On the Practical Use of Knives Manufactured from Human Feces and Saliva: An Experiment

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 1996, the anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis recounted in his book "Shadows in the Sun" the tale of an Inuit man who manufactured a knife out of his own feces and saliva as these raw materials froze during the arctic night. With these items he then butchered a dog. Since that time, this story has been told, and retold, on websites, radio interviews, and other media. In this paper, we present an ethnoarchaeological experiment testing the practical use of knives manufactured from frozen human feces and saliva. After acquiring the necessary raw materials, we produce these knives, and then use them in controlled cutting tasks of hide, muscle, and tendons/ligaments. Prehistoric and indigenous people regularly produced ingenious and expedient technologies, and in so doing could survive, and even thrive, in desperate situations and dangerous contexts. However, modern perceptions of prehistoric and indigenous people and their abilities can also be exaggerated or false. Our results have implications for these sorts of perceptions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22790