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Geophagy: an assessment of implications for the development of Australian Indigenous plant processing technologies

January 2002
Australian Aboriginal Studies

Authors:

James Cook University

The practice of geophagy, in particular the consumption of clay and charcoal by humans, is global in its distribution, is of considerable antiquity and has a number of complex functions. One of these functions is the ability of clays and charcoals to adsorb toxins. This has been known anecdotally for some time and has more recently been scientifically demonstrated. This article reviews evidence that indicates that the adsorptive qualities of clays were well recognised by Indigenous Australians. This Indigenous knowledge therefore has significant implications for the timing and nature of adaptation to many of the toxic plants of Australia. It is proposed that knowledge of these adsorptive qualities arrived with the earliest colonisers and enabled them to adapt to toxic plants earlier and more easily than has usually been assumed.

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50 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1

M.J. Rowland

Environmental Protection Agency

Abstract: The practice of geophagy, in particular the

consumption of clay and charcoal by humans, is global in

its distribution, is of considerable antiquity and has a

number of complex functions. One of these functions is the

ability of clays and charcoals to adsorb toxins. This has been

known anecdotally for some time and has more recently

been scientifically demonstrated. This article reviews

evidence that indicates that the adsorptive qualities of

clays were well recognised by Indigenous Australians.

This Indigenous knowledge therefore has significant impli-

cations for the timing and nature of adaptation to many of

the toxic plants of Australia. It is proposed that knowledge

of these adsorptive qualities arrived with the earliest

colonisers and enabled them to adapt to toxic plants earlier

and more easily than has usually been assumed.

Introduction

The consumption of clay and charcoal—known as

‘geophagy’—is generally adaptive, has a global

distribution, is of considerable antiquity and has a

number of complex functions. One of these functions

is the ability of clays and charcoal to adsorb toxins.

Geophagous behaviour is common among a range of

animals, and humans could easily have imitated and

adapted it to their own needs by observing these

animals. It therefore follows that the practice of

geophagy could have arrived on Australia’s shores

with the initial arrivals, at least 40,000 years ago. It is

proposed that the ability of clays and charcoal to

adsorb toxins may have enabled people to rapidly

adapt to some of the many toxic plants of Australia.

Such a view brings into question, for example,

Beaton’s (1977:201–3) observation that ‘there is no

such thing as people who eat cycads, and those who

are are only just learning about how to prepare them’.

It also raises doubts about his proposed mid to

late Holocene introduction of a ‘Basic Leaching

Technology’. Questions are also raised concerning

Webb’s (1973) classic interpretation of the need for

Indigenous Australians to ‘eat, die, and learn’ in

adapting to the flora of Australia. Other significant

issues, relating to Aboriginal use of clay and charcoal

requiring further research, are also highlighted.

Geophagy—a definition

The eating of clay or charcoal and a range of other

substances might superficially be considered bizarre

or at best to be of limited adaptive value, and this is

reflected in a long and continuing debate about the

benefits or otherwise of geophagy. Avicenna, for

example, who lived around AD 1000, saw it as a

negative practice and called for the control of it ‘in

boys by use of the whip, in older patients by

restraints, prison and medical exhibits, while incorri-

gible ones are abandoned to the grave’ (Halsted

Geophagy: an assessment of implications

for the development of Australian

Indigenous plant processing technologies

Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1 51

1968:1385). Yet most substances consumed by humans

are likely to have at least some adaptive features, even

if seemingly obscure. On close examination, the

eating of rotted wood garnished with honey, by the

Vedda of Sri Lanka, for example, reveals that bacteria

produce useful B vitamins during the putrefaction

process (Armelagos 1987:579). Equally, it should not

be surprising that many substances might have a

considerable antiquity of use. Birch-bark tar with

teeth marks, for example, has been found in a number

of European sites, dating from around 10,000 years

ago, and was probably chewed for its antiseptic and

other medicinal properties (Aveling and Heron 1999;

see also Johns et al 2000).

The literature on geophagy is extensive.

But,

despite considerable recent research, there is no

simple universal definition of geophagy. This is

understandable since it involves a complex of

behaviours, including spiritual and religious beliefs,

ritual oaths and ceremonies, medicinal practice, and

nutritional need, while crossing all geographical,

racial and ethnic boundaries (Danford 1982:303;

Hunter and De Kleine 1984:157, table 1; Johns 1990).

The French physician Ambrose Pare first used the

term ‘pica’ in the sixteenth century, a Medieval Latin

word meaning ‘magpie’ (a bird noted for its tendency

to pick up a diversity of things to satisfy hunger or

curiosity), to describe the human habit of eating

unusual substances (Danford 1982:304). Danford

(1982) and Lackey (1978) use the term to describe

pathological cravings both for items normally

considered food by a population, such as sometimes

reported during pregnancy, and for substances not

normally regarded as food, including clay. Halsted

(1968:1384) distinguishes between geophagy, which

he defines as the habit of eating earth, including clay

and other types of soil, and pica, which he defines as

the eating of any foreign substance.

There is a substantial view that pica and

geophagy are aberrant and harmful forms of

behaviour, thought to lead to anaemia, mineral

imbalances and deficiencies, parasitic infections,

intestinal irritation and damage (Danford 1982;

Halsted 1968), although identifying cause and effect

remains a problem (Halsted 1968; Hunter 1973;

Lackey 1978). In this article, geophagy is defined as

the consumption of clay and charcoal and, while this

can have negative effects, it is the adaptive features of

this practice that are the focus here.

Clay and charcoal consumption

The human consumption of clay has a long history.

Earth (terra sigillata) from the Greek island of Lemnos,

for example, mixed with goat blood, prepared as

small lozenges, dried, and stamped with the seal of a

goat figure is recorded in use over 2000 years ago

(Hunter 1973:170–1). In the Andes, clays have been in

use for at least 2500 years and were traded over at

least 600 km (Browman and Gundersen 1993:413–14).

The bones of Homo habilis at Kalambo Falls, Zambia,

have been found side by side with white clay and

associated evidence would suggest the clay was being

eaten (Root-Bernstein and Root-Bernstein 2000:62–3).

Thus, the consumption of clay by proto-humans and

humans has a long history. The extensive trade in clay

tablets in many countries provides further evidence of

the significance of the practice (Hunter and De Kleine

1984).

Following his extensive review of geophagy,

Laufer concluded that clay was eaten in times of:

scarcity and famine as a food substitute to allay the

pangs of hunger…as a sort of condiment or relish,

usually in combination with articles of food;

mixed with

acrid tubers or acorns as a corrective taste

; as a dainty or

delicacy for its own sake; as a remedy for certain

diseases; as part of religious rites and ceremonies.

(1930:102–3, emphasis added)

Laufer further noted an abnormal or morbid use of

clay was produced by or accompanied certain

diseases, or was due to nervous conditions.

Presciently, he suggested that, since both the Pomo

Indians of California and the peasants of Sardinia

mixed clay with acorn meal, a physiologist should

investigate the connection (Laufer 1930:108; see also

Johns 1986, 1990:85–6; Johns and Duquette 1991a,

1991b). The crux of the acorn economy of California

(see Gifford 1936; McCorriston 1994) was the removal

of tannic acid from the nuts. Subsequent laboratory

simulations demonstrated that tannic acid ingestion

from acorns could be reduced by as much as 77 per

cent with the supplementation of clay, therefore

making them both palatable and less toxic (Johns and

Duquette 1991a, 1991b).

Clay eating has been recognised as occurring

most commonly during pregnancy (e.g. Lackey 1978).

Calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper,

nickel, manganese, cobalt and selenium are thought

52 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1

to be obtained and are considered vital to the healthy

growth and development of the human foetus

(Hunter and De Kleine 1984:169; see also Johns 1986,

1990). It has been argued, for example, that soils sold

at markets to pregnant women in Ghana are richer in

iron and copper than the dietary supplement pills

made by pharmaceutical companies specifically for

prenatal use (Diamond 1999). Clay eating is also

widely recognised for its antidiarrheal properties

(Vermeer and Ferrell 1985), and among monkeys has

been argued to reduce the effects of parasitosis

(Knezevich 1999). Aufreiter et al (1997:304) analysed a

range of clays from three continents (China, USA,

Africa) and concluded that, depending on the type of

clay used, the clays were useful in alleviating some

effects of chronic poor nutrition and short-term

starvation. However, they further noted that clay was

used for minor digestive disorders, which they

attributed to the ability of the clay lattice to absorb

toxins.

