[Terrapreta] Earthen Kiln Conjecture

[Kurt Treutlein]

MFH wrote:
>  Kurt
>
>  I tend to agree.
>
>  PNG village men send a lot of time sitting down, but when necessary
>  they can be startlingly committed.
Their traditional job of course was to patrol the work area and protect 
the workers (the women) from raiders, bent on "payback" or maybe a quick 
bit of protein cannibalism. Under "Pax Australis" this job became moot, 
well in the more settled areas anyway. Consequently all they could do 
was sit around smoke "brush" and  "kaikai buai". Brush is home grown 
tobacco and "kaikai buai" is chewing betel nut.

Of course, in the initial gardening work, the cutting down of brush and 
trees' it was the men who did the work, but the gardening was up to the 
women.

>  I have often seen a large tree (maybe 80cm/2.5ft diam) attacked and
>  felled by a group for the sole purpose of capturing a 1kg (2lb)
>  marsupial from the upper branches. Admittedly they used steel axes,
>  but these were the "fighting" kind - a long handle and a head only
>  75mm/3" wide and weighing very little.

Heck we often used to cut down a tree or two when camped out in the 
bush. It was a bit of fun in a situation where you made your own or died 
of boredom staring at the trees.
>

regards,

Kurt