Earliest Mixtec Creamations Found: Show Elite Ate Dog

National Geographic News ^ | 4-9-2008 | Willie Drye

[blam]

GGG Ping.

Illustrations from a 14th-century-A.D. Mixtec codex (top) show the Indian culture practicing cremation, a funerary ritual that was reserved for kings and emperors.

A newfound burial site shows that cremation was practiced in 1100 B.C.—much earlier than previously believed.

[weegee]

Sounds like a class based society. Why are the Atzlan Now folks so proud of that? I thought socialists wanted a classless society.

[PetroniusMaximus]

"In fact, Lapham said, the excavation revealed that dogs were "a major component of their diet.""

Nothing like a little Chow...

[Nathan Zachary]

"Co-author Heather Lapham, a zooarchaeologist at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, said the team also found bones of dogs, deer, and fish—indications that the residents ate well and thus probably were of a higher social status."

Could be that they burned and buried their faithful hunting dog pal, just like they burned and buried their wife and kids. Could be they burned and buried everything in a pit near their hut. Doesn't mean they ate their dog. Maybe they ate their wives and kids too. Cremation was a way to keep disease away, especially if digging deep graves was difficult. It doesn't mean it was some ritual in which they thought souls went up to heaven in the smoke, or it was any kind of ritual at all, just a simple effective method to keep the smell of decaying flesh down so they didn't have to move away so often.

[OeOeO]

The Incas were ‘supposedly’ a socialist society. I read when they conquered a (tribe? state? development) they dispersed the population to sever any sort of patriotic feelings for the land.

[Mr. Silverback]

It may be pre-industrial, but it’s still industrial, knowhuttimean?

[OeOeO]

The Pre-Columbian Mexicans ate dog. There was a theory that
the human sacrifice thing was a pretense to get at some human protein. There does not seen to be a lot of edibles in central Mexico at the time.

[Petronski]

Cremation reduces human remains to fine powder.

Cremora, a so-called “coffee creamer,” is a fine powder.

Buyer beware.

[weegee]

"I'll try anything once..."

[Mr. Silverback]

Suddenly I’m very, very glad I only put Equal in my coffee.

[SunkenCiv]

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[buck jarret]

Domesticated pre-Columbian meat meant dog or turkey. They also hunted deer and duck.

[Gator113]

My dog did not like this article.

[CholeraJoe]

The men of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of discovery preferred dog meat to any other except beavertail. (No smart-aleck remarks, OK?)

[SunkenCiv]

So, what, they threw out the rest of the beaver?

Dam.

[CholeraJoe]

Fed it to their dogs.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[dennisw]

Beaver tail is very fatty. Was a real delicacy and they were definitely burning off that fat....no problem at all

[count-your-change]

Ever hear of Colima dogs? Both worshipped and eaten as food in past in Mexico. Colima breed still exists. Great story if you want to go to Colima, Mexico to investigate.