It is this less obvious function of clays, which

is the focus of this article. Examples are drawn from

animal and human behaviour (Browman and

Gundersen 1993; Johns 1986, 1989, 1990; Johns and

Duquette 1991a, 1991b; Johns and Kubo 1988) and, in

particular, from recent studies of bird behaviour

(Diamond et al 1999; Gilardi et al 1999).

Johns’ (1986, 1989, 1990) ongoing discussion of

Andean use of the potato has provided a convincing

link between clay eating and the detoxification of

plant remains. Potato tubers contain a number of

chemicals (including glycoalkaloids) that act as

defences against attack by herbivores and patholo-

gical micro-organisms. Cooking is the primary

mechanism for making plants available to humans

(Wrangham et al 1999), but cooking does not always

destroy the heat-stable, water-insoluble glyco-

alkaloids of the potato. Modern Andean populations

detoxify potatoes using elaborate and labour-

intensive leaching and freeze-drying processes. But,

as Johns (1989:513) notes, while these techniques were

undoubtedly important in expanding the level of

exploitation of potatoes, they are unlikely to have

been involved in the initial stages of domestication.

Thus, his (1986:636) observation that the Indians of

the American southwest and adjacent Mexico

consume clays with wild potato species (Solanum) for

the express reason of eliminating bitterness and to

prevent stomach pains or vomiting is significant.

Johns (1989) concluded that the Andean clays might

thus be employed to bind the bitter phytotoxin,

solanine, in potatoes into an insoluble precipitate,

rendering the tubers palatable. He further suggests

that clay eating may have had an important role

to play in the domestication of both potatoes and

yams (Johns 1990:204), including the most important

African famine food, the wild yam, Dioscorea

dumentorum Pax (Johns 1989:514). Andeans are able to

name at least two dozen potentially edible earths.

When tested, these clays showed a considerable

variation and included smectites, illites and

kaolinites.

The detoxification function of clay eating has been

most recently and convincingly confirmed by two

studies: one by Gilardi et al (1999) on Peruvian

Amazon rainforest parrots; the other by Diamond

et al (1999) on rainforest birds of the New Guinea

Highlands. In their study, Gilardi et al noted that a

thousand or more individuals of 21 species of

Amazon rainforest parrots gathered each morning on

the Manu River at certain sites on riverbanks or cliff

faces with exposed bare soil. They congregated not

just on one particular bend of the river, but at one soil

band running hundreds of metres horizontally along

that bend, spurning the dirt in bands 1 m above or

below the preferred band. When analysed, these

bands were found to comprise predominantly clay.

Diamond et al found a similar pattern of behaviour

among New Guinea Highland parrots.

In attempting to explain their observations,

Gilardi et al (1999:899; see also Diamond et al

1999:186) note that there are many hypotheses

proposed to explain geophagy in vertebrates, the best

known being: (1) mechanical enhancement of

digestive grinding by large particles (grit); (2) supple-

mentation of nutrition by release of minerals; (3)

buffering of gastrointestinal pH; (4) reduction of

toxicity of food by adsorption of plant toxins to clay;

and (5) enhancement of the ability of the gastroin-

testinal tract to protect itself from chemical insult

(cytoprotection) by induction and alteration of mucus

secretion. Their initial thoughts centred on the more

obvious explanation that the parrots of both the Manu

River and New Guinea Highlands might have been

consuming dirt for its digestive grinding function.

Instead, it became apparent that the parrots regularly

ate seeds and unripe fruits whose contents of

alkaloids and other toxins make them bitter and even

lethal to humans and other animals. It was thus

proposed that the chemicals were bonding to clay

minerals, reducing their toxicity.

Gilardi et al (1999) were able to confirm their

proposal by two sets of bio-assays. In one, brine

shrimp were exposed to extracts of seeds routinely

eaten by the parrots, the result being that most brine

Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1 53

shrimp died. In the other test, some parrots were

given an oral dose of the alkaloid quinidine with or

without preferred soil. Providing soil along with the

quinidine resulted in a reduction in absorbed

quinidine blood levels of 60 per cent. Although the

mechanism of the interactions is poorly understood, it

appears that the presence of clay in the gut increases

the secretion of mucus by goblet cells and prevents

mucolysis through increased protein cross-linking.

The clay thereby enhances the ability of the mucus

barrier to protect the gut lining from various chemical

insults. Clay also remains in the gut, bound to the

mucus layer, where it may continue to adsorb various

toxins, making the two functions, cytoprotection and

adsorption, mutually compatible.

Soil consumption has been observed in many

animals, including invertebrates, reptiles, birds and

mammals. It is also common among a variety of non-

human primates (Diamond et al 1999; Gilardi et al

1999; Johns 1990:68; Krishnamani and Mahaney 2000;

Struhsaker et al 1997:62). For example, specific clays,

often from termite mounds, are eaten daily,

sometimes seasonally, by chimpanzees, along with

toxic plant materials. Primate ecologists have

therefore also suggested a detoxification function in

relation to plant secondary compounds, although this

has been difficult to test (Johns 1990:69). It could be

argued that, since the practice is so widespread

among so many animals and primates, it may always

have been part of the diet of pre-humans and humans.

Browman and Gundersen (1993:413–14, 424) have

proposed that it is not necessary to conceive of

humans sampling all sorts of earth in a trial and error

method to obtain the right clays for consumption, but

simply for them to follow their prey, the various

camelids, deer and other herbivores, and exploit the

same locales which these animals used as licks.

In sum, it can be concluded that clay eating,

among other effects, has both cytoprotection and

detoxification functions that have been widely

recognised by humans over a long period of time. It

could easily have been learnt from the geophagous

behaviour of a wide range of animals and might in

fact have had its origins among the earliest pre-

human primates.

Charcoal consumption is not as widely reported

as clay consumption but may have had a similar

adsorptive function. It has been reported in only one

non-human primate species, the Zanzibar red colobus

monkey (Procolobus kirkii). In this case, the monkeys

eat young Indian almond and mango leaves con-

taining phenolics, which are adsorbed strongly by

charcoal, while proteins remain mostly unbound and

available for digestion and adsorption in the gut

(Struhsaker et al 1997:68). Coprolites believed to be

those of Neanderthals have been found to contain

charcoal (Johns 1990:76), and charcoal consumption

has occurred widely among humans in recent

centuries (Cooney 1995). Thus, it would appear that

charcoal like clay might have served a similar

adsorptive function among humans. Charcoal does

have adsorptive qualities and activated charcoal

continues to be used in modern pharmaceutical

practice (see Cooney 1995).

Plant processing and the role of geophagy

Global surveys of plant processing techniques (see

Johns 1990:72–8; Johns and Kubo 1988; Stahl 1989)

demonstrate that humans have developed conside-

rable sophistication in detoxifying plant foods, and

the methods are often highly specific to particular

plants. The range of processing techniques includes

heating, solution, fermentation, adsorption (by clay

and charcoal), drying in association with physical

processing such as grating, grinding, pounding and

freezing, and causing pH change by the addition of

ashes and acids (Johns and Kubo 1988; Stahl

1989:172). Cooking is probably the oldest and

most obvious method of plant processing, with most

significant implications for human societies

(Wrangham et al 1999), while leaching, fermentation,

grating, the use of lye, and drying are all techniques

that may also be of considerable antiquity.

Water is a solvent that is readily available to

humans in most parts of the world, and is widely

used as a way of removing toxins and bitter

compounds. Soaking and leaching methods take

many forms and were techniques widely observed in

use by Indigenous Australians at the time of

European contact for detoxifying nuts and a range of

other plants (Jones and Meehan 1989; Lawrence 1969;

Levitt 1981). Importantly, plant food processing

provides a potential avenue for intensification of

subsistence that is independent of resource change

(Stahl 1989:171), and it could be linked to the first

steps towards domestication (Johns 1989).

