Eating Earth - practice of dirt eating among some native peoples

Whole Earth, Spring, 1999

Termitarium Earths

Geophagy is widespread among pregnant women in much of rural and village Africa, where earth eating's palpable nutritional benefits are unquestioned. Termite mounds -- the masticated-earth homes of insect colonies, sometimes soaringly tall -- are particularly sought out by pregnant women. The perpetual overturning and enrichment of the earth by termite activity make the clays found in these mounds especially mineral-rich -- there may even be some enzymatic benefit from their saliva, liberally dispensed in the construction process. Cattle seek out these termite clays as avidly as do people.

Mouth Locks

Horrified by a practice they didn't understand and would not tolerate, plantation owners of the American colonies and West Indies implemented a cruel and misguided form of "therapy" for geophagy by their slaves: they fitted them with mouth locks. The slaves may have had iron deficiencies (many had sickle-cell anemia) or, needless to say, earth eating may have been a form of self-starvation, a pathology born of relentless cultural genocide.

SOURCES:

HONEY, MUD, MAGGOTS AND OTHER MEDICAL MARVELS, ROBERT AND MICHELE ROOT-BERNSTEIN (SEE WHOLE EARTH No. 91).

"MACROTERME GEOPHAGY AND PREGNANCY CLAYS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA," JOHN M. HUNTER. JOURNAL OF CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY, VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1, 1993.

"RELIGIOUS GEOPHAGY AS A COTTAGE INDUSTRY: THE HOLY CLAY TABLET OF ESQUIPULAS, GUATEMALA," JOHN M. HUNTER, ET AL. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC RESEARCH, VOLUME 5, 1989.

"GEOPHAGY IN CENTRAL AMERICA," JOHN M. HUNTER AND RENATE DE KLEINE. GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, VOLUME 74, NUMBER 2, 1984.

WITH THE GENEROUS ASSISTANCE OF JOHN M. HUNTER, PH.D. John M. Hunter is Professor of Geography, Community Health Science, and African Studies at Michigan State University.