▲ 516 ▼ TIL that eating dirt was common in the U.S. South until the 80s. People ate a handful a day, often seasoned with vinegar and salt. (thelemmy.club) submitted 3 months ago* by Wudi@feddit.uk to c/til@lemmy.world 211 comments fedilink hide all child comments https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/13/us/southern-practice-of-eating-dirt-shows-signs-of-waning.html
[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 21 points 3 months ago (2 children) The cause of the cultural behavior usually has a purpose though. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 4 child comments replies: [–] half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world 1 point 3 months ago We need to bring back sun god sacrifices, then. Maybe that's why global warming and Stacy won't go out with me. permalink fedilink source parent [–] Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org 1 point 3 months ago The cause of the cultural behavior usually has a purpose though. Yeah, but not necessarily one that is still relevant or even ever actually worked towards whatever goal there originally was. Cultural inertia is like that. So it probably at some point had a purpose, but that purpose (whatever it was) might or might not apply any more or even be total nonsense. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world 1 point 3 months ago We need to bring back sun god sacrifices, then. Maybe that's why global warming and Stacy won't go out with me. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org 1 point 3 months ago The cause of the cultural behavior usually has a purpose though. Yeah, but not necessarily one that is still relevant or even ever actually worked towards whatever goal there originally was. Cultural inertia is like that. So it probably at some point had a purpose, but that purpose (whatever it was) might or might not apply any more or even be total nonsense. permalink fedilink source parent