The question of how humans first learned to

detoxify plants in particular ways is difficult to

resolve, and the ubiquity of most techniques is

suggestive of their antiquity. It is also apparent that

54 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1

humans are able to make judgements on the toxic

content of plants by taste (Johns 1989:511). Heating,

leaching, fermentation and drying all have simple

cause-and-effect relationships that could be observed

in common events (Johns 1990:81–2). Harris (1977),

for example, suggested that plants that are detoxified

by leaching might originally have been placed in

water as fish poisons. Whatever method was used,

processing requires an expenditure of energy that

must be returned in added caloric value (Stahl 1989).

One of the earliest and most cost-effective

techniques of detoxification may have been the

consumption of clay. Johns (1990:86–7) suggests that a

careful reading of the geophagy literature relating to

humans reveals many instances where detoxification,

while not expressed as the basis for clay use, is

probably a central reason for this practice. Most

observers, for example, refer to the eating of clay

during famine to satisfy hunger. While this may be

true, a few reports explicitly document the consum-

ption of clay with famine foods such as wild roots and

bark, so that an essential connection between the two

may have been overlooked. Also, the widespread

medicinal use of clays to treat diarrhoea and other

gastrointestinal ailments may relate to the detoxi-

fication function of geophagy either directly or

indirectly via the ‘psychological’ response to gastroin-

testinal upset. The consumption of clay with toxic

substances might have enabled early adaptation to a

range of plants that were later treated by more

intensive forms of leaching.

Australian Indigenous use of clay

and charcoal

The following review of Aboriginal consumption of

clay and charcoal has attempted to be comprehensive

in its coverage; however, other examples are likely

to exist. This review demonstrates that, as expected,

clay and charcoal served a wide range of functions.

It is also apparent that, as is the case elsewhere, some

observers’ perception of clay or charcoal consumption

as a negative behaviour has influenced their inter-

pretation of what they observed. Finally, the evidence

favours the view that Indigenous Australians were

cognisant of the pharmaceutical properties of clays

and charcoal.

Grey (1841, cited by Laufer 1930) made one of the

earliest observations on clay use by Indigenous

Australians and suggested that they used it to remove

the bitter taste from the roots of Haemodorum

coccineum Hook, a plant characterised by phototoxic

phenalenone (Johns 1990:86). In recent times, the

Anbarra of the Blyth River, Northern Territory, ate

quite a lot of mineral matter as a normal part of each

meal, sometimes collecting white clay or ant-bed as

food in its own right. Meehan (1982:148–9) notes that,

on several occasions, old women collected quantities

of ant-bed which they ate and that a sample of

galabamba, red ant-bed, contained some protein (0.79 g

per 100 g). Termite mounds and white clay were used

medicinally throughout the Northern Territory,

especially for the treatment of diarrhoea. It was

suggested that, because the clay particles were very

small, it is possible they functioned to adsorb toxic

substances in the bowel.

Levitt (1981:61) reports that on Groote Eylandt

women ate several types of clay but men did not. A

reddish or yellow clay (malarra) was assumed to cure

mineral deficiencies, as was termite clay (ebinga).

White clay (duingira) was used as a treatment for

diarrhoea. It was also eaten by pregnant women to

‘make the stomach cool’. Some women also ate it if

they were hungry, particularly if they craved fish

since it is said to have tasted like fish (Isaacs 1987:198).

On the tidal flats of Mornington Island, red and white

clay were collected. Red clay was used as a body paint

in dance and ceremony and was believed to have

special magico-religious powers. White clay was also

used for body decoration. Another use was to cure

internal pains, headaches, joint pains, eye complaints

and snakebite wounds. It was eaten, drunk in solution

and rubbed over the body, sometimes to the

accompaniment of special songs, hand touching,

breath blowing and the rubbing of underarm

perspiration on the body of the sick. White clay was

also used to increase the flow of breast milk

(Memmott 1979:109).

Pregnant women on Mer (Murray) Island in the

Torres Strait apparently ate clay to ensure the birth of

a fair skinned child. Haddon described the clay as a

greasy chocolate-like earth, which was kneaded into

balls, rolled up in banana leaves and roasted. On Mer,

children also ate clay to make them stronger, braver

and sturdier. According to Anell and Lagercrantz

(1958:9), clay was never eaten as a substitute for food

on the Torres Strait Islands. Colliver (1974) indicated

that clay eating was common throughout Queensland

and suggested that a Mr Hyam (1939:118) had

provided a plausible reason for the habit when he

suggested the practice was allied to the modern

practice of prescribing colloidal clays, kaolins and

precipitated chalk to relieve damaged stomach tissue.

At Bloomfield and Cooktown, north Queensland,

a white kind of kaolin was picked out from rocks or

dug out from riverbeds, pounded up and carefully

sieved to eliminate all coarser particles. It was then

put in a trough, mixed with water and stirred into a

tough dough. This was then kneaded into the form of

flat longish cakes that were laid out in the sun to dry

for six to eight days. The cakes were then wrapped in

leaves and buried in ashes, whereupon a fire was lit

above them. When the cakes had cooled they were

ready for eating and were regarded as a great delicacy

(Anell and Lagercrantz 1958:14–16). Queensland

Aborigines of the northwest and central districts

apparently used huge clay or mud pills, of which one

or two at a time were prescribed for diarrhoea (Roth

1897:163).

In Western Australia, clay and fat were used in the

treatment of wounds. Red clay (known as wilgi) or

white pipeclay, while still hot, were mixed with fat of

any sort of emu oil and applied in paperbark, a

gumleaf or a wad of possum fur to wounds. Clay was

also applied to sore eyes (Hammond 1980:58–9).

Boolga, a type of red earth, was eaten in cases of

stomach trouble. In the west Kimberley, there was a

kind of fatty red earth which was eaten by itself or by

mixing it up with seeds, roots and other edible

substances and baking it in the ashes (White 1985:262,

295). North of the Kimberleys, at Napier Broome Bay,

northwest of Wyndham on the mouth of King

Edward River, where milk and other delicacies did

not reach children, they are reported as filling their

stomachs with handfuls of dirt and pebbles (Perez

1977).

On Cape York, old people ate white clay that was

reputedly good for treating coughing or tuberculosis.

In other areas, clay was eaten for the relief of

diarrhoea (Isaacs 1987:198). The Thaayorre and Wik

Ngantjera, of the coastal plain from Coleman to

Kendall Rivers on Cape York, used a special clay for

the treatment of diarrhoea. This was gathered at the

seaside and roasted in a fire before being chewed or

swallowed. Taylor (1977:425–7) notes that the

missionaries mistook the native cure of earth eating

as a behavioural aberration. In general, Taylor

(1977:432) also portrayed a negative view, however,

concluding that disease was unlikely to have been

ameliorated by conscious therapeutic or preventative

measures in the area.

Britnell (1992:9) refers to an edible clay called

gumburu, used by the Kuku Yalanji of the northern

Queensland rainforest. He was personally aware of

only two recorded locations where the clay could be

found, but he knew of many places where clay is or

was available. It was said to have been eaten only

during lean times, and today it is still used as a body

decoration by Kuku Yalanji dancers. Mjoberg

(1918:523–31) also refers to clay eating on the Evelyn

River, on the Evelyn Tablelands in the north

Queensland rainforest.

His informants advised him

that it was used for abortive and contraceptive

purposes, but his own explanation is cynical and

unclear. McCracken (1982:1) refers to a number of

locations in the northern rainforests where edible clay

and ‘stones’ were gathered and eaten. McCracken,

like many others, concluded that ‘Aborigines ate clay

when there was either no food, or a shortage of food

during the change of seasons’. He reported four main

areas where clay was once gathered. These included

the Bloomfield River, on an unnamed stream that

flows into the river, and Saltwater River downstream

from Pollock’s Crossing. The most important source

was at Barrats Creek, where the clay was known as

gumbura. At the Daintree River, a soft stone like a talc

(Morebay) described as being of several colours

(purple, pink, yellow, white, brown and red) was also

occasionally eaten.

L’Oste-Brown and Godwin (1995:31–2) refer to a

soft white stone called copi which was ground up and

used for painting and as a plaster in making items

such as emu egg–shaped objects, used in increase

ceremonies. In the case of Taroom Reserve, it was also

heated, broken up, rolled to a fine powder resembling

cornflour and mixed with water to treat a wide

variety of ailments.

