all times and only your culture and technology can save you
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manioc and sago may be two other examples of this—traditional preparations which also happen to (or probably were empirically determined to) detoxify
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