About site: Food/Wild Foods - Use of Insects by Australian Aborigines

Return to Recreation also Recreation

About site: http://www.insects.org/ced1/aust_abor.html

Title: Food/Wild Foods - Use of Insects by Australian Aborigines Article from Cultural Entomology Digest 1. Includes information on types used for food, as well as their place in mythology and art.

Weird_Meat Blog documenting unusual eating experiences. Includes articles, travel stories, photos.

Wild_Harvest Information on gathering and cooking mushrooms, fiddleheads, ramps, and leaks. Calendar of seasonal availability, recipes and tips.

Wilderness_Survival__Edible_Plants Describes the identification and preparation of flora for consumption. Includes diagrams, the Universal Edibility Test, and lists of edible varieties.

You_Can_Become_a_Hardcore_Forager Article from Backwoods Home Magazine, issue 47. Includes information on tools needed, safety, preparation, as well as details on some plants, frogs, turtles and fish.

Disgusting_critter_just_needs_a_new_image_____and_gravy_ Humorous article from The Standard-Times containing information on eating nutria. (November 19, 1997)

American_Cheese_Society From the not-for-profit organization which promotes cheeses. General information for all cheese types.

Alexa statistic for http://www.insects.org/ced1/aust_abor.html

Please visit: http://www.insects.org/ced1/aust_abor.html

Related sites for http://www.insects.org/ced1/aust_abor.html

Black_Diamond The snack that peels with a twist. Cheestrings product info, games, activities and contests. [Requires Flash.]

British_Cheese_Board Information on British cheeses, including links to producers and recipes.

Canadian_Cheese_Encyclopedia Information about cheeses including history, recipes, and cheesemaking.

Cheese_101 A cheese primer for beginner cooks from the Reluctant Gourmet.

The_Cheese_Diaries Pictures and posts from writers who adore cheese of all kinds.

Cheese_Island Quirky reviews of various cheeses, paying attention to the all-important distinction between "good cheese" and "bad cheese."

Cheese_of_France Official site on French cheese. Quizzes, recipes and suitable wines suggested.

Cheese_com Everything you want to know about cheese. Extensive search features.

Cheeses_From_Spain The Spanish Trade Commission's visual guide to hundreds of regional Spanish "quesos"

Cheeses_of_France Origin of cheese and specific information about French cheese.

The_Cheeseweb Information about cheese, cheesemakers, cheese sellers and cheese events around the world.

Cook\'s_Thesaurus___Cheeses Synonyms, equivalents, and substitutions for a variety of semi-firm cheeses.

DolceVita_Cuisine A concise look at Italy's most popular cheeses.

Dream_Cheese Descriptions of various types of specialty cheeses including their origins and serving suggestions, tips on buying and storing, receipes.

Epicurious__Cheese General introduction to cheese and links to more specific descriptions of many gourmet cheeses.

French_Cheeses Overview 400 French cheeses with wines, regions, and seasonal recommendations.

Great_Cheeses_of_New_England Descriptions of area cheeses, with chefs' cheese recipes, tips on nutrition, storage, serving and pairings.

Greek_Cheeses Descriptions of the varieties commonly used, including feta.

Hispanic_Cheeses A guide to Hispanic cheeses and creams.

I_Love_Cheese The American Dairy Association's official site includes recipes and information on nutrition and storage of cheese.

Lancewood_Cheese The official site for this South African cheese producer. Includes recipes and other helpful information.

Mousetrap_Cheese Information about a working cheese dairy in Herefordshire, England, and information about the cheeses.

Netherland\'s_Cheese Information on cheesemaking, cheese markets, museums, and serving suggestions for cheeses from the Netherlands.

Norwegian_Cheeses Recipes and information regarding Norwgian cheeses.

Real_California_Cheese The official site for California cheese includes cheesemaker listings and a virtual cheese-making tour.

Safe_Handling_of_Cheese Factsheet from Clemson University: Recommendations for storage and handling of cheese.

Switzerland_Cheese_in_Canada Cheese photographs and descriptions, recipes, points of sale in Canada, and promotional contests of authentic Switzerland cheese.

Truth_About_Cheese Brief comments on a selection of popular cheeses.

Vermont_Cheese_Council Trade organization to advance the production and image of premier cheeses from the state.

Whatleigh\'s_Grilled_Cheese Recipes, ideas and advice on making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.

Wisconsin_Cheese_Guide Prairie Ridge provides information on Wisconsin cheeses including storing, cooking and nutritional information.