Reports relating to the more recent use of clay by

Aborigines throughout Australia frequently provide a

more negative view of the practice, for reasons that

will become obvious in the following discussions.

Evans (1975:346; Evans and Walker 1977:87–9), for

example, refer to a 1899 report by Archibald Meston

which indicates that the Aboriginal inhabitants of

Bogimbah Creek on Fraser Island had, in their

deprivation, taken to eating white clay (dulong) from

Little Woody Island. Some children also ate sand,

charcoal, brick, chalk, shell and slate pencil as a result

of institutionalisation and hunger. A lump of pipeclay

from Fraser Island is located in the Queensland

Museum [with the annotation ‘QE 2062 A. Meston

2.11.1898 White calcareous clay. Eaten on Fraser’s

Island and is found in lumps on the beach’ (Devitt

1980, table 1)]. At Yarrabah mission in 1915, earth

eating was common and at least 15 deaths were

attributed to the habit (Thomson 1989:52).

Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1 55

Cheek et al (1981:511; see also Cheek et al 1982)

studied the health of the inhabitants of three coastal

Aboriginal missions in the northwest of the

Kimberley area (300 people). They found that zinc

deficiency was common and attributed this in part to

geophagy, which they claimed reduced zinc

adsorption. They indicated that, although not widely

reported, the habit of eating clay was known to be

widespread. Bateson and Lebroy (1978) studied 11

Aboriginal patients from the Northern Territory, in

whom radiological examination of the abdomen

demonstrated opaque masses of clay in the colon. The

clay was reputedly eaten mainly for medicinal

purposes or to allay hunger, but the results were

not always beneficial, since the clay had caused

complications (including obstruction and perforation

of the colon) in 5 out of the 11 patients. Bateson and

Lebroy concluded that clay was used as a medicine to

cure stomach-aches and diarrhoea and to ‘settle the

stomach’. Significantly, they also note it was taken to

‘line the stomach’ before eating yams, or fish which

may be poisonous.

The clay when analysed consisted predominantly

of aluminium and silicon (92.6 per cent) and was thus

found to be similar to hydrated aluminium silicate,

the clay used in kaolin preparations. It was generally

white and obtained from the beds of rivers,

freshwater springs, and billabongs in coastal areas.

Use of the clay was very common at Maningrida and

was also known at Lake Evalla, Groote Eylandt, Elcho

Island, Daly River and Yirrkala. It was reportedly

used at Numbulwar, Melville Island, Roper River and

Delissaville as well.

Chemical analysis of clay samples from Yirrkala

(Aboriginal Communities of the Northern Territory

1988:215), Maningrida (Bateson and Lebroy 1978:3),

Groote Eylandt (Levitt 1981:64) and Kuku Yalanji

country of the north Queensland rainforest (Britnell

1992:9) has revealed a range of clay types with a

variety of trace elements. However, all have a high

silica/aluminium content, as might be expected for

clays used for the purposes described in each case.

In a medical thesis and a number of publications,

Eastwell (1978, 1979, 1984) has considered the issue of

clay eating among Indigenous Australians. He

decided the main reason that people on the coast and

in north Arnhem Land ate clay was to alleviate

boredom. He argued that girls, in particular, formed

clay-eating groups because boys were sniffing petrol

and on grog, a practice he suggested may prevent the

taking up of iron, although the issue of cause and

effect in this relationship remains unresolved (Johns

and Duquette 1991a). Eastwell suggests that, in the

old days, people ate clay in the form of anthill earth to

round out a meal and that this practice still occurred

on outstations to stop loose bowels or diarrhoea. He

noted that, at Maningrida, the much-prized clay

Benamanrka-gunara (White Clay Dreaming) was

exchanged with neighbouring groups over a distance

of 100 miles [167 km] or more and was used for gas-

trointestinal disorders and diarrhoea. In April 1973,

35 people who were camped at an outstation 50 miles

[83 km] from Maningrida consumed 2 kg of earthy

termite mound. Eastwell records another occurrence

in 1974, mainly among women who were not

forthcoming in terms of explanations other than ‘it’s

good medicine’ or ‘it cools the stomach’. Again,

Eastwell’s (1979:222) overall conclusion was that clay

eating occurred in response to men drinking beer,

thus providing women with their own means to

establish an identity.

In a comprehensive investigation of the possible

nutritional/medicinal value of termite mounds used

by Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, Foti

(1994) found that termitaria were used for gastric

disorders or after eating certain foods, like yams,

turtle or goannas. She concluded this could be related

to the clay content, in particular kaolin, while

consumption during pregnancy or lactation could be

associated with their elemental content, in particular

iron and calcium. She also found that, at all sites and

for all species, the mounds selected by Aboriginal

people had a higher percentage of clay than the

adjacent topsoil. The species most favoured by the

Daly River people had the highest mean clay content.

Other evidence from Australia also suggests that

Indigenous Australians were aware of the complex

properties of clays. For example, it is reported that

Aboriginal women protected their hands and arms

with clay when handling the caustic part of the

Australian cashew nut (Semecarpus australiensis)

(Webb 1969:83). In southeastern and southwestern

Australia, Cumbungi or Bulrush, Typha species, was a

common Aboriginal food and fibre source (Gott

1982, 1983, 1999). The carbohydrate content of Typha

consists largely of starch, tasting rather like potato

when cooked, but is thought to contain an

unidentified toxic principle that has purgative and

emetic properties. Typha is generally roasted in ashes

or steamed in earth ovens and there are no known

references to it being eaten with clay.

56 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1

Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1 57

Nevertheless, Gott (1999:40) refers to a detailed

record of Typha preparation that might suggest a link

with the special properties of clay. In this particular

case, Typha was cooked in an earth oven using balls of

clay apparently as ‘heat retainers’. The women dug a

hole, 90 cm in diameter and 45 cm deep. Pieces of clay

about the size of cricket balls were placed to one side.

The hole was swept out with grass or boughs and

filled with firewood, which was then set alight with

the clay balls on top. When the fire had died down,

the clay balls were removed with two sticks used as

tongs, and the ashes were swept out. The hole was

lined with moistened grass on which the rhizomes

were placed, more moistened grass was used as a

cover, and baked clay modules placed on top. The

whole was then covered with earth until the food was

cooked. Gott indicates that there are still mounds

remaining on the floodplain which are full of these

baked clay balls. Whether clay has a detoxification

function in this context, however, has yet to be

investigated.

Although the primary focus of this article is on the

consumption of clay, it is apparent that Indigenous

Australians were also cognisant of some of the

biochemical functions of charcoal. This is demons-

trated in the widespread use of pituri. Pituri (Duboisia

hopwoodii), of the family Solanaceae (which contains

some of the most physiologically active plants),

contains nicotine as a salt of organic acids, and in this

form it does not pass readily through the mucus

membrane into the body. By the addition of an alkali

in the form of ash, the pure nicotine was freed and the

pituri was thus made more powerful (Webb

1973:293–4). The ash most often used was from Acacia

salincina, also known as Acacia ligulata or wirra.

Analysis of this ash revealed that calcium sulphate

was present in extraordinary quantities as sulphuric

anhydride (30.09 per cent) and lime (40.7 per cent),

making it one of the most alkaline plant ashes known.

Watson (1983:23) therefore concluded that, either by

accident or experimentation, Aborigines had disco-

vered a most efficient agent to release nicotine.

Charcoal is also reported as being used in one

of three methods of preparing Macrozamia for

consumption. In this particular method, the kernels

were removed whole from the sclerotesta, rolled in

hot sand mixed with charcoal and then placed in a

bag with more charcoal. The contents of the bag were

dried in the sun for several days and then leached in

water. After four to seven days, the kernels were

removed from the water and pounded into a long

cake, before being roasted. This lengthy procedure

produced bread called munburra, of different taste and

texture to that of other methods of preparation (Beck

et al 1988:141).

In sum, it is clear from the above review of

Indigenous clay eating that clay was consumed

throughout Australia for a wide range of reasons. The

evidence for trade in clays also highlights the

significance of the practice. As well, it is apparent

in many, but not all, cases that cytoprotection or

adsorption, or both, may have been an underlying

function, although this is obscured in later studies by

a tendency to see clay eating as an aberrant behaviour

or simply as a means to satisfy hunger. It is also clear

that Indigenous Australians were aware of the

biochemical functions of charcoal.

