Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Climate Change Forum Glacier was 49ft Thick, now 10ft Thick

Terry, I'm surprised at you, being from Kiwi-land, and not getting the joke. I was using Pommie "Tongue-in-Cheek" Humor.

Terry, Wolfman's right about the Pommie humour. I know, cos I saw a TV program about it.

Sorry guys. As an excuse I'll claim my mind was on something else. Not true of course.

No problem. I'll get back the TV now

About diversity in humans and suckling piglets:
Don't knockers it until you tried it
And also:
The bushmen of the Kalahari would scoff at our IQ-test cause there is no test in them for how to find water. So, to them we are kinda stupid. My point is of course that everything, your morals and your way of life depends on your environment. In present day highschool America, you have to have flexible thumbs for texting and computer skills to be considered cool. In postwar Soviet Russia, it was extensive knowledge of Tolstoy, Dostoyevky etc, which was considered cool. In Japan it was and is still the ability to learn things by heart and to be obedient. In NorthWestern Europe, disobedience in the sense of thinking for your self is valued.
In other words: SAYING SUCKLING PIGLETS RATES HIGH ON THE YUCK FACTOR IS A STUPID AND SUPERFICIAL THING TO SAY!!!! Cause you don't why they do it, what the benefits are or what they get out of it.

Something to which we can relate a little, is the muslim opinion that dogs in the house are dirty. That opinion is shared here in the West by about half the people, but not by all.
Also, the removal of shoes in muslim cultures is not a muslim thing but a heat thing. In tropical countries which have lotsa dusty roads, it's better to take of your shoes when entering a house because:
1. the house won't get dirty
2. it's easy to take them off
3. feet don't stink like in cold countries.
And so, a climate thing has evolved into a religious thing, which is not unusual.

Brian- feet DO smell in hot countries.

You -Brian -will probably suckle nothing. It is a fact that suckling a baby HURTS and can make you BLEED from the nipples, my mind boggles at the thought of suckling a piglet. I feel that whilst customs should be acknowledged, an examination as to why the women find it necessary to suckle piglets would discover a probably less than noble reason.

Ellis, not a noble reason perhaps but a reasonable reason nonetheless. Most likely. People just don't do stuff without good incentive.

Pigs are extremely valuable in those societies. They are often the only big source of protein. Pigs are killed to feed visitors at times of celebration. It would take thousands of rats to feed large numbers of visitors.

I'm sure they taste very nice. But do the women suckle them?

I don't think so.

I never expected the "Suckling Pig Girls" of Java and Sumatra to get this kind of mileage on this, or any other, Internet Forum. I was only using that as an example of the "Diversity of Outlook" that Humans have. What is totally reprehensible to some is absolutely acceptable to others. I admit, when I came across these little girls, I was much younger, only 20 years old at the time. And I had just spent 14 months in a Construction Camp in Northern Australia just prior to that. These huge-breasted little girls definitely did make a lasting impression on me. Today, I guess I'd be locked-up for having taken "pornographic" photos of kids. The World changes.

Just an aside - When I first started to come into those settlements where the girls are given those ointments to make their mammary glands grow out of proportion, I was travelling with two young Dutch Paleontology Students. I had accompanied them to Trinil, to the dig dite of the "Missing Link", Pithecanthropus Erectus, Java Man. On the way "back to Civilization" we started meeting the families that followed that age-old practice of treating their daughters with herbs, and having them suckle pigs. Of course, as a horny, young Canadian, I was like "Whoa, getta look at THAT one!" I remember the girl among us, Tori (probably feeling insignificant), saying something like, "Come on, now, that's not erotic". I came back with what I, to this day, believe to be the best "one-liner" of my life - "How do you know what's 'erotic', you're a woman."

Wait a minute...I'm a woman.

It was a LONG time ago, I was a kid.

LOL! At 44 I'm still a kid.

Wolfman, with how much people were you travelling? You, 2 dutchmen (do you remember anything about them, names, city of origin, university?) and Tori, does not sound like a dutch name, so i expect her not to be dutch?

And "feeling insignificant"? Slight sexism here?

It was just the three of us, and I think "Tori" was a nickname, although it was on her Passport, as I recall. It was Hell, they didn't have appropriate clothes or shoes, we ended up WALKING through the bush along a slick mud path for 6 miles with her complaining and griping (in Dutch) every step of the way. Oh yeah, they were smokers, and had run out of cigarettes. too. They were students at the University of Utrecht.

Funny. You should google them, to see if they still work in their fields.

I last saw them in 1986. They came to visit me and my family in Vancouver. It was Summer, during Expo '86. They stayed in our spare bedroom and I let them use my T-Bird for two weeks. They had a blast. No kids, working as lecturers in Holland. "Digging", the actual Field Work of Paleontologists is tough work, not for everyone. They never returned to Indonesia. And they had both quit smoking.

I hadn't realised these were LITTLE girls. What happened to them after they had performed suckling duties, as in -did their breasts return to normal size or were they always recognisable as the pig feeder girls?

I guess I am asking what was in it for them. Did they achieve high staus by providing protein for piglets to grow up big and strong enough to provide protein for the tribe? Perhaps they got a medal.