Lashing

Lately I've been watching the documentaries of Mark Anstice & Olly Steed living among the primtive peoples of West Papua - the Kombai and the Mek tribes. In most respects these peoples still live as there ancestors did hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. They wear little clothing, chop down trees using stone axes, have essentially no written language, and live as hunter gatherers off of the bounty of the rainforest. One thing I noted is their use of rattan, a climbing type of palm with a long strong stem, to literally lash their world together. The Kombai live in treehouses, 30 to 40 feet up in the canopy, made with uncanny balance and skill, by lashing stone axe hewn limbs with rattan cords. The same fibers haft an ancient axeblade to a wooden handle. The Mek tribe worked as village to lash a new hut and construct a 100-foot long "monkey bridge" across a raging river to join two villages. Today lashing is considered of makeshift or temporary use, but it is among one of the oldest technologies of man. James E. Gordon in, The New Science of Strong Materials, said: "In pure strength, apart from their flexibility, the lashings, sewings, and bindings used by primitive peoples, and by the seamen down to recent times, are more efficient than metal fastenings." (Pictured are spear and adze hafted with rawhide cordage...which do not do justice to the simplicity and efficiency of the Kombai & Mek.)

Eating Insects

The weather on the plains made a short gathering this weekend. It dropped about 3-4 inches of wet fluffy snow overnight. All was not lost, we still had a hardy sampling of roasted crickets and mealworm larvae. (Pictured are the leftovers...plenty of drumsticks to go 'round.) Not as bad as my prejudiced Western mind had anticipated. They sort of "melt in your mouth, not in your hands." Except for the crickets long hairlike ovipositor that sticks out of the females abdomen (used to deposit eggs into soil or plant stems). That tasty morsel tends to get stuck between the teeth, or lodged in your throat, inciting the gag reflex...lol. Eating insects is part of the everyday diet in some parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Native Americans in the US feasted on roasted grasshoppers and were known to eat about 60 different varieties of insects. In Zaire, the mopanie worm is known as the "snack that crawls"...mmmm. There are about 1,462 recorded edible insects. Nutrition-wise, insects tend to rival fish and beef for protein, vitamins, and calories. All in all, knowing these facts did not curb my imagination when taking the first bites. All I could think of was an episode of "Man versus Wild", where Bear bites into a grub the size of your thumb - and guts and juice go spurting and run down his chin...>gag<.

New Neck Knife

I have grown attached to a simple tool that comes in quite handily while doing primitive skill encampments and demo's. It is a 3-inch blade, struck from a core of tough Nehawka flint, with saw-like serations on both edges. I wear it on a buckskin thong, with a deer phallanges "bead", around my neck. One of the curious things about dressing primitively is that there are no pockets. Certainly this was quite an innovation. Contantly, it seems I need to saw a notch in a fireboard, cut a thong, or trim a stem and have to hunt down a cutting implement. I was watching primitive technologist Lynx Vilden's, "Back into the Stone Age: The Yaak River Hunterer Gatherer Project", in which participants lived in a stone age capacity for several month. All of them wore a simple stone blade attached to a thong around their necks. Whenever they needed a quick cut, bore a hole, or start a new notch, they employed their 'neck knife'. Prehistorically, I do not know if this was done, as it was a speculation on their part also, but we do know that small knives were worn in sheaths suspended around the neck historically. ( I see how this is posted, and am out of time to fix this right now...actually, I am packed and ready to head out to another event.)

Bone & Stone Daggers

Buffalo Lance

With the introduction of the horse to the tribes of the plains, the lance became an important weapon for hunting and warfare. Essentially, it was a long wooden shaft with a spearhead of chipped stone, sharpened bone, or later a metal blade. Most likely the first lances were no more than a shaft with a sharpened end. It was difficult trying to get a picture of the 6 foot lance, so here is half of it...lol. Lately I've been working on several lances and spears. This one has a hammered out metal spearhead mounted in a 6 foot wooden shaft with elk rawhide. The shaft is wrapped with rawhide and decorated with tufts of buffalo hide, feathers and scalp locks. It kind of violates my stone age focus using a metal blade. But, some of the lances I've seen would almost be considered works of art. There is a strange sensation that runs thru you when you weild a primitive spear, you touch the primal.

Elk Leg Bone Spearheads

I feel a little crazed today. Just got off a 60 hour work week, now...grilling hamburgers for supper in the 100-degree heat of the day. I can't wait to get over our busy season. Working as a web press operator, for an educational publisher, summers are the time to get materials printed for the next school season starting late August into September. The past couple of weeks I have been able to make a few stone knives - mainly for therapy. Even doing that was an effort as the body has taken another beating from hours of constant go, go, go. But, I love doing it...being able to thin out a piece of stone and flake it into a blade or tool. The knife, second from the left, I used at work to open skids of paper last week. That always brings some curious glances. I kind of prefer a short stout blade that can take a beating. Well, gotta go...time to flip the burgers.