The potential role of clay eating

Indigenous Australians dealt with toxic plants in a

number of complex ways. Some of these are discussed

below, prior to developing a case that clay eating may

have been one of the earliest and most basic

techniques used. The implication of this for the sig-

nificance of other techniques is also discussed.

In a seminal paper concerning the strategic

patterns of Aboriginal adaptation to the Australian

continent, Golson (1971) suggested that the initial

immigrants to Australia’s northern shores would

have met strange animals but familiar plants. He

found that, at the generic or specific level, the vast

majority of the plants used for food in Arnhem Land

would have been familiar to migrants from the

Malaysian region, the totals of plants used for food

being close to 90 per cent both in Arnhem Land and

Cape York, and in Malaysia. However, many of the

plants used in Malaysia and Australia require special

preparation, commonly involving both heating and

leaching to rid them of toxic substances before they

are fit for consumption.

These include the seeds of

various species of mangrove, Avicennia, the seeds of

Entada phaseoloides, the nuts of various species of

Cycas and the tubers of some of the Dioscorea (Golson

1971:199–208). Tropical yams, varieties of Dioscorea

sp., for example, are toxic and require lengthy

leaching time in water. They were an important staple

across humid northern Australia, in Arnhem Land

(Jones 1981; Meehan 1982; Thomson 1939, 1949) and

on Bathurst and Melville Islands (Goodale 1971; Hart

and Pilling 1960; Levitt 1981).

58 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1

The most significant among these plants are the

cycads, a primitive, pantropical group of plants, of

which there are two important genera in Australia:

Macrozamia along the eastern and southwestern

coasts, and Cycas in the north of the continent. Cycads

were exploited throughout their area of distribution

and were a staple in the north Queensland rainforests,

where alternative plant foods were limited. The

nutritional value of the cycad lies in the edible starch

extracted from the root, stem and nut, and parts of the

plant are also used for medicinal purposes. All

cycads, however, contain a closely related series of

glycosides, with the nitrogen-containing methyla-

zoxymethanol (MAM) being the main toxic element

(Beaton 1982:54). It is generally accepted that consum-

ption of unprocessed cycads results in severe gas-

trointestinal disturbance, fever, numerous other

symptoms of distress, and often death (Beaton 1982;

Beck et al 1988:137; Johns 1990:60; Whiting 1963, table

3). It is widely known, for example, that Captain

Cook’s men became violently ill on eating the nuts

(Beaton 1982:54).

In 1977, Beaton noted ‘there is no such thing

as people who eat cycads, and those who are are

only just learning about how to prepare them’

(1977:201–3). In 1982, he concluded that, without

leaching, ‘no cycad food of any kind is possible’

(1982:58). He could find no record in the literature of

cycads being roasted and eaten without first having

been leached. Two lines of evidence did, however,

suggest that non-leaching was a possibility. First, the

location of Rainbow and Wanderers’ Caves, where

Beaton discovered the first extensive archaeological

evidence of cycad use, suggested the possibility that

the nuts could have been roasted and consumed at

these sites, which are several kilometres removed

from even ephemeral water sources. Second, he

became aware that the melting point of the MAM host

macrozamin is 199–200ºC. On the basis of an

experiment with an open beach fire, he discovered

that this temperature could be quite easily achieved.

He also noted that year-old cycads could be eaten

(Beaton 1982:55–6).

Nevertheless, while Beaton (1982:57) considered

the prehistoric mundane use of cycads was an almost

certain reality, he considered that such a use did not fit

the archaeological evidence from the Carnarvon area.

Based on his excavations at rockshelters in this area,

Beaton therefore developed the concept of a ‘Basic

Leaching Technology’, a leaching/drying/fermenting

process which he linked to the Australian Small Tool

Tradition and which he dated to about 4300BP. The

evidence from Carnarvon also suggested to Beaton

that, in this area, cycads were used as a ‘communion’

food (Beaton 1977, 1982; see also Bowdler 1981:108;

Hiscock 1994:271). In general, he concluded that

something had changed dramatically in Australia at

around 4500 years ago and that, associated with these

changes, there were good indications that from then

on the full leaching system was operating, whereas

there are no hints of its existence before that time. He

suggested that perhaps the origin of the entire system

was dependent on understanding the methods of

eliminating MAM from cycads. He further proposed

that it was very likely that the technology arrived in

Australia complete, with all the necessary subtleties

of leaching and fermenting well under control.

Evidence from elsewhere in Australia, however,

suggests that the method of detoxifying Macrozamia

was not a mid to late Holocene introduction.

Detoxification by leaching was occurring by 13000BP

at Cheetup Cave, 55 km east of Esperance, Western

Australia (Smith 1983, 1996). Thus, it is not the case

that initial use of Macrozamia was contemporaneous

with artefacts of the Australian Small Tool Tradition,

nor was it restricted to a ‘communion’ role in all

regions of Australia. Furthermore, Beck et al

(1988:145; Beck 1989) have demonstrated that

knowledgeable people can safely eat old seeds after

inspection. They further argue that it is possible to

distinguish between fresh and aged cycad specimens

in the archaeological record and therefore, by

implication, between deliberately leached and

unleached seeds. They also note that it is possible that

the use of aged cycad seeds preceded the water-

leaching techniques by people who observed them

naturally weathering on the ground and replicated

this by drying and/or washing seeds harvested from

the plant. In a recent review, Lourandos (1997:143) has

drawn together the evidence from both Beaton and

Smith to conform to his model of late Holocene inten-

sification. He argues that the use of cycads and

leaching methods may date from around the terminal

Pleistocene, and that the ‘intensification’ of cycad use

from about 4300BP, at least, subsequently occurred in

the south-central Queensland uplands.

Other evidence also supports a view that the

concept of leaching was not a late introduction. For

example, Harris (1987) was able to identify at least 59

plant species in the north Queensland rainforest used

for food, many of them toxic or at least bitter and

requiring roasting, pounding or grating and soaking

or washing in water before they could be safely eaten.

Black Bean or Moreton Bay chestnut (Castanosperum

australe) and Matchbox bean (Entada scadens)

provided large seeds that were ground and washed in

running water to yield a saponin-free flour. Saponin-

containing roots and bark from Barringtonia,

Tenstroemia and Pangamia were used to stupefy and

catch fish in waterholes, as were the rotenone-

containing Derris and Tephrosia. Harris has suggested

that this use could have subsequently been developed

into a leaching process.

None of the tropical rainforest genera of

Queensland is restricted to Australia and this

suggests that, as with food plants associated with the

tropical rainforest, knowledge of their biological

activity arrived with the early immigrants (Webb

1973:292–3). In contrast, however, Webb (1973:295)

argues that an important food staple of inland

Australia was provided by ripe fruits of wild

gooseberries, of which the immature fruits are

generally poisonous, containing alkaloids such as

solanine so ‘that botany had to begin anew for

Aborigines in sclerophyll Australia’.

Horsfall (1987:255) has argued there are four

important characteristics of tropical rainforest toxic

plants: they occur in abundance; many of them are

available for extended periods; storage is often

possible (either untreated or after processing); and

some are available at times of the year when non-toxic

food plants are in short supply. She (1987:240–1)

further argued that the inclusion of toxic items in the

diet, and their time-consuming preparation, had

advantages: it increased the amounts of food

harvested from a specific region, bridged the dietary

gap at lean times of the year, and allowed more

people to inhabit an area. She (Horsfall 1984:169)

concluded that the intensive use of toxic plant

products by means of the leaching process was

essential if a given area of rainforest was to support a

large population, since animal biomass is typically

low. In short, she assumed that high population

density and dependence on the leaching technology

went hand in hand in the north Queensland

rainforest.

Horsfall therefore hypothesises that early

occupation of the rainforests was at a low population

level, with little or no use of toxic plant products.

While she suggested that occupation might (or might

not) date from the earliest colonisation of Australia,

the patterns of life in the rainforest were altered at

some later time, perhaps in response to some external

stimulus, perhaps as part of the continuing inter-

action between people and their environment.

