Leopoldo Costa

O Mundo no final do primeiro milênio era povoado por apenas 280 milhões de habitantes e dividido por uma grande série de impérios conectados por ousados comerciantes.

CULTURAS E IMPÉRIOS

Sacro Império Germânico

Religião: Cristianismo.
Economia: Escravos, armas, madeira, lã
Uma aliança de nobres germânicos e o reino da Itália significou um baluarte frente aos invasores eslavos e magiares. Este império, altamente militarizado e dominado pelo fervor religioso, tinha a ambição de restabelecer o Sacro Império Romano.

Império Bizantino

Religião: Cristianismo.
Economia: Bens de luxo, tinturas, marfim, seda.
Bizâncio, ou os restos do Império Romano do Oriente, consolidou-se no ano 1000 ocupando o terreno perdido pelo Islamismo. Sua capital, Constantinopla,estava na encruzilhada do comércio mundial, originando uma arquitetura imperial grandiosa e bazares movimentados.

Império Sung

Religião:Budismo,Confucionismo e Taoismo.
Economia:Seda, cerâmica, jade, chá.
A cultura tecnologicamente mais avançada da época. A China já usava a prensa, a pólvora, o engenho e navios com capacidade para mais de 100 homens. Contava com uma enorme indústria e um exército com centenas de milhares de soldados. O correio à cavalo poderia demorar até seis anos para chegar as regiões mais remotas do império, saindo de Pequim.

Principados Indianos

Religião: Hinduísmo, Budismo, Jainismo.
Economia: Especiarias, metais e pedras preciosas, incenso, algodão, madeira,seda, marfim.
Os principados indianos eram divididos e envolvidos em violentos confrontos com os invasores otomanos do oeste. A cavalaria turca atacou 17 vezes em um período de 25 anos depois do ano 997, saqueando templos indus e conseguindo grandes quantidades de ouro.

Islã

Religião: Islamismo.
Economia: Sal, metais preciosos,cavalos, marfim.
Dividido em vários califados,o Islã não era a força unificada que foi em séculos anteriores. Mesmo assim,sua expansão continuou na Ásia, África e Península Ibérica, onde a ciência e a arte floresceram nas grandes cidades islâmica. Os navegadores árabes dominaram o comércio no Mar da Índia e ajudaram a continuar propagando sua religião na China, Indonésia e a costa da África Oriental.

Reino de Gana

Localização: África Ocidental.
Religião: Paganismo.
Economia: Ouro, cobre e sal.
A antiga Gana não tem nada a ver com a atual e se sobressaia sobre seus vizinhos usando a habilidade com o ferro e o domínio militar para controlar o comércio de ouro e sal entre o norte e o oeste da África.

Vikings da América do Norte

Acredita-se que os navegantes vikings,em sua tentativa de chegar a Groenlândia, alcançaram a costa  do atual Canadá no ano 986, e batizaram o lugar como Vineland. Os restos de uma colônia norueguesa de curta duração foram encontrados em Terra Nova.

Japão

Religião: Paganismo, Budismo, Taoismo.
Economia: Bens de luxo.
O Japão anterior à época Samurai estava dominado por uma aristocracia que vivia de impostos cobrados à cidadania e que ocupava seu tempo com a literatura, a arte e a música. O ano 1000 marcou o período de estabilidade e avanços culturais que deixaram sua marca na tradicional literatura clássica japonesa.

Toltecas

Localização:México e América Central
Religião:Paganismo.
Economia: Escravos, armas e metais preciosos.
Depois da queda da civilização Maia, os Toltecas foram a cultura dominante. Uniram os assentamentos urbanos com suas próprias tradições que trouxeram pela primeira vez à América Central uma preponderância dos sacrifícios humanos.n

Grande Zimbábue

Localização: Sul da África
É o maior dos vários palácios reais cercados por muros, situados na região de produção de ouro na África do sul. Sua construção começou no século XI e continuou ao longo de 400 anos.

Império Jemer

Localização: Sudoeste asiático
Religião: Budismo, Hinduismo.
Economia: Arroz, metais e pedras preciosas.
O Império Jemer era governado pelos "divinos reis", que ergueram vários templos de grande tamanho, incluindo o gigantesco complexo de Angkor no Camboja. Uma sofisticada rede de canais ajudava na produção de arroz e o império floresceu a partir de seu predomínio nas rotas comerciais do sudoeste asiático.

Vale do Lambayeque

No Peru pré-inca de 1000 d.C a cultura Sican era dominante. Não construíram grandes centros urbanos, mas deixaram centenas de templos e câmaras mortuárias repletas de objeto de ouro e plata.

Comunicações

As caravanas de dromedários da África do norte levavam oito semanas para cruzar do Saara até Gana.

Comércio no Mar da Índia

Os navegantes árabes, indianos e chineses criaram uma rede de portos comerciais nas costas do Mar da Índia que competia com o Mar Mediterrâneo e que gradualmente, superou em importância muitos antigos itinerários, como a Rota da Seda.

Astrolábio

O astrolábio foi desenvolvido pelos árabes no século V d.C a partir de instrumentos astronômicos gregos, para determinar a hora local pela posição do sol no firmamento.

Bússola

Segundo o filósofo Aristóteles, a existência de pedras capazes de atrair o ferro tinha sido observada por Tales de Mileto, no século VII a.C. Mas a bússola só seria inventada na China no século I d.C.

Pólvora

Os chineses já conheciam e usavam a pólvora como instrumento de guerra no ano 1000. É o mais antigo de todos os explosivos - e fez com que as guerras, até então travadas apenas com armas brancas, se tornassem ainda mais violentas, quando chegou a Europa em 1190. As técnicas exatas de fabricação só foram conhecidas pelo mundo ocidental em 1242. No século XIV, um frade alemão chamado Berthold Schwarz desenvolveu-a como explosivo prático no século XV. Ele é  considerado o inventor da arma de fogo que explodia bombas pela ação da pólvora,que passou a ser usada em canhões em 1346, mudando as táticas militares.

AS DEZ MAIORES CIDADES DO PRIMEIRO MILÊNIO

Córdoba

Habitantes: 500 mil
A cidade de maior crescimento no ano 1000, desenvolveu-se as custas do avanço do Islamismo na Espanha e rapidamente se converteu em um centro das artes, da ciência e da arquitetura no mundo árabe.

Kaifeng

Habitantes: 400 mil
O maior de todos os centros de expansão da China Sung, Kaifeng surgiu como uma cidade industrial, e devido à sua localização no rio Amarelo,foi um ponto relevante nas rotas comerciais fluviais.

Constantinopla

Habitantes: 300 mil
Capital do Império Bizantino, Constantinopla prosperou ainda mais graças à sua posição chave nas rotas entre Ásia e Europa.

Kyoto

Habitantes: 240 mil
A antiga capital do Japão era o centro religioso que albergava sua elite aristocrática e era conhecida pela arte, cultura e artigos de seda.

Angkor

Habitantes: 200 mil
Este vasto complexo arquitetônico era também o centro do Império Jemer e o pilar do sistema de produção de arroz baseado em uma sofisticada irrigação.

Cairo

Habitantes: 140 mil
Capital do Império Fatimita, que dominou a maior parte do norte da África, Síria e Arábia, Cairo era sede de muitas das grandes universidades e bibliotecas.

