The paper’s introduction actually does explain it:
In his book, Shadows in the Sun, Davis (1998: 20) recounts what is now arguably one of the most popular ethnographic accounts of all time: “There is a well known account of an old Inuit man who refused to move into a settlement. Over the objections of his family, he made plans to stay on the ice. To stop him, they took away all of his tools. So in the midst of a winter gale, he stepped out of their igloo, defecated, and honed the feces into a frozen blade, which he sharpened with a spray of saliva. With the knife he killed a dog. Using its rib cage as a sled and its hide to harness another dog, he disappeared into the darkness.”
There’s also the story of Danish explorer Peter Freuchen, who claims to have used his own frozen shit to make a chisel to dig himself out of some ice. The paper takes the time to say that it is strictly about knives, though, not chisels
While the author Wade Davis admits the story could be “apocryphal”, he cited the autobiography of Peter Freuchen who claimed to have shaped his own feces into a frozen chisel to make his escape.
So he claimed he did it himself as well as saying he knew how to do it because of the “well known account”. But also, anthropologists made shit up about the cultures they studied all the time, which is what I was actually referring to.
Did they experiment with composition of the poop? I expect it matters what you ate. I can see it not working if they were on a high fibre diet. They should try again after eating some sharp cheddar.
Was this a common myth or something? There’s got to be a reason to test it
Some dude at the bar would not shut up about it and the scientist is not one to let some motherfucker just stand around being wrong.
The paper’s introduction actually does explain it:
There’s also the story of Danish explorer Peter Freuchen, who claims to have used his own frozen shit to make a chisel to dig himself out of some ice. The paper takes the time to say that it is strictly about knives, though, not chisels
No way, explorers lying about their experiences? :O
The “well known account” part sort of makes it clear it didn’t happen to the explorer.
From the ancient origins link above:
So he claimed he did it himself as well as saying he knew how to do it because of the “well known account”. But also, anthropologists made shit up about the cultures they studied all the time, which is what I was actually referring to.
Did they experiment with composition of the poop? I expect it matters what you ate. I can see it not working if they were on a high fibre diet. They should try again after eating some sharp cheddar.
Sorry, I had to.