Population density increased, resource exploitation

intensified and the leaching technique was either

invented, introduced, or its already known appli-

cation increased. Excavations at Jiyer Cave on the

Russell River, deep within the tropical rainforest of

northeast Queensland, demonstrated a minimum age

of occupation of 5000 years. Abundant charred

nutshells implied to Horsfall the use of rainforest nut

species as early as 3500BP, and toxic varieties by

1000BP, although the earliest use of toxic types could

not be identified because of poor preservation. From

Nara Inlet 1, on the Whitsunday Islands, Barker

(1991:105) proposes a period of intensification

commencing sometime after 3990BP and before

2090BP, with the appearance of cycads and orange

mangrove that required grinding and leaching from

around 550BP.

In most regions of Australia, rainforest

exploitation is a mid to late Holocene phenomenon.

Beaton (1977, 1982), Bowdler (1983) and Horsfall

(1987) favour a Southeast Asian link in the exploi-

tation of rainforests, in particular through the

knowledge of toxic-plant food processing. However,

since the strongest evidence for the earliest use of

rainforests comes from Melanesia, Cosgrove (1996)

proposes that it is likely that the northeast

Queensland rainforest culture has its original links,

not with southeast Asia, but with Melanesia. He

therefore proposes that the successful exploitation

and manipulation of Australian tropical rainforest has

a very long antiquity, probably acquired before the

drowning of the Torres Strait land bridge 9000 years

ago. It could be argued that, with knowledge of clay

eating and the addition of other simple detoxification

techniques, the earliest arrivals could have exploited

the toxic plants of these rainforests, thus adding

further support to Cosgrove’s hypothesis.

Discussion and conclusions

Western science often dismisses indigenous peoples’

knowledge and practices as tangential or irrelevant to

the advance of Western knowledge. While such

accumulated wisdom continues to inform medical

practice, there remains a residual distrust of such

knowledge (Dickson 1999). The practice of consuming

clay and charcoal is an example of that confusion and

distrust. Many reviews still consider the practice as

aberrant or pathological (justified in some cases), and

Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1 59

60 Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1

it is only in the last decade that it has been seen to

have had a much more significant range of

biophysical effects. It might now be considered to be

the most fundamental human plant-processing

detoxification technique, with behavioural antece-

dents in a wide range of other species.

While clay was eaten for various reasons, its

widespread medicinal use by humans to treat

diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal ailments

indicates a detoxification function either directly, or

indirectly via the ‘psychological response to gastroin-

testinal upset’ (Johns 1986:643). Recent studies by

Gilardi et al (1999) and Diamond et al (1999) have

confirmed the link between clay consumption and

adsorption of toxic plant substances. The practice of

clay eating could easily have been learnt by observing

the geophagous behaviour of a whole range of other

animals, or may have been a pre-human condition. A

recent reinterpretation of the initial stages of human

development (O’Connell et al 1999) has led to a view

that, two million years ago, conditions favoured

hominids that could efficiently harvest underground

tubers. Such a view allows for the possibility that

human knowledge of a plant toxicity/clay association

could be at least that old.

Accepting that a knowledge of clay eating for the

purposes of adsorbing toxins is universal has

considerable antiquity, and may have been simply

learnt from animals or was a pre-human behaviour, it

follows that the practice could have arrived on

Australia’s shores with the initial arrivals. Thus, those

plants that Golson (1971) identified as familiar, but

toxic, may have been potentially usable from initial

occupation. With a knowledge of toxic plant use

extending back at least 40,000 years, it therefore no

longer seems necessary to accept Beaton’s view that a

‘Basic Leaching Technology’ had to await the late

Holocene to be invented or received from outside.

It remains an open question, however, at what

stage substantial water leaching may have been

necessary to support the production of large

quantities of Macrozamia in the central Queensland

highlands as suggested by Beaton, or to support the

large rainforest populations of northern Queensland

as suggested by Horsfall. Given Beck’s observations

that old cycads can be eaten, and the emerging

evidence that clay may have been used to adsorb

toxins in edible plants, it may no longer be necessary

to see water leaching as such a critical process in plant

processing and rainforest occupation. Furthermore,

while it has been argued that rainforests are

particularly hard places to colonise (Bailey et al 1989),

new evidence from a number of localities suggests

that they were occupied in the Pleistocene (e.g.

Athens and Ward 1999; Pavlides and Gosden 1994;

Roosevelt et al 1996).

From an anthropological/archaeological perspe-

ctive, the more recent perception of the significant

qualities of clays, discussed in this article, raises a

number of interesting questions that have yet to be

investigated. For example, it needs to be determined

how humans discriminate between various types of

clays. Some clays have a greater capacity than others

to adsorb toxins, and it will be of considerable interest

to determine if Indigenous Australians were aware of

this, and thus if they used specific clays for specific

purposes. Which plant toxins clays can adsorb also

needs to be further investigated. It is important, too,

not to lose sight of the complex of other uses that clay

was put to. Trade in clay is another area worthy of

close investigation. Such trade appears to have been

of major significance in many parts of the world but

has not been investigated in any detail in Australia.

From an archaeological perspective, it becomes of

much greater significance to record the location

of clay extraction sites. They are known to exist in

the northern rainforests of Queensland, where a

wide range of toxic nuts and tubers was eaten

and where observations suggest that clays were

widely consumed. However, no extraction sites are

currently recorded on the Queensland Environmental

Protection Agency’s site database of over 14,000

sites. White kaolinite clay was also widely used

in Aboriginal rock art (David and Lourandos

1998:205–6) and it is therefore necessary for archaeo-

logists excavating deposits to be aware that clay piles

or nodules in excavated deposits may have greater

significance than as residual material to be discarded.

The broader issue of Indigenous medicines also

deserves closer attention than it has received in the

recent past.

Finally, there seems no logical reason to suggest

that the first colonisers of Australia had to wait

hundreds or thousands of years to adapt to the flora

of this land by a process of ‘eat, die and learn’, or to

await the arrival of external technologies to process

poisonous plants. The knowledge of plant processing

methods was probably fully developed with the

initial colonists. It may be that some technologies

were introduced in the mid to late Holocene that

would have allowed the more intensified use of some

plants. However, it might be just as reasonable to

suggest that existing techniques were ‘intensified’ in

response to a complex interplay of population

Australian Aboriginal Studies 2002/1 61

growth, environmental change and sociocultural

change in the Holocene (see, for example, Lourandos

1997; Rowland 1999).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks are due to Dr Richard Prankerd, Senior

Lecturer, School of Pharmacy, University of

Queensland; Dr R.A. McKenzie, Principal Veterinary

Pathologist, Queensland Department of Primary

Industries, Animal Research Institute, Yeerongpilly;

Mr Nick Mesterovic, Medical Information Unit

Leader, Medical Services Department, Pharmacia and

Upjohn Pty Ltd, Rydalmere, Sydney; Dr Alan

Chappell, Advanced Analytical Centre, James Cook

University, Townsville; and Dr Mick O’Sullivan,

General Practitioner, Bellbowrie, Queensland, who all

provided expert advice when I was delving into

unfamiliar territory.

Thanks are also due to Dr Ian McNiven, School of

Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology,

University of Melbourne, for comments on a final

draft of this article. Fay Adams, Administrative

Officer, Mossman; Jeanette Stevens, Project Officer,

Cairns; Dr Stephen Garnett, Senior Principal

Conservation Officer, Cairns; Aaron Stasi, Senior

Environmental Officer, Brisbane; Stefan Van Rhyn,

Environmental Officer, Toowoomba, all of the

Queensland Environmental Protection Agency/Parks

and Wildlife Service, are thanked for helpful

comments and advice. Thanks are also due to Sean

Ulm for the opportunity to present an earlier version

as a seminar paper in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland,

seminar series (1999), and to all those present who

offered comments. Monica Garner, of the

Environmental Protection Agency/Parks and Wildlife

Service Library, tracked some elusive references with

her usual skill. Mr Walter Blumenfeld of Holt, ACT,

transcribed the relevant section of Mjoberg (1918).

Thanks are also due to Dr Richard Davis, Dr

Harry Lourandos and an anonymous reviewer for

guidance in making this article more logical in

structure and meaning. I remain responsible for any

errors or misinterpretations.