Bagdá

Habitantes: 140 mil
Capital do reino Abássida, Bagdá era considerado o centro intelectual do mundo. A cultura persa influiu na arquitetura e na vida cortesã da cidade.

Neyshabur

Habitantes: 140 mil
A segunda grande cidade da Pérsia no centro de expansão do Islamismo, Neyshabur era também o maior provedor de turquesas no ano 1000.

Al Hasa

Habitantes: 120 mil
Centro do movimento revolucionário xiita do Islamismo, que se desenvolveu na Arábia Oriental e apresentou uma grande resistência ao sistema de califados.

Isfahan

Habitantes: 100 mil
Potência industrial centrada na metalurgia, seda e almofadas, Isfahan se situava no cinturão do grão da Pérsia e era um importante produtor de alimentos.

CURIOSIDADES

1. 90% dos europeus do ano 1000 viviam no campo, subordinados aos senhores feudais. Por essa razão, nenhuma cidade europeia constava da lista das 10 maiores cidades do mundo.

2. No ano 989, durante três meses, uma estrela de cauda assombrou os 38 milhões de habitantes da Europa: era o cometa de Halley, que a cada 76 anos circula nas vizinhanças da Terra. Como a maior parte da população era analfabeta e a longevidade era em torno de 30 anos, ninguém tinha conhecimento da aparição anterior ocorrida em 913.

3. Na Inglaterra  as 100 palavras mais usadas da língua inglesa atual já faziam parte do vocabulário da população que era , no entanto,completamente analfabeta.

AS PESSOAS TINHAM NOÇÃO DA CHEGADA DO ANO 1000.

Escreveu Stephan Jay Gould (1941-2002), palentoloogista estadunidense:
"Durante muito tempo eu mesmo me fiz esta pergunta. Nessa época distante as pessoas saberiam apenas que o ano 1000 se aproximaria? Realmente, segundo Landes que consultei,parece finalmente que sim, eles sabiam. O sistema de Denys, le Petit, distribuindo os acontecimentos a partir do ano 1 da era cristã, tinha sido largamente popularizado graças a famosa cronologia do Venerável Beda, um erudito monge inglês do século VIII. O monge Raoul Glaber anunciava que "Satã" seria em breve desacorrentado porque os mil anos se completaram. Em seguida afirma que a construção das catedrais tinha começado logo depois do ano 1000, quando se compreendeu que o fim dos tempos estava atrasado. Três anos depois do ano 1000, o mundo vestiu um manto branco puro das igrejas. Depois Glaber anunciou o fim dos tempos para o milênio da Paixão de Cristo em 1003"

Escreveu Umberto Eco, escritor italiano nascido em 1932:
"Escreveu-se muito no século XIX a propósito da última noite do primeiro milênio, sobre multidões aterrorizadas chorando nas igrejas. Depois ficou provado que não existia nenhum documento que apoiasse essa hipótese. Eu tinha 20 anos quando li "O Ano 1000" de Henri Focillon, e me lembro do meu assombro ao descobrir que não houve terror no ano 1000. Os pânicos milenaristas se manifestaram bem antes do fim do milênio, ou depois, mas não nessa data precisa."

Escreveu Jean Delumeau, historiador francês, especialista na História da Ireja, nascido em 1923:
"Visto que o Apocalipse havia falado de mil anos, não era absurdo pensar; no ano 1000, que os tempos se tinham escoado"


Texto adaptado de uma matéria extraida do caderno especial "A Grande Viagem 1000-1999" anexa ao "Correio Braziliense/Estado de Minas" que circulou no dia 31 de dezembro de 1999.

A vila de São Sebastião do Ribeirão Preto

Martinho Prado Junior, pioneiro do café em Ribeirão Preto, diz em artigo publicado no jornal "A Província de S. Paulo" (atual "O Estado de S. Paulo") em 1877: "Foi fundada (Ribeirão Preto) em 1856 por José Borges da Costa, Manuel Fernandes do Nascimento e João Alves Pereira, já falecidos, que fizeram doação para O patrimônio (da capela de São Sebastião), e também por Antonio Alves Pereira e Bernardo Alves Pereira que ainda existem"

o ex-prefeito João Rodrigues Guião, na obra "O Município e a Cidade de Ribeirão Preto" (1922), cita como fundadores José Borges da Costa, Manuel Fernandes do Nascimento e João Alves Pereira. A mesma informação consta do livro "Os Municípios Paulistas" de Eugenio Egas.

Já o historiador Plinio Travassos dos Santos, na obra "O Ribeirão Preto Histórico e para a História" (1928), sustenta como fundadores José Borges da Costa, Antonio Soares de Castilho e João Alves da Silva, tendo como base o Livro do Tombo da antiga matriz.

Fundação Oficial

A Câmara Municipal, por lei, considera fundadores de Ribeirão Preto os casais José Borges da Costa e Maria Felizarda; Mariano Pedroso de Almeida e Maria Lourenço do Nascimento; Inácio Bruno da Costa e Maria Izidora de Jesus; Severiano João da Silva e Gertrudes Maria Teodora; João Alves da Silva e Ana Delfina Bezerra; José Alves da Silva e Pulcina Maria de Jesus. Foram estes os casais, afinal, que fizeram as doações de terras, aceitas pela Igreja, para a formação do patrimônio de São Sebastião do Ribeirão Preto.

Borges da Costa

O tema "fundadores" já mereceu Uma Comissão Especial de Estudos da Câmara Municipal no final da década de 40.

Todos os autores, porém, concordam com um fato - José Borges da Costa, citado em todas as obras, é um dos fundadores e teve destacada importância no surgimento do povoado. Na década de 1850, quando tem início o arraial que originou Ribeirão Preto, ele é um dos principais donos da fazenda Barra do Retiro, onde começa a povoação. Com uma vida das mais atribuladas, quatro casamentos, inúmeras disputas judiciais, ele simboliza o mais marcante fluxo migratório que resultou na ocupação do nordeste paulista e na fundação de Ribeirão Preto - os mineiros criadores de gado que deixaram o sul de Minas para povoar a região.

As Famílias

Além dos Borges da Costa, são famílias pioneiras na formação do arraial de São Sebastião do Ribeirão Preto os Reis de Araújo, os Alves da Silva, os Bezerra Cavalcanti, os Nazareth de Azevedo e os Soares Castilho.

Nascido em Pindamonhangaba, João dos Reis de Araújo ganhou sesmarias no Caminho dos Goiases em 1733. Um de seus filhos foi Timóteo dos Reis Araújo, que nasceu por volta de 1758 e se casou com Rita da Anunciação. O filho Manuel José dos Reis de Araújo, nascido em Jacui, casou-se com Maria Madalena de Jesus, nascida em Congonhas do Campo, MG. Os filhos deste último casal (Vicente,Mateus e Manuel José dos Reis) são os primeiros povoadores das terras onde vai surgir Ribeirão Preto.

Alves da Silva

Os Alves da Silva, cujo patriarca foi Jerônimo Alves da Silva (nascido em San Payo, Arcebispado de Braga, Portugal), aparecem em documentos sobre os moradores do Caminho dos Goiases já a partir de 1793. Jerônimo foi casado com Agostinha Teixeira de Jesus, natural de Rio das Pedras, atual Acuruí, MG. Uma de suas filhas, Maria Madalena de Jesus, casou-se com Manuel José dos Reis de Araújo.

