Exploring American Taboos

In recent years traveling in remote parts of Madagascar and Tanzania, I had, indepently and spontanaeously had the same conversation - once over a campfire in the Udzungwa Mountans (Tanzania), the other in a small village some 200 Km from the west coast town of Majunga in Madagascar. Some background, in Tanzania, I'd embarked in a multi-day walk through the upland rainforests of the Udzungwa mountans - a fantastic experience but tense. You come around sharp bend on the trail in the dense rainforest and come upon bowling ball sized dung, still steaming, from elephants. The Serengeti, not. You risk stumbling into the personal space of a jumbo, the penalty for which is unmentionable. Having said that, really not that much different than stumbling into the wrath of a cement truck driver on the local interstate.
In Madagascar, assisting in research on the Fossa ("fu-sa"), since made famous via an animated blockbuster: Think putting a mountain lion and a weasel in a blender and coming up with something that races through the canopy hunting the oh so cuddly lemurs.
So what does this have to do with American Taboos? At some point you become comfortable enough in a foreign cultute to ask: "Do you have any questions about MY culture and wher I come from?" This is always my favorite question, and lead to hours of conversation into the early hours (alway enhanced by hearing elephants snapping off branches as they feed a bit away). In traditional, rural societies, storytelling is still king, and that is wonderful. Here, then, is one of those conversations and stories:

"I have heard that you have tiny dogs in America, is this true?" "Yes, it is." So what do yo do with such a tiny dog, you must eat them, yes?" "No, to eat a dog is taboo in our culture." " But you eat cows, yes" "Yes." "And I have heard that you eat pigs, and they are unclean, yes." "Yes, we eat them." "But you do not eat dogs?" "No."
"So why would one have a tiny dog?" "This is a complcated question. The best answer I can give you is this. In our land, people move to work, and they leave their families behind, so they become lonely. So, some of them get tiny dogs and they are like children to them, because they are lonely." "I have not heard of such a thing..." "There is more. In America we have hospitals for dogs" "For DOGS?" "Yes, for dogs. Because they are treated as children. You can have surgery done on your dog." "Surgery on a dog?" "Yes." "You Muzungu/Vazaa (white people) are very curious, but you must be very rich to have hospitals for dogs". "Yes, but the price is that we are lonely. Here, you have your children, parents, aunts, uncles..all about you. Americans do not have that. We move to work, so we have money for dog hospitals, but we cannot always see our children or parents, because they are far away." "Ah, that is sad. I now understand the Muzungu in a different way. Thank you for sharing your story..."

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