NOTES

1. Seminal reviews are by Laufer (1930) and Anell and Lagercrantz

(1958). Other general contributions and reviews are by Halsted

(1968), Hunter (1973, 1985), Danford (1982), Hunter and De Kleine

(1984), Vermeer and Ferrell (1985), Reid (1992), Abrahams and

Parsons (1996), Ziegler (1997) Krishnamani and Mahaney (2000)

and Wiley and Katz (1998). Geographically specific studies are by

Behbehani (1985), Vermeer and Ferrell (1985) and Hunter (1985). A

recent, general but useful review is by Root-Bernstein and Root-

Bernstein (2000). Of primary importance to the discussions

developed in this article are publications by Johns (1986, 1989,

1990), Johns and Kubo (1988), Johns and Duquette (1991a, 1991b),

Browman and Gundersen (1993), and, in particular, recent research

by Gilardi et al (1999) and Diamond et al (1999).

2. One of the earliest references to a purported link between clay

consumption and toxin adsorption is from Baden, Germany, in

1581. In this case, a condemned criminal facing the hangman made

a counter-proposal to the court. He requested poison, provided that

he was also given some

terra silligata at the same time. He was

therefore given mercuric chloride (the dosage 3–6 times that

required to kill an average size man), followed by terra silligata and

wine. Although he was sick, he survived (Root-Bernstein and Root-

Bernstein 2000:59–60).

3. The chief groups of clay minerals are kaolinite, halloysite, illite,

montmorillite and vericulie, whose outstanding property is the

capacity for holding water (Huffman 1997:174). The size of the

surface area is the important feature of specific clay types, since

toxins are held (i.e. adsorbed) at the surface of the clay. The unique

properties of clays have led to their use in modern pharmaceuticals

for both therapeutic effect and excipient action. The crystal

structure of clay minerals is well understood, and the behaviour of

clays in pharmaceutical systems is predictable based on structural

considerations (Browne et al 1980).

4. Sulphur-crested cockatoos in the Sydney area ingest clay (Cooper

2001) and it has been noted that the Golden-shouldered parrots of

north Queensland eat clay from termite mounds in association with

fruit from Cooktown Ironwood (Stephen Garnett, pers. comm.),

evidence of the widespread nature of the practice.

5. Clays are surprisingly complex and may have played a

cooperative role with catalytic peptides in an intermediate stage of

prebiological chemistry preceding the emergence of life on earth

(Rao et al 1980). They are crystalline in nature and are essentially

made up of stacked layers of silica tetrahedral and aluminium (or

magnesium) octahedral sheets. Organic molecules may be

adsorbed onto the surfaces of clays through a number of means,

including cation, anion, and ligand exchange, protonation water

bridging, hydrogen bonding, and non-specific van der Waals

interactions (see Soma and Soma 1989 for details; Johns 1990:89).

Generally, clays do not contain the essential components of

nutrition, such as protein, carbohydrates, lipids or vitamins.

It has been demonstrated in recent studies that high-surface-

area clays such as smectic and attapulgite are effective in inducing

these cytoprotective effects and alleviating the symptoms of

diarrhoea (Gilardi et al 1999:917). For example, attapulgite is about

six times as effective as kaolin in detoxifying strychnine. As a result,

the active ingredient of some antidiarrheal medications has been

changed to these clay types from the historic kaolin-pectin

formulations. Soils from many geophagy sites are kaolin-rich, but it

remains unclear whether these low-surface-area clays can induce

cytoprotection.

6. His description is cited in full as it is the first time that it has been

fully transcribed from the Swedish original:

During my stay at Evelyne in the large rainforest area, I saw

some women one-day, engaged eagerly digging up white,

kaolin-like clay lumps, which disappeared into their wide

mouths. My black companion, who showed himself to have

unusual good knowledge about everything, explained that

they did this not only to get rid of being with child but also not

to become pregnant. I was interested in the matter. Even other

blacks gave me similar information. The lumps that they

consumed were large and were obtained by digging into the

riverbank. They greedily devoured one after the other. I

gathered samples of the material, which on the exterior greatly

reminded me of kaolin. As an immediate study was not

possible, I stored the lumps in my collection so that an expert

could undertake an analysis after my homecoming. The

commercial chemist J. Landin has been so kind as to carry out

critical analysis, which gave the result that ‘sample consists of

kaolin-like clay, essentially silicon acid and clay soil

(aluminium oxide), as well as smaller amounts with traces of

iron oxide, lime, magnesium and alkalies. There are only small

traces of phosphate and water-soluble substances are absent’.

The blacks at Evelyne and even in the Malanda region state

with certainty that the consumption of clay soil lumps occurs

for both abortive and contraceptive purposes. The analysis

scarcely infers that such substances are available which would

be effective as indicated above. Should the blacks really have

found such means for abortion? Truly not. In my opinion, the

probable explanation for this peculiar diet is that some

medicine man got the sceptical to believe that the eating of clay

soil lumps, their ‘cloak’ [the translator suggests this means

‘protection’], should have the just-mentioned effect. The

custom of eating lumps has since been more generally

established amongst women, who more so than men, believe

in the fanciful ‘nature physicians’. (Mjoberg 1918:515–18)

7. The systematic investigation of Australian flora for constituents

of value for medicinal drugs, or for other purposes, had its origins

during World War II, and the chemical composition of numerous

Australian plants is therefore well established (Collins et al 1990).

Plant secondary compounds as well as inorganic materials are

usually considered to be a plant’s front-line defence against all but

the most specialised herbivores. These products are generally

directly toxic to the consumer or deter consumption by reducing

palatability or digestibility—yet many of these items are found in

human diets. Animals also use plant secondary compounds or

other non-nutritional substances to medicate themselves. That non-

human primates and humans with similar illnesses have selected

the same medicinal plants provides insight into the evolution of

medicinal behaviour in modern humans and the possible nature of

self-medication in early hominids (Huffman 1997).

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Islands of fertility: a multispecies ethnography of human-termite interactions and their implications for human ecology and the archaeology of gender in the tropics

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Dec 2021

Jeremy Farr

Using multidisciplinary literature, this paper takes a multispecies approach to human-termite interactions across the tropics to demonstrate how termites exploit ecological effects of human behaviours and in turn provide humans with significant ecosystem services. These provisions are deeply entangled within cultural practices and ideologies. Conceptualisations of human and landscape fertility, and the role of termites in facilitating life, create gendered interactions that are manifested in ecological knowledge and praxis relating to termites and termite mounds. The strong association between termites and farmers in particular, may offer insights into past human settlement patterns and their relationships with ecosystems. This paper proposes the use of geomorphology, thin-section ceramic petrography, and stable isotope analysis to investigate these relationships across the tropics. A multispecies approach creates new possibilities for a diachronic understanding of human ecology and raises important questions for the Anthropocene and the future of farming in the tropics.

Sileshi G.W., Nyeko P., Nkunika P.O.Y., Sekamatte B.M., Akinnifesi F.K., Ajayi O.C. (2009). Integrating ethno-ecological and scientific knowledge of termites for sustainable termite management and human welfare in Africa. Ecology and Society 14(1): 48 [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art48/.

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ECOL SOC

Despite their well-known role as pests, termites also provide essential ecosystem services. In this paper, we undertook a comprehensive review of studies on human-termite interactions and farmers' indigenous knowledge across Sub-Saharan Africa in an effort to build coherent principles for termite management. The review revealed that local communities have comprehensive indigenous knowledge of termite ecology and taxonomy, and apply various indigenous control practices. Many communities also have elaborate knowledge of the nutritional and medicinal value of termites and mushrooms associated with termite nests. Children and women also widely consume termite mound soil for nutritional or other benefits encouraged by indigenous belief systems. In addition, subsistence farmers use termites as indicators of soil fertility, and use termite mound soil in low-risk farming strategies for crop production. In the past, chemical control of termites has been initiated without empirical data on the termite species, their damage threshold, and the social, ecological, or economic risks and trade-offs of the control. This review has provided new insights into the intimate nature of human-termite interactions in Africa and the risks of chemical control of termites to human welfare and the environment. We recommend that management of termites in future should be built on farmers' indigenous knowledge and adequate understanding of the ecology of the local termite species.