Bezerra Cavalcanti

A família Bezerra Cavalcanti também tem relações de parentesco com os Reis Araújo. O patriarca Lourenço Bezerra Cavalcanti aparecem em um censo de 1767, viúvo, morando num sítio do Rio Pardo com dois filhos menores, Joaquim e Cosme. Joaquim Bezerra Cavalcanti casou-se com Maria Francisca do Espírito Santo. Eles aparecem em documentos sobre os moradores do Caminho dos Goiases, no sítio do Cercado, próximo ao rio Pardo.

Outros Pioneiros

O casal teve sete filhos, sendo que dois deles se casaram com membros da família Reis de Araújo (Maria Silvéria, com Vicente José dos Reis, e Antonio Bezerra Cavalcanti, com Bárbara Reis de Araújo).

Os Nazareth de Azevedo e os Soares de Castilho também são importantes na formação de Ribeirão Preto. O patriarca José de Nazareth de Azevedo morreu em 1829. Uma de suas filhas, Senhorinha Maria de Nazareth, foi casada com Antonio Soares de Castilho, falecido por volta de 1845.

Texto publicado no jornal "A Cidade", Ribeirão Preto SP, no caderno "Boa História", comemorativo aos 150 anos da cidade, de 18 de junho de 2006. Digitado, adaptado e ilustrado para ser postado por Leopoldo Costa.

O café que fez a fama de Ribeirão Preto na virada dos séculos XIX e XX teve, em seu período áureo, três grandes fazendeiros denominados como "Reis do Café". O título vinha naturalmente para aquele que conseguia as maiores produções.

O primeiro foi Henrique Dumont, pai de Alberto Santos Dumont. A fazenda Dumont, com mais de 6 mil alqueires, chegou a ter 5,7 milhões de pés de café, que exigiam a mão-de-obra de mais de cinco mil colonos. Modernizador da técnica de cultivo de café, também inovou ao instalar uma estrada de ferro particular de 23 km, ligando a sede da fazenda a Ribeirão Preto, e mais 85 km de trilhos dentro da fazenda, de forma a agilizar a colheita, usando cinco locomotivas e quarenta vagões.

Em 1890, quando a fazenda Dumont atingiu o auge de sua produção, Henrique Dumont fez jus ao título de "Rei do Café". Nascido em 1832, ele faleceu em 1892, aos 60 anos. Pouco antes, vendeu a fazenda Dumont por 12 mil contos de réis (o equivalente, à época, a um milhão de libras esterlinas).

Em 1942, a fazenda Dumont foi loteada e lá surgiu a cidade de Dumont, cuja Prefeitura ocupa a antiga sede da fazenda do "rei do Café".

O ALEMÃO DE MONTE ALEGRE

Migrante alemão, Francisco Schmidt desembarcou com os pais no Brasil em 1858, quando tinha oito anos. A família radicou-se primeiro em São Carlos. Schmidt ganhou dinheiro com um armazém, vendeu-o para comprar sua primeira fazenda, em Santa Rita do Passa Quatro, em 1888, e dois anos depois adquiriu a fazenda Monte Alegre, em Ribeirão Preto, que se tornaria o centro administrativo de seus negócios.

Na primeira década do século passado,comandava um império com 69 fazendas espalhadas por dezessete municípios, onde eram cultivados, por 14 mil empregados, 11 milhões de pés de café.

Nos anos 20, em suas fazendas, reunidas na Companhia Agrícola Francisco Schmidt, circulava até uma moeda própria, aceita também no comércio de Ribeirão Preto. Desiludido com a política local, Schmidt muda-se para São Paulo,onde morre em 1924. Desapropriada pelo governo, a fazenda Monte Alegre deu lugar ao campus da Universidade de São Paulo.

O INSPIRADOR DO "REI DO GADO"

Nascido na Itália, Geremia Lunardelli chegou ao Brasil em 1886, quando tinha dois anos.  Aos quatro anos, Geremia perdeu o pai e foi morar com o resto da família na fazenda Dumont. onde permaneceu por dez anos. Reunindo algumas economias, adquiriu um pequeno sítio com milhares de pés de café e passou a cultivar o grão. Seu próximo passo foi a compra de sua primeira grande propriedade, a Fazenda Pau D'Alho, em Olímpia (SP).

Na década de 20, já casado com Albina Furlanetto Lunardelli, possuía milhares de alqueires cultivados com pés de café. Foi em Lunardelli que Benedito Ruy Barbosa se inspirou para escrever o personagem Geremias Berdinazzi, da novela "O Rei do Gado". Ao morrer, em 1962, era dono de 450 mil hectares de plantações, merecendo o título de "Rei do Café'. Sua ajuda financeira foi fundamental para a criação do Museu da Café "Francisco Schmidt", na fazenda Monte Alegre.

Texto publicado no jornal "A Cidade", Ribeirão Preto SP, no caderno "Boa História", comemorativo aos 150 anos da cidade, de 18 de junho de 2006. Digitado, adaptado e ilustrado para ser postado por Leopoldo Costa.

São José dos Campos, situada estrategicamente entre as capitais de São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro, completa neste 27 de julho 230 anos. Conhecida como a "Capital do Vale do Paraíba", a cidade ostenta atualmente a terceira maior arrecadação de ICMS do Estado. Grande responsável por essa posição é a grande concentração de indústrias, atraídas exatamente pela situação geográfica privilegiada.

Além das vias rodoviárias para o escoamento da produção, estuda-se a instalação de um terminal intermodal em São José dos Campos.

Crise e retomada de desenvolvimento podem ser vistos como um micro-retrato do próprio Brasil. O embrião de São José nasceu da instalação de missões jesuítas, ainda em fins do século XVI - missões que eram "mascaradas" como fazendas de gado a fim de evitar conflitos com os bandeirantes. A expulsão dos jesuítas do Brasil, em 1759, fez com que todos os bens dos religiosos passassem para as mãos da Coroa e, dai, permitiram O surgimento de novas vilas e freguesias.

Oito anos depois era fundada a Vila de São José do Paraíba, que começou a se desenvolver, inicialmente, com a agricultura. A cidade foi "descoberta" novamente no início deste século, quando ganhou status de centro de tratamento para a tuberculose.

Com o advento dos antibióticos e novos métodos terapêuticos, em meados da década de 40, nova crise abala a cidade. A abertura de dois símbolos do "boom" desenvolvimentista do Brasil - a via Dutra e o Centro Técnico Aeroespacial - em 1950, marcaram definitivamente São José dos Campos.

Pouco depois, a cidade passaria a sediar o INPE (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais). Aeronáutica e espaço foram, então, incorporados ao nome de São José dos Campos e tomaram-se dois dos principais responsáveis pela própria economia da cidade.

CRONOLOGIA JOSEENSE

* 1643 - Vila Nova - Os jesuítas obtiveram para os índios sesmarias compostas de quatro léguas em quadras, transferindo o aldeamento para onde estão hoje as praças João Pessoa e Expedicionários.

* 1767 - Ereção da Vila - 27 de julho - segunda-feira - estava criada a Vila de São José do Paraíba, fato anormal, pois ainda não houvera sido Freguesia.

* 1871 - Nome atual - 4 de abril - Pela Lei Provincial n° 47, recebeu a denominação de São José dos Campos adotado em virtude da imensa extensão de campinas aqui existente.

