On ethnography, hallucinogens, improvised knife, etc.

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by fearn

Porcupine, or stingray?

Yes, that's it!

On the idea of the brain as the main weapon, I've just finished leafing through a Tausug-English Dictionary (1994, Summer Institute of Linguistics) --

UTUK: noun. brain

UTAK: noun. bolo

UTUD: verb. cut off a part of something

In the Tagalog (Luzon) dialect, 'utak' means brain.

So I was thinking, maybe it's not all coincidence -- perhaps the Tausugs' forefathers of long long time ago (like other cultures elsewhere) had realized that the mind is the first and foremost weapon ...

PS - I'll be opening another thread, on Tausug terms for blades, combat, etc. There's one term there for a particular never-heard-before sword (at least to me) that defies present classification. Maybe with everybody's 'utuk' and 'utak' collaborating, we can figure out that mystery blade.