Wisconsin_Milk_Marketing_Board Regional cheese news and facts, including kids' games, scholarships, recipes, and a form to send away for a cheese-and-beer map.

ASK_Jello College students find meaning in attempting to make a 100-gallon bowl of jello.

The_Gallery_of_Regrettable_Food__Jell-O Traces the decline and fall of western civilization as seen through the medium of Jell-O ads of the 1930s and '40s. Part of James Lileks' humorous and nostalgic site.

How_Jell-O_Killed_the_Dinosaurs Explains what *really* happened to the dinosaurs. Includes pictures.

Jello A rambling poem.

Jello_On_A_Stick Offers different Jello information.

The_Jello_On_My_Fork Contains a poem.

Jello_com Kraft Foods' official site. Offers recipes, history, and pictures.

Mad_Martian__Fun_with_Jell-O! Contains pictures from the Jell-o Art Show, held at the Maude Kerns Art Gallery.

This is sites2007.com cache of m/ as retrieved on 2008.12.02 sites2007.com's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web. The page may have changed since that time.

Use of Insects by Australian Aborigines, Cultural Entomology Digest 1

by Dr. Ron CherryReproduced, with permission, from ESA American Entomologist (32: 8-13)

Lorraine Lamothe Rug Art

For more than 40,000 years before European navigators visited the shores of the Great South Land, Aborigines occupied Australia, including its arid deserts, tropical rainforests, coastal plains, mountains, and especially its major river systems. Estimates by anthropologists put the population of Australian Aborigines before 1770 at more than 300,000. They spoke 500 different languages grouped in thirty-one related language families.Aborigines were completely at home in their surroundings and had no trouble "living off the land." This was mainly because of their intimate knowledge of the topography and natural resources of their tribal territories, and their complete understanding of the habits of the animals they hunted. The Australian aborigines extensively used insects from their surroundings as food, medicine, and as part of their cultural beliefs. However, most data concerning the use of insects by Australian Aborigines occur as scattered references in various anthropological, gastronomical, and pharmaceutical sources. This article highlights the use of insects by the Australian Aborigines.Insects have been consumed as food in many parts of the world, and insects consumed directly as food was probably the most important use of insects to the Australian Aborigines. An interesting example of mass harvesting of edible insects is the moth feasts that occurred in the Bogong mountains of New South Wales. The Bogong moth, Agrotis infusa, aestivated in large numbers every year in rock shelters of these mountains. From November to January, hundreds of Aborigines from different tribes would gather for huge feasts on these adult moths. Rock crevices were covered with layers of these moths, which were collected by dislodging and then collecting the moths from the cave of crevice floor. Moths were then cooked in sand and stirred in hot ashes, which singed off the wings and legs. Moths were then sifted on a net to remove their heads. In this state, they were generally eaten, although sometimes they were ground into a paste and made into cakes. As a food, the Bogong moth was rich in fat, with the average fat content of the male's abdomens exceeding sixty-one percent and of females, fifty-one percent of their dry weight.Another lepidopteran that was considered a food delicacy by the Aborigines was the witchety grub. Although different source suggest different names for this insect, the larvae of (Xyleutes leucomochla Turn) is the true witchety grub of the Aborigines. Witchety grubs (larvae) are found in the roots of Acacia bushes, commonly known as the witchety bush in central Australia. These grubs were the most important insect food of the desert and were a much values staple in the diet of the Aborigines-especially women and children. Men also loved the grubs but would seldom dig them. The grubs were collected by digging up the roots and chopping them up to obtain the grubs within. The grubs can be eaten raw or can be cooked in ashes. Cooking causes the grub to swell and their skins to stiffen. Cooked witchety grubs frequently have been likened in taste to almonds. The larvae are rich in calories, protein, and fat. Ten large grubs are sufficient to provide the daily needs of an adult.Although the Aboriginal diet was generally low in sugar, honeypot ants were a highly valued food that provided a source of sugar for the Aborigines of central Australia. Workers of the honeypot ant (Melophorus bagoti Lubbock and Campanoyus spp.) gather honeydew from scale insects and psyllids, and feed it to other workers, which become mere nectar storage vessel with greatly enlarged abdomens. The helpless replete ants, which regurgitate some of the nectar when solicited by other workers, are kept safe in deep underground galleries. The ants were obtained by scraping the surface of the ground to find the vertical shaft of the nest that led down to horizontal chambers where the honeypot ants were located. Vertical shafts may be dug down to almost two meters.Another popular source of sugar in the aborigine's diet was the "honeybag" (hive) of stingless native bees (Trigona spp.). To locate the honeybag, the Aborigines caught a bee feeding on pollen, and after attaching to it a leaf or petal by means of sticky juices of certain plants, let it go. The bee would fly straight to the hive and the item it was carrying not only would make it easy to see, but would result in its flight being lower and slower, thus, it was easily followed by the hunter. Also, when looking for honey, Aborigines watched for small black lizards, which often lived in honey trees and fed upon the bees as they returned to the hive. To obtain the honeybag, a tree could be cut down or, if the tree were large, a hole could be cut in the tree under the hive. A stick could then be poked into the hive and stirred about until the honey ran down the stick into a bark basket.Besides being consumed directly as food, insects served the Aborigines in other diverse ways. Many classic myths, legends, and beliefs are related to insects and numerous fables about insects occur in the anthropological literature of the Australian Aborigine. These fascinating fables often had moral connotations and were helpful to the Aborigine in explaining the physical environment.Several aboriginal fables exist; One story describes how giant men, in an early age, discovered the secrets of finding bee honeybags. The giant men passed these secrets on to the Aboriginal culture. Another story tells a perfect example of transformation- An Aborigine man and his son were walking through the outback, and the son got sick. To protect his son, the father built a shelter and then went away to find food, which would have taken several days. On his return to the shelter, he found that his son was gone. He looked everywhere for his son but could not find him. As the father leaned against a tree in despair, he looked up and saw a cocoon and a pupa in the branches of the tree. The man assumed that the gods saved his son by turning him into a pupa. The cocoon of the pupa represents the shelter he built for his son. This story has been passed down for hundreds of years and is one that helps to explain the natural environment.Anothe myth tells of lice from mythical men becoming stones in rock holes. Should an Aborigine wish to punish an enemy, he would visit the rock holes, and cause lice to infest the hair of his enemy by chanting and rubbing stones together.Insects and their products also were used frequently in Aboriginal art. Limonite oxide from ants' nests was used for a yellow pigment in paintings; beeswax was shaped into ritual objects and human figures for sorcery and love magic; and insects themselves were depicted in cave paintings. Interestingly, insects especially termites, also have been reported to cause extreme damage to Aboriginal cave paintings. Insects and their products often are employed in folk healing and several examples of Aboriginal uses of insects for medicinal purposes are given at the end of this paper.The widespread use of insects described in this article refers primarily to historical uses rather than contemporary use by the Australian aborigine. Aborigines have been drawn progressively into a money-commodity economy. One result of this is that they have come to rely more and more on industrially produced foods. The Aboriginal population today numbers about 160,000, with many located in the northern parts of Australia or in rural centers. About two-thirds of the Aborigines now live in cities and have adopted suburban life-style; However, even today in Australia, insects still are depicted frequently in contemporary Aboriginal art, which is sold to tourists who have no understanding of the rich and varied historical association of Aborigines with insects.

