Ooooh, there was so much good stuff to rip-off today, I had a hard time making up my mind. I decided to go with NPR's "A Global History, Told Through 100 Objects", a book by Neil McGregor- fascinating stuff!
...MacGregor sought to include objects used for pleasure. One such
object is from America's own backyard: a North American otter pipe from
Ohio.
"One of the great pleasures for a lot
of humanity has been smoking. It's not something one should say very
loudly in public, but for most of history it appears to have been true,"
he says.
The otter pipe was found among a collection of little stone pipes that were interred 2,000 years ago in burial mounds in Ohio.
This
particular pipe, which is about the same size as a kazoo, was carved in
the shape of an otter. MacGregor guesses that the pipe's otter design
was intended to add something extra to the user's smoking experience.
"As
you smoke it, you're eye to eye with this little animal that appears
just to have bobbed up from below the water, he says."Tobacco was
probably mildly hallucinogenic, so presumably you and the otter really
got going into some kind of relationship as you had your smoke."
Make sure you click on the link above and check out the photos.
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