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Feb 2023

El término Zoofarmacognosia se introdujo por primera vez en el ámbito científico en 1987, como una rama multidisciplinar que estudiaba el comportamiento de automedicación de muchos grupos animales. Humanos y animales se han observado y han interactuado entre ellos desde tiempos prehistóricos, aprendiendo de forma recíproca sobre la naturaleza y el uso de sus recursos. El ser humano ha sido consciente desde hace mucho tiempo de que los animales utilizan sustancias específicas de ciertas formas cuando se sienten enfermos, y que este hábito les ayudaba a recuperarse y sanar. Gracias al desarrollo de la Zoofarmacognosia, estamos empezando a aprender y comprender los aspectos concretos de esta disciplina científica relativamente nueva, que se ocupa de investigar cómo los animales tratan la enfermedad a base de sustancias orgánicas e inorgánicas que encuentran en su medio ambiente. En algunos casos, incluso parecen hacer uso de plantas u otros recursos naturales como medicamentos de una forma muy similar a como lo hacemos los humanos, para tratar los mismos síntomas que nosotros. Aunque la Zoofarmacognosia es una ciencia joven, en nuestro estudio hemos buscado y analizado la relevancia de las menciones al comportamiento autocurativo de los animales en fuentes históricas, lo cual respalda la remarcable antigüedad de la atención y la preocupación del ser humano por entender este tipo de comportamiento.

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Dec 2019
ENVIRON GEOCHEM HLTH

The voluntary human consumption of soil known as geophagy is a global practice and deep-rooted in many African cultures. The nature of geophagic material varies widely from the types to the composition. Generally, clay and termite mound soils are the main materials consumed by geophagists. Several studies revealed that gestating women across the world consume more soil than other groups for numerous motives. These motivations are related to medicinal, cultural and nutrients supplementation. Although geophagy in pregnancy (GiP) is a universal dynamic habit, the highest prevalence has been reported in African countries such as Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Nigeria, Tanzania, and South Africa. Geophagy can be both beneficial and detrimental. Its health effects depend on the amount and composition of the ingested soils, which is subjective to the geology and soil formation processes. In most cases, the negative health effects concomitant with the practice of geophagy eclipse the positive effects. Therefore, knowledge about the nature of geophagic material and the health effects that might arise from their consumption is important.

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ECOL SOC

General knowledge of the small, invisible, or hidden organisms that make soil one of the most biodiverse habitats on Earth is thought to be scarce, despite their importance in food systems and agricultural production. We provide the first worldwide review of high-quality research that reports on farmers’ knowledge of soil organisms in agriculture. The depth of farmers’ knowledge varied; some farming communities held detailed local taxonomies and observations of soil biota, or used soil biological activity as indicators of soil fertility, while others were largely unaware of soil fauna. Elicitation of soil biota knowledge was often incidental to the main research goal in many of the reviewed studies. Farmers are rarely deliberately or deeply consulted by researchers on their existing knowledge of soil biota, soil ecology, or soil ecological processes. Deeper understanding of how farmers use and value soil life can lead to more effective development of collaborative extension programs, policies, and management initiatives directed at maintaining healthy, living soils.

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Middle Paleolithic Large-Mammal Hunting in the Southern Levant

Article

Jul 2013

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I examine the ungulate remains from late Middle Paleolithic (MP) Kebara Cave (Israel) and offer evidence pointing to overhunting by Levantine Neanderthals toward the close of the MP: (1) the frequency of red deer and aurochs declined over the course of the sequence, largely independent of major fluctuations in the Levantine speleothem climate record; (2) the proportion of juvenile gazelles and fallow deer increased in the younger levels, as did the proportion of young adults; (3) upward in the sequence, hunters brought back fewer gazelle and fallow deer heads, suggesting that they either had to travel farther to hunt, or that they took many more animals per trip, perhaps in cooperative kills. Taken together, these observations, in conjunction with evidence from other sites in the region, suggest that the resource intensification characteristic of the “Broad Spectrum Revolution” (BSR), may already have begun in the latter part of the MP.

Charcoal, Eggplants, and Small Hairy Hominoids Dietary and Behavioural Components of a "Wildman" Image from West Central Flores (Indonesia)

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2011
ANTHROPOS

Gregory Forth

Recent writing on hominoid images from Flores Island reveals local conceptions of creatures, now mostly regarded as extinct, which seem zoologically realistic, or natural rather than supernatural. Drawing partly on narratives from the Rajong district recorded by J.A.J. Verheijen, this article explores an attribute that adds to this realism, and hence the putative creatures' empirical plausibility: their consumption of wood charcoal partly in conjunction with eggplants, both of which are claimed to have been regularly stolen in the past from human settlements. Reviewing the evidence for charcoal ingestion by animals and humans in various parts of the world, including Flores, it is shown how this dietary practice can counter toxic effects of various plant foods, including raw eggplant and wild tubers, another, implicit component of the hominoids' diet. It is further suggested that this sort of behaviour and local representations more generally of reputedly recently extant hominoids, as well as the interactions with Homo sapiens which these entail, should be taken into account in future anthropological research into the new hominin chrono-species Homo floresiensis, discovered on Flores in 2003. [Indonesia, Flores, folklore, Homo floresiensis, dietary behaviour].

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Book

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Walter Edmund Roth

Walter E. Roth's 1897 study of the Aborigines of North-West-Central Queensland was among the first of its kind in Australia, and established his international reputation as a leading anthropologist and ethnologist. Roth, a physician who was later appointed 'protector of Aboriginals' by the government, gained the confidence and trust of the Aboriginal people among whom he lived, and tried to stop the exploitation and injustice they suffered, in the face of fierce political opposition. His book provides a fascinating and closely observed account of the Aborigines' traditional way of life, including their language, kinship and customs. It describes social organisation, food, tools and weapons, personal decoration, travel and trade, birth and death, and even cannibalism. Containing over 430 illustrations and a glossary summarising key vocabulary, this thoroughly-researched book is widely recognised as a valuable and enduring anthropological record.

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Book

Jan 1995

David Cooney

Dangerous harvest : investigations in the late prehistoric occupation of upland south-east central Queensland

Thesis

Jan 1977

John M. Beaton

This thesis reports on archaeological fieldwork carried out between 1973 and 1975 in the southern part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. Fieldwork consisted of an areal .reconnaissance, sample excavations at three rocksheiter sites, and collection of surface artefacts at one open site. The findings include stone tools, bone tools, faunal and plant remains. Excavations and analyses have shown a marked intensification of Aboriginal use of the region beginning about 4000 to 5000 years ago. The increase in occupation is associated with the introduction of a new and distinctive stone tool technology. The rocksheiter excavations also showed that seeds of the cycad, Macrozanria moorei, were the most important food used at the sites, as evidenced by their remains in the shelter deposits. The cycads are known to be highly toxic and potentially carcinogenic to all mammals that have been given the plant material or extracts experimentally. The Aborigines of prehistoric Queensland eliminated the poison, probably by leaching the crushed seeds in water, although other methods may have been used. The natural history, human use and other features of cycads are discussed in light of modem issues in medical and anthropological research concerning these plants. It is proposed that the use of cycads in the Queensland uplands, and possibly elsewhere in Australia, had important implications for prehistoric social integration.

Plant-Food Processing: Implications for Dietary Quality

Article

Jan 1989

Ann Stahl

Geophagical customs

Article

Jan 1958

Australian Aboriginal plants: Some ecological and historical-cultural implications

Article

J. Golson

Plant foods of the Gidjingali: ethnographic and archaeological perspectives from northern Australia on tuber and seed exploitation

Article

Jan 1989

Murnong-Microseris Scapigera: A Study of a Staple Food of Victorian Aborigines

Article

Jan 1983
AUST ABORIG STUD

B. Gott

A survey of traditional methods employed for the detoxification of plant foods

Article

Jan 1988

Acorn eating and agricultural origins: California ethnographies as analogies for the ancient Near East

Article

Mar 1994

Joy Mccorriston

Since cereals and legumes were successful domesticates, archaeologists and botanists have investigated early domestication with particular emphasis on these plants. What about other foods, which may have been staples in their own time, for which we have no simple continuity into a later subsistence in the classic region of Near Eastern domesticates? The mediterranean climate, and the lifeways, of California provide an analogy.

Geophagy: an assessment of implications for the development of Australian Indigenous plant processing technologies

Abstract

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