Bogong mothNoctuidaeAdult moth used as food.Bush cockroachBlattidaeLocal anesthetic.Green tree antFormicidaeUsed to prepare a refreshing drink, cure headaches, and as a cold remedy, as an antiseptic and expectorant.Honeypot antFormicidaeWorker ants used as food.Lerp insectPsyllidaeLerp (manna-like substance) was sugar source used directly as food and also made into drinks.Processionary caterpillarNotodontidaeSilk bag made by gregarious larvae used as a protective dressing for wounds.Sugarbag honey beesApidaeHive (sugarbag) of native bees consumed for food and honey used as medicine to "clean their guts out"TermitesTermitidaeDidjeridu (wind instrument) made from tree limbs hollowed out by termites and termites used as food and termitaria used for absorbent antidiarrheal agent.Witchety grubCossidaeFat-rich larvae used as food and crushed to provide a protective covering for wounds and burns.

Article	from	Cultural	Entomology
Digest	1.	Includes	information	on
types	used	for	food,	as
well	as	their	place	in
mythology	and	art.

http://www.insects.org/ced1/aust_abor.html

Use of Insects by Australian Aborigines 2008 December

dvd rental

dvd

Article from Cultural Entomology Digest 1. Includes information on types used for food, as well as their place in mythology and art.

Rules

Recommended Sites: 1. Arts - Business - Computers - Games - Health - Home - Kids and Teens - News - Recreation - Reference - Regional - Science - Shopping - Society - Sports - World Miss Gallery - Top Anime Hentai - DVD rental by mail - Loan - Loans - Advertising - Auto Loans - Loans

2008-12-02 03:34:16

Copyright 2005, 2006 by Webmaster
Websites is cool :)