* 1872 - Demografia - Recenseamento - Primeiro Censo Oficial do país. 11 de agosto, população total 12.998 habitantes, sendo 6.681 homens e 6.817 mulheres. Livres 11.753 e escravos 1.245. Sabem ler e escrever 2.171 (apenas livres). Estrangeiros 268, sendo 193 africanos, 55 portugueses e 20 outros. Brasileiros natos: Paulistas 12.110, baianos 222, mineiros 102 e outros.

* 1877 - Estrada de ferro - 18 de janeiro - Festividade de inauguração com a chegada do primeiro comboio de passageiros procedentes de Jacareí, embora já estivesse pronta em 1876.

* 1892 - Distrito - Através da Lei Estadual n° 59 de 16 de agosto de 1892, foi criado o Distrito de São Francisco Xavier.

* 1894 - Poeta- 24 de julho - Nasce Cassiano Ricardo Leite que viria a ser o maior poeta joseense e verdadeiro patrimônio intelectual do País, tendo sido: crítico, ensaísta, historiador e jornalista.

* 1932 - Revolução - 23 de maio - Na Praça da República em São Paulo, é vitimado o estudante Euclides Miragaia, joseense, nascido em 20/11/1910, O trágico acontecimento contribuiu para a eclosão da Revolução Constitucionalista.

* 1934 - Distrito - Pelo Decreto n° 6638 de 31 de agosto, foi criado o Distrito de Eugênio de Melo.

* 1935 - Estância Climática - O Decreto 7007 de 12 de março deu a São José dos Campos a categoria de Estância Climática.

* 1935 - Estância Hidromineral - A Lei Orgânica do Município, n° 2484 de 16 de dezembro deu a São José dos Campos a categoria de Estância Hidromineral.

* 1938 - Distritos e Subdistritos - No anexo ao Decreto-Lei Estadual n° 9073 de 31 de março e no fixado pelo Decreto-Lei Estadual n° 9775, de 30 de novembro, São José dos Campos figura com quatro distritos: Buquira, Eugênio de Melo, São Francisco Xavier e São José dos Campos, este subdivido em 1ª Zona Distrital de São José dos Campos  e 2ª Zona Distrital de Santana do Paraíba.

* 1944 - Subdistrito - O Decreto-Lei Estadual n° 14344 de 30 de novembro  transformou a 1ª Zona Distrital e a 2ª Zona Distrital em 1° Subdistrito de São José de Campos e 2° Subdistrito de Santana do Paraíba.

* 1947 - 13 de março: Iniciadas as obras do Centro Técnico de Aeronáutica dirigidas pela COCTA - Comissão de Organização do Centro Técnico de Aeronáutica, instituída em 29/01/1946 e extinta em 26/11/1953.

* 1948 - Distrito - A Lei 233 de 31 de dezembro, desmembrou de São José dos Campos o território do Distrito de Buquira, elevado a categoria de município com o nome de Monteiro Lobato.

* 1950 - CTA-ITA - Segundo semestre - Transferido para esta cidade o Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, criado em 1947 no Rio de Janeiro. Os alunos são bolsistas do Ministério da Aeronáutica compreendendo aulas, hospedagem, alimentação, serviços médico-dentário e prática de todas as modalidades esportivas. Novo marco no desenvolvimento, instituindo o ciclo de ensino universitário no município e divulgando o seu nome por todo o país e exterior.

* 1951 - Rodovia - Em 19 de janeiro inaugurada a nova ligação Rio-São Paulo, Rodovia Presidente Dutra - BR-116, a primeira com uma pista em asfalto, cortando o centro urbano da cidade, assinalando o marco de nova era para o Brasil, para São Paulo e para toda a região do Vale do Paraíba.

* 1967 - Aniversário - Em 27 de julho, das 5 horas da manhã até altas horas da noite grandes festividades marcaram o segundo centenário do município,com mais de cinquenta mil pessoas pelas ruas e praças ricamente ornamentadas e feericamente iluminadas.

* 1970 - Incentivos - Em 4 de janeiro a edilidade aprovou projeto-lei fomentando a instalação de indústrias no município, que ficaram isentas, por dez anos, do imposto territorial urbano e de serviços de qualquer natureza.

Texto publicado, sem identificação de autoria, no suplemento comemorativo de aniversário de 230 anos do município no jornal "ValeParaibano", São José dos Campos SP, datado de 27 de julho de 1997. Digitado, adaptado e ilustrado para ser postado por Leopoldo Costa.

O historiador Evaldo Cabral de Mello critica a tese de que os portugueses teriam aderido aos costumes do Brasil Colônia e mostra como eles se mantiveram fieis a seus hábitos alimentares e desprezaram produtos locais, como milho e mandioca.

Debret - vendedoras de angu

Malgrado a expansão territorial e a decorrente rustificação da existência, nosso cotidiano quinhentista (1532-1630) apegou-se aos modelos da vida material no reino tão porfiada quanto ao cabo inutilmente, a começar pelos hábitos alimentares. Pode-se comparar, aliás, o processo brasileiro com o que ocorria na América espanhola, onde, sugeriu Braudel, os "criollos" já se convertiam ao milho, à mandioca e a outros alimentos indígenas, devido, segundo pensava, à crise de meados do século 16, mas decerto também em razão do caráter continental da colonização espanhola comparativamente à ocupação talassocrática, como foi a portuguesa do primeiro século.

Ainda no começo dos Seiscentos, François Pyrard observava que os colonos do Brasil destinavam o milho aos animais, ao contrário dos espanhóis das Índias de Castela, que já o misturavam ao pão. Ao oposto da noção segundo a qual o português teria aderido alacremente aos costumes da terra, provando destarte sua capacidade superior de adaptação ao mundo não-europeu, ele procurou manter-se fiel à tríade canônica do trigo, do vinho e do azeite até quando foi possível, isto é, pela altura da invasão holandesa, quando a aceitação de produtos nativos pela gente de prol se terá imposto, devido às dificuldades do suprimento de gêneros reinóis, embora no período de paz entre a resistência e a restauração eles fossem substituídos por víveres de procedência neerlandesa.

Lenta deslusitanizacão

Ao longo dos Quinhentos apenas se iniciou o longo processo de deslusitanização do paladar, derradeiro traço, segundo pretendia Eduardo Prado, a desnacionalizar-se no indivíduo. São bem conhecidas as resistências que oferecem as fronteiras alimentares, na esteira inclusive das conotações simbólicas de status e de especialização alimentar de classe e de grupo social, como indica o exemplo clássico da expansão da vinha na Europa transalpina da Alta Idade Média em consequência das necessidades do culto católico e da tendência do alto clero e da nobreza a preservar os padrões de consumo das classes superiores. da Antiguidade tardia. Não seria, portanto, de esperar que, malgrado a apregoada capacidade lusitana de assimilação a culturas diferentes, o povoador quinhentista abandonasse da noite para o dia os produtos básicos e até os ancilares do viver metropolitano.

O citado François Pyrard, que visitou o Brasil em 1610, afirma que "a terra produz pouco e não avonda (i.é., abunda) para sustentar os portugueses; e por isso toda a sorte de víveres lhes vêm ou de Portugal ou das ilhas dos Açores e Canárias", inclusive carne de vaca e peixe salgado, donde a carestia da vida, que lhe parecia seis a oito vezes mais onerosa que na França. Não fosse o comércio do açúcar e do pau-brasil, os colonos não poderiam sobreviver na terra. Pela mesma época, Diogo de Campos Moreno constatava que "por mar e por terra (Olinda) tem abundante comércio de todas as coisas".

Já nos anos 60 do século 16, quando ainda não se fizera sentir a prosperidade açucareira, o padre Rui Pereira admirava-se de ser a capitania de Pernambuco "mui provida das coisas do reino", donde "continuamente se vende(rem) pão de trigo, vinho, azeite etc.". Destarte, em matérias de provisões, "quem tiver com que as compre, não há diferença do reino". Anchieta observava que "alguns ricos comem pão de farinha de trigo de Portugal, máxime em Pernambuco e Bahia, e de Portugal também lhes vêm vinho, azeite, vinagre, azeitonas, queijo, conserva e outras coisas de comer". Ainda ao tempo da guerra neerlandesa, as caravelas procedentes do reino, que eram apresadas pelos cruzeiros inimigos, continham invariavelmente o carregamento de trigo, vinho e azeite.

Como substituí-los rapidamente, à maneira do que teria desejado frei Vicente do Salvador, pelos seus equivalentes coloniais, estigmatizados que ainda se achavam a farinha de mandioca, a aguardente de cana e o azeite de dendê pela sua condição de alimentos de índios e africanos? Quando os holandeses conquistavam Olinda, surpreenderam-se de encontrar. nas casas abandonadas pela fuga precipitada dos moradores, "as mesas postas por toda a parte e bem providas com comidas e bebidas". Dado o saque à vila, os soldados da Companhia das Índias Ocidentais se haviam abundantemente provido de vinho, azeite, farinha de trigo, uvas e azeitonas.

Quando, no interregno de paz do período nassoviano, restabeleceu-se o aprovisionamento em comestíveis europeus, a comunidade luso-brasileira regressou, malgrado as dificuldades financeiras, às suas preferências alimentares. Um relatório holandês refere-se ao consumo da população livre dos engenhos como consistindo de vinhos, azeite, manteiga, farinha de trigo, toucinho, queijos, presuntos, línguas, carne de fumeiro, bacalhau, peixes da Terra Nova, sardinhas, a que se acrescentava, única novidade do norte da Europa, a cerveja, tão estimada pelos batavos.

Mesmo quando o reinício da guerra incentivou a aceitação de víveres da terra por parte dos colonos, o mercado brasileiro para o trigo, vinho e azeite continuou a ser substancial e lucrativo, tanto assim que, ao se criar em 1649 a Companhia Geral de Comércio do Brasil, El Rei teve de lhe conceder o monopólio do comércio de tais produtos, a que se acrescentou o bacalhau. Ademais, quando forem extintos os privilégios da Companhia, a Coroa terá de lutar com unhas e dentes para preservar esse mercado para os seus nacionais, diante das pretensões britânicas e neerlandesas de dominá-lo.

Alimentação europeia.

No decorrer do nosso primeiro século, o uso da farinha de mandioca nos núcleos litorâneos não foi tão generalizado quanto ocorreria depois nem constituiu o consumo do trigo uma novidade da ocupação holandesa, a qual, esquecida desde então, teria sido reimpingida no século 19 pelos ingleses, como julgou Gilberto Freyre. No tocante à Bahia colonial, Thales de Azevedo afirmou que, "por muita mandioca que aqui comesse", os portugueses "não abandonaram de modo algum o seu sistema de alimentação europeu, de base no trigo, nem o complexo indígena da mandioca teve uma vitória completa sobre aquele cereal". Ainda no século 17, tem-se a impressão de "ser o pão de trigo um artigo de consumo popular (...) e não exclusivamente "um luxo dos ricos".

Deste aferro à farinha de trigo não há melhor exemplo do que o dos paulistas, reputados, devido à sua pobreza, por sua permeabilidade ao estilo de vida indígena. Após 60 anos de bugre e de brenha, tão logo as circunstâncias permitiram a cultura tritícola, ei-los que recaem no antigo hábito metropolitano do pão alvo, exportando o excedente para o resto da colônia.

A concepção simplista de uma adesão universal à farinha de mandioca por parte do povoador lusitano de 500 deriva de má leitura, muitas vezes descontextualizada, dos primeiros cronistas, ou então das afirmações demasiado enfáticas de Gândavo e de frei Vicente do Salvador. Os outros cronistas permitem, contudo, matizar, senão rever, tais generalizações, a primeira, da parte de autor que não esteve entre nós, escrevendo pelo que ouviu dizer; a segunda, avançada pelo primeiro advogado de uma autarquia que deveria habilitar o Brasil a bastar-se a si mesmo.

Em Pernambuco e na Bahia, o colono também consumia pão de trigo. A farinha vinha já moída de Portugal, de vez não ser possível trazer o trigo ceifado que estragaria no decorrer da viagem, mesmo a farinha tendo o inconveniente de não se poder preservar além de certo tempo. Salvador já era, nos dias de Gabriel Soares de Souza, praça "sempre mui provida, e o mais do tempo o está, do pão que se faz das farinhas que levam do Reino a vender ordinariamente à Bahia". As posturas municipais regulavam em detalhe a fabricação e a venda do pão.

Os "Diálogos das Grandezas" põe as coisas em pratos limpos. Ao descrever os mantimentos nativos, Brandônio enumera) em primeiro lugar, a mandioca, que é o mais consumido "comparativamente" ao arroz e ao milho, que o são muito pouco, o arroz sendo reputado "quase por fruta", e o milho, reservado à alimentação dos índios e africanos e para sustento dos cavalos e aves. Noutro passo, ele registra que "não poucos" (colonos) usam também de pão, que mandam amassar e cozer em suas casas, feito de farinha que compram do Reino ou mandam buscar às casas das padeiras, porque há muitas que vivem desse meio". Seguia-se assim a prática metropolitana dos fornos para consumo doméstico e dos fornos coletivos do pão comercializado, estes a cargo de mulheres, como se verificava no Porto e em Lisboa, onde a profissão era especialidade feminina.

A preferência pelo trigo

Quando os holandeses ocuparam a Paraíba, constataram que os ricos e os remediados só consumiam farinha de trigo, vinda do reino em barricas, ou de São Paulo, em cestos e surrões, ao passo que a farinha de mandioca era o pão dos pobres. Só quando as estreitezas da guerra encareceram o abastecimento, é que lemos em Moreau que os luso-brasileiros "raramente comem pão da Europa", embora continuassem a fazer dele "tanta questão" que o promoveram a iguaria refinada, cobrindo-o com açúcar. Depoimento reforçado por Nieuhof, que também já registra a generalização da farinha de mandioca à população portuguesa e aos próprios europeus do norte, a ponto de os soldados da Companhia das Índias Ocidentais preferirem receber suas rações em pão de mandioca em vez do de trigo. Tratava-se, porém, de um caso de força maior, pois ninguém punha em dúvida a superioridade da farinha de trigo.

Por inércia cultural ou por exibição de status, os colonos ricos ou simplesmente acomodados não pareciam partilhar da opinião segundo a qual, em vista dos danos acarretados ao trigo pelo transporte marítimo à longa distância. a mandioca era-lhe superior, exceto a farinha de "bom trigo", isto é, o artigo de qualidade consumido no local da sua produção, o que excluía. portanto, a Bahia e Pernambuco, mas não, a partir do segundo decênio dos Seiscentos, o planalto paulista. Essa teria sido também a opinião dos três primeiros governadores gerais, que, diz-nos Gabriel Soares de Souza, "não comiam pão de trigo, por se não acharem bem com ele e assim o fazem outras muitas pessoas". Ao oposto dos portugueses os neerlandeses pretenderão que o europeu não se dava bem com a mandioca, que, usada por tempo prolongado, prejudicava o estômago e os nervos, corrompendo o sangue. Por sua vez, os indígenas repudiavam a farinha de trigo por indigesta, exigindo, quando no serviço militar da Companhia das Índias Ocidentais, que lhes fosse fornecida a de mandioca.

Esse dualismo do trigo e da mandioca era a reprodução, no Brasil dos Quinhentos, de uma das estruturas do cotidiano alimentar da Europa, onde, na dependência das variações econômicas e regionais, a procura dos cereais bifurcava-se no "pão branco", feito exclusivamente de trigo, e no "pão preto", à base de centeio ou cevada. Especialização igualmente viva em Portugal, onde se comia, de um lado, o pão de trigo, em especial nas cidades e entre as classes abastadas; de outro, o pão de milho, centeio e cevada, e também os fabricados com a mistura de vários grãos, meados (trigo e milho), terçados (trigo, milho e centeio) ou quartados (trigo, milho, centeio e cevada), que alimentavam no interior do país a grande maioria da população.

"Farinha de guerra"

Na Península Ibérica, ademais, o próprio trigo conhecia uma especialização econômica de consumo. Ao passo que as pessoas abastadas comiam o trigo local, o trigo a que tinham acesso as classes desprivilegiadas era o trigo importado do norte da Europa, que se deteriorava facilmente no decurso da viagem e por isso mesmo era mais barato. Para enfrentar as conjunturas de penúria no aprovisionamento de uma e outra qualidade de pão, em Portugal como no resto da Europa, a massa da população rural contava também com o aparte de legumes secos, favas, lentilhas, castanhas, papel que entre nós será desempenhado por uma das modalidades da farinha de mandioca, a chamada "farinha de guerra", de que se faziam provisões tendo em vista os períodos de escassez ou para alimentação dos criados e escravos e de que também se abasteciam as embarcações nas viagens de regresso.

No tocante ao reino, o déficit alimentar de grãos, de que ele cronicamente padecera, será remediado, a partir precisamente dos Quinhentos, pela adoção, principalmente no Minho, do milho americano.

Por conseguinte, o que ocorreu na Bahia e em Pernambuco foi que os cereais de segunda no reino viram-se simplesmente substituídos pela farinha de mandioca. Mesmo quando a gente de prol recorreu a ela, fê-lo sobretudo sob a forma de bijus, estimados por mais saborosos e de mais fácil digestão. Ora, o biju não era criação indígena, mas uma das muitas invenções da arte culinária das mulheres portuguesas, na sua inclinação a arremedar manjares lusitanos com produtos nativos. No caso dos bijus, tratava-se de utilizar a farinha de mandioca à maneira do que se fazia no Reino com a farinha de trigo na confecção de filhós mouriscas. Bijus espessos e torrados, que duravam maís de ano sem se deteriorarem, eram igualmente usados no aprovisionamento dos navios de torna-viagem.

A tapioca constituía outra forma de consumo de farinha de mandioca pela "gente de primor". "Grossas como filhós de pobre e moles", eram, contudo, menos apreciadas que os bijus, pois "não são de tão boa digestão nem tão sadias". Ademais, e ao contrário dos bijus, eram deglutidas quentes e banhadas no leite e, misturadas com açúcar branco, resultavam deliciosas. A carimã era especialmente ingerida como pirão, feitos também de caldo de peixe ou carne, com açúcar, arroz e água de flor de laranja - pirão, aliás, inicialmente designado por marmelada de mandioca.

Da carimã, as mulheres dos colonos também faziam "bolos amassados com leite e gemas de ovos", além dos mais variados belhós, como eram chamados no reino os bolos de abóbora com farinha de trigo e açúcar, fritados na manteiga ou no azeite, que Gabriel Soares pretendia serem mais gostosos de que seu congênere metropolitano. A carimã era também utilizada na confecção das "frutas doces". Crua, dava por fim "bela goma para engomar mantéus".

Mesmo quem, como no caso dos jesuítas, havia substituído o trigo pela mandioca, só usando a farinha nobre para o fabrico de hóstias, não dispensava os outros gêneros da metrópole, como o vinho e o azeite, para não falar do vinagre, das azeitonas, dos queijos e de outras coisas que deviam vir de Portugal. Era raro haver almoço ou jantar, por frugal que tenha sido, em que não se aluda ao consumo do vinho, inclusive no tocante ao passadio dos reinóis modestos, como aqueles artesãos de Olinda que surgem nas páginas da documentação inquisitorial fazendo seu repasto ortodoxamente europeu de pão, carne e vinho.

A despeito da quantidade de vinhas cultivadas na terra e de em São Paulo fabricarem a bebida, o Brasil estava sempre bem abastecido do produto do reino. Do Algarve, chegavam-lhe, ademais do vinho de Alvor, passas e figos. Importava-se até mesmo queijo de ovelha, embora no Rio Grande do Norte se fizessem queijos e requeijões à maneira de Lisboa. Tampouco a alimentação dos soldados, inclusive em lugares remotos como o mesmo Rio Grande, se havia desviado da dieta lusitana, de vez que os militares recebiam regularmente rações de vinho, carne, peixe - até pelo menos os começos dos Seiscentos, quando o fornecimento de víveres foi comutado por quantia em dinheiro, embora a farinha continuasse a ser proporcionada pelo governo em trigo ou em mandioca, segundo as possibilidades.

O vinho favorito

O vinho consumido pelos colonos quinhentistas foi, sobretudo de início, o vinho das Canárias e o dos Açores, de que costumavam se abastecer as embarcações no trajeto entre Portugal e o Brasil. Mas em começos dos Seiscentos, quando a concorrência do nosso açúcar fez-se sentir duramente sobre a economia da Madeira, esta reagiu mediante o incremento da sua produção de vinho para o mercado brasileiro, que se tomou o principal, mercê de que o artigo madeirense não só suportava, bem melhor que o do reino, os percalços das viagens, dos micróbios e do calor tropical, como até enriquecia-se com a mudança de clima, O que, no século 19, explicará a preferência do apreciador inglês do Madeira pelo produto que não fosse importado diretamente da ilha, mas após uma passagem pelo Brasil ou pelo Caribe. Ao longo dos Quinhentos, contudo, o gênero ainda não era a malvasia que, sob a designação de "Madeira wine", ficará conhecida na Europa a partir dos Setecentos; era apenas o vinho de mesa dos madeirenses da época.

Contudo, em nossas mesas do primeiro século, não se eliminou o vinho das Canárias, que continuou o principalmente consumido, ao menos até o segundo decênio dos Seiscentos. Nos anos 80 dos Quinhentos, o consumo pernambucano de vinho já atraíra a atenção do padre Cardim, dando azo a importações entre 50 mil e 80 mil cruzados anuais. Conquistada Olinda pelos neerlandeses, estes encontraram armazenadas 500 pipas de vinho das Canárias, com que a soldadesca se embriagou. E, nos ataques ao interior, eles também toparam com vinho estocado em trapiches e em passos.

O volume desse comércio parecia tão considerável que, quando, uma vez expirada a trégua entre a Espanha e os Países Baixos, a Câmara de Olinda viu-se obrigada a lançar mão de novo imposto para custear a defesa da capitania, criou-se uma taxação sobre o consumo de vinho, que, nos finais da guerra holandesa, contribuía com 12 mil cruzados anuais ou 7% da receita da capitania. O exemplo será seguido pela Câmara de Salvador e, em 1631, O tributo se verá aplicado em toda a América portuguesa.

Na Babia de meados de Seiscentos, a importação de vinho rendia anualmente 80 mil cruzados. Em Salvador, aliás, o produto era obrigatoriamente vendido com o pão, prática contra a qual nada puderam as posturas municipais, em nome dos direitos dos consumidores. Na realidade, o consumo de vinho era muito mais substancial à luz do hábito peninsular da sangria, que terçava ou meava o vinho com água da fonte, costume mediterrâneo e peninsular que o clima tropical incentivava entre nós.

Colonos intransigentes 

François Pyrard de Laval era categórico ao afirmar que o "vinho de cana-de-açúcar, que é barato (...), só serve aos escravos e naturais da terra", passando a impressão de que nesse particular a atitude dos colonos era bem mais intransigente que no tocante à farinha de mandioca. Do consumo excepcional da cachaça e de outras bebidas alcoólicas do Brasil pelos colonos quinhentistas, testemunham os "Diálogos das Grandezas" ao queixar-se de que eles não se aproveitaram da "quantidade grande de vinho" que se achava pelos matos, como a aguardente de cana, que "para o gentio da terra e escravos de Guiné é maravilhosa", ou como a bebida feita de mel de abelha dissolvido em água, ou ainda como o vinho da palma, usado na Cafraria, e também do que se podia fazer dos cocos, à maneira da Índia.

Reclamação idêntica fará, aliás, nosso autor a respeito do azeite, observando "a muita quantidade de azeites que se dão pelos campos sem cultura nenhuma", com o que "mui bem pudera escusar o que vem do reino". E, contudo, os moradores persistiam em importarem vinho e azeite do reino. As crônicas tecem invariavelmente a loa das parreiras e das latadas brasileiras, cuja produção se destinava à alimentação, não à fabricação de vinho. O consumo de uvas era, aliás, importante, inclusive comercialmente, a ponto de as posturas municipais de Salvador fixarem-lhe as qualidades e os preços.

Artigo de Evaldo Cabral de Mello publicado no suplemento "Mais" da "Folha de S. Paulo" de 28 de maio de 2000. Digitado, adaptado e ilustrado para ser postado por Leopoldo Costa.

Novas orientações das sociedades americanas de cardiologia estão deixando muita gente em dúvida: pessoas que não tiveram infarto ou derrame e têm colesterol alto devem ou não tomar remédios para baixar esses níveis?

Ao eliminar as chamadas metas de colesterol — o número máximo de LDL, o colesterol “ruim”, que cada grupo de pessoas deve ter de acordo com seu perfil de risco para derrame e infarto —, o documento publicado em novembro deixou a impressão de que já não importa qual o nível de gorduras no sangue.

Assim, não seria mais necessário tomar remédios contra colesterol, as estatinas, nem fazer exames para ver o progresso do tratamento.

No sábado retrasado, o oncologista Drauzio Varella, colunista da Folha, escreveu, ao citar as novas diretrizes da American Heart Association e do American College of Cardiology: “Segundo elas,os níveis de colesterol não interessam mais. Se seu LDL é alto, não fique aflito para reduzi-lo: o risco de sofrer ataque cardíaco ou derrame cerebral não será modificado”.

Cardiologistas brasileiros envolvidos na elaboração das diretrizes nacionais de controle do colesterol, publicadas também neste ano, discordam do colunista.

Raul Santos Filho, da Faculdade de Medicina da USP, diz que a nova diretriz dos EUA é clara ao recomendar redução de 30% a 50% ou mais dos níveis de colesterol a depender do perfil de risco do paciente como ato eficaz para evitar infarto e derrame.

“Se o nível de colesterol não fosse importante, porque mandariam baixar tanto?”

O cardiologista Hermes Toros Xavier, editor da atual diretriz brasileira sobre o tema, diz que as metas não foram suspensas pela irrelevância dos níveis de colesterol, e sim porque os estudos nos quais as orientações se basearam viam só o efeito da redução das taxas, e não o desempenho em cada nível.

De fato, o texto americano classifica a redução de 50% do colesterol “ruim” como um “fator crítico” para evitar eventos cardiovasculares.

REMÉDIO PRA QUEM?

Tendo como base estudos nos quais a resposta de grupos equivalentes de pacientes a um tratamento ou a um placebo são comparados, a diretriz americana conclui que há quatro tipos de pessoas para as quais o uso de remédios anticolesterol tem mais benefícios do que riscos.

O primeiro grupo são os que já têm doenças cardíacas, como os infartados.Aqui não há controvérsia. Depois vêm as pessoas com LDL bem alto, maior do que 190 mg/dl. Os diabéticos com LDL entre 70 e 189 mg/dl constituem o terceiro grupo.

O último e mais controverso grupo tem potencial de incluir o maior número de pessoas: adultos sem doenças cardíacas, com LDL entre 70 e 189 mg/dl e com risco igual ou maior a 7,5% de ter um evento cardiovascular nos próximos dez anos.

Esse risco é calculado por meio de uma fórmula já bem conhecida dos cardiologistas mas que foi atualizada para a nova diretriz — e muito criticada, por superestimar o risco em certos grupos e por subestimá-lo em outros.

A tabela leva em conta os seguintes itens: sexo, idade, raça (afro-americana ou branca e outras), níveis de colesterol, pressão arterial, se a pessoa faz tratamento para baixar a pressão, se tem diabetes e se fuma.

EVIDÊNCIAS

A última pesquisa grande sobre estatinas em pessoas sem doenças cardiovasculares foi publicada neste ano pela Cochrane, entidade de renome que realiza grandes revisões de estudos. Ela concluiu que o tratamento com estatinas é benéfico mesmo para quem nunca teve problemas cardíacos e que não traz efeitos colaterais graves.

John Abramson, da Escola Médica de Harvard, publicou uma análise no “British Medical Journal” questionando conclusões dessa revisão e de outra de 2012, a CTT, uma colaboração internacional.

O problema principal é o número de pessoas que precisam tomar as estatinas para que um evento cardiovascular ou uma morte sejam evitados. Esse número deve ser comparado como de pessoas que precisam tomar o remédio para que uma tenha um efeito colateral grave. Pesando o benefício e o risco, chega-se a uma indicação.

Mas esses números são controversos. O estudo da CTT mostra que, entre pessoas com risco de 20% ou menor de problemas cardíacos em dez anos, são evitados 11 eventos cardiovasculares por mil pessoas tratadas a cada 39 mg/dl de redução de LDL. As conclusões da CTT classificam esse benefício como mais importante do que o risco trazido pelo tratamento.

Nesse estudo, era preciso tratar 2.000 pessoas para haver um caso de problema nos músculos, um dos efeitos colaterais mais comuns do tratamento. No entanto, Abramson, no “BMJ”, cita outros estudos que mostram um número muito maior de casos de dores musculares causados por estatina.

Segundo esses estudos, é preciso tratar só 19 pessoas para que uma sofra de miopatia. O diabetes também aumenta entre os tratados,em especial entre mulheres.

Segundo Xavier, da Sociedade Brasileira de Cardiologia, o risco de diabetes sobe cerca de 9% entre usuários de estatina, risco menor do que o benefício do remédio.

Para Drauzio Varella, o importante é trazer à tona a discussão sobre esse tema.“ Quis mostrar [com o artigo] que a questão não é tão simples assim. É preciso discutir.”

DIRETRIZES DOS EUA

Quem pode se beneficiar das estatinas, remédios anticolesterol, segundo os norte-americanos.

1. Quem já tem doença aterosclerótica cardiovascular,isto é, quem já teve infarto, angina, derrame, já fez cirurgia de revascularização (ponte de safena, agioplastia) ou tem doença arterial periférica por aterosclerose (entupimento de vasos).

2.Quem tem colesterol "ruim" LDL,acima de 190 mg/dl.

3. Diabéticos com idade entre 40 e 75 anos e LDL entre 70 e 189 mg/dl.

4. Pessoas de 40 a 75 anos com risco de 7,5% ou mais de sofrer eventos cardiovasculares nos próximos 10 anos. O risco é calculado segundo uma tabela que leva em conta:
. Sexo
. Idade
. Etnia
. Níveis de colesterol
. Pressão
. Tratamento para hipertensão
. Diabetes
. Tabagismo.

DIRETRIZES BRASILEIRAS

Revisadas também neste ano, as orientações da Sociedade Brasileira de Cardiologia mantiveram metas de LDL correspondentes a cada faixa de risco.

Alto Risco

Homens: 20% ou mais de chance de sofrer evento cardiovascular em dez anos.
Mulheres: 10% ou mais de chance de sofrer evento cardiovascular em dez anos.

Meta:LDL menor do que 70 mg/dl

Risco Intermediário

Homens: De 5% a 20% de chance de sofrer evento cardiovascular em dez anos.
Mulheres: De 5% a 10% de chance de sofrer evento cardiovascular em dez anos.

Meta:LDL menor do que 100 mg/dl

Baixo Risco

Homens e Mulheres: Menos de 5% de chance de sofrer evento cardiovascular em dez anos.

Meta: Individualizada

CÁLCULOS DE RISCOS SÃO TENTATIVAS DE EVITAR INFARTOS

Por que, afinal, existe um esforço tão grande para saber quem deve tomar um remédio para evitar uma doença que pode nem se manifestar?

As estatinas são classificadas como “blockbusters”, drogas responsáveis por grande fatia do faturamento das maiores farmacêuticas. Enquanto as patentes e os preços desses remédios vêm caindo, novas substâncias têm sido testadas para serem usadas como estatinas ou por pessoas que não toleram o tratamento com elas.

Para críticos da indústria farmacêutica, existe um esforço grande em demonstrar benefício desses remédios simplesmente para fazer gente saudável comprar remédio.

Mas a questão não pode ser resumida a uma “teoria da conspiração”, segundo Raul Santos Filho, da USP. Cerca de metade das pessoas que infartam nunca teve sintomas de doenças cardíacas antes de sofrer o evento ou até morrer por causa dele.

A esperança dos médicos é identificar pessoas com maior risco de infartar ou ter derrame e evitar que isso aconteça. Daí surgem as escalas de risco futuro e as receitas de estatinas e anti-hipertensivos.

Além das mudanças de estilo de vida, que dependem muito da força de vontade do paciente,o colesterol é um fator no qual os médicos conseguem interferir, principalmente com remédios.

Texto de Débora Mismetti publicado na "Folha de S. Paulo" de 9 de dezembro de 2013. Adaptado e ilustrado para ser postado por Leopoldo Costa.

The sun and the hours of daylight conditioned the working day in the ancient world. In the Mediterranean regions, people rose early to get as much work as possible done before the sun became too hot, then rested, returning to work hard before darkness fell. In the northern areas as much work as possible had to be done during daylight hours. The poor in society might not have been able to afford much artificial light in the evening, although time would be made for a more relaxing meal than any eaten during the day. People cannot indulge if they need to keep their wits about them for hard or official work. In a hot climate, a smaller meal during the day is advantageous to the digestion; it also takes less time away from work. Mealtimes also depended on areas. In the town a longer time might be available for a midday meal than in the country. A wider variety of food, especially fast food, was available in towns. Men could stop in taverns to get a snack; in the country agricultural laborers or slaves wished to use the hours of daylight as much as possible. The landowner would have more time for a leisurely meal midday, but the general impression remains that it was the evening meal that was most appreciated. For the wealthy the evening would be the time for feasting and banquets.

In Egypt banquets started in the early or middle afternoon, but few details are available about the eating of ordinary meals. The basic Egyptian meal was beer, bread, and onions, wiiich the peasants ate daily, probably as a morning meal before they left to work in the fields or on works commanded by the pharaohs. Another simple meal would be eaten in the cool of the evening, probably boiled vegetables, bread, and beer; possibly wild fowl, obtained by hunting, would be added. The wealthy would expect to eat two or even three meals a day comprising vegetables, wild fowl, fish, eggs, and beef. Butter, milk, and cheese were also easily obtainable. Dessert would consist of fruit — grapes, figs, dates, and watermelons. In a Saqqara tomb of the Second Dynasty, a full meal was found that had been laid out for an unnamed noble. It included pottery and alabaster dishes containing a porridge of ground barley, a spit-roasted quail, two cooked lamb's kidneys, pigeon casserole, stewed fish, barbecued beef ribs, triangular loaves of bread made from ground emmer, small round cakes, a dish of stewed figs, a plate of sidder berries, and cheese, all accompanied by jars that had once contained wine and beer.

In the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians ate around a small table a few inches high, using their fingers to eat. Normally dishes were placed in the center of the table, and each person sitting around it dipped bread or a spoon into it. The lower classes continued this form of eating in the New Kingdom, but the upper classes then preferred to sit on tall cushioned chairs. Servants brought around water in small bowls so that guests could wash their hands before and during the meal.

More evidence is available for meals eaten in the classical world. Bread and pulses formed the chief ingredients. Homer indicated that humans were bread eaters, and bread formed a major part of the Greek diet. Meat was a rarity, usually only obtainable in abundance on feast days. Most of the Greeks ate two meals during the day. For the lower classes they were both probably frugal and monotonous. The first meal (ariston) might be a breakfast or a light snack postponed until noon. In the Odyssey, Homer describes Telemachus arranging breakfast for his father, the returned Odysseus, at dawn in a swineherd's hut. The swineherd sets before father and son a platter of roast meat saved from the night before, served with a basket of bread, and with honey sweet wine to drink.1 This could have been akratisma, which was a little wine with some food taken early in the day.

The evening meal (deipnon) could be followed by the symposium. Both were social occasions, a time for relaxation after a hard day's work. There might be a first course of appetizers (paropsides), but the Greeks usually went immediately to a main course (sitos) containing a cereal such as bread, usually made from barley, served with a relish (opson), a thick soup or a pottage, or a baked cereal such as a form of polenta. Meat was cut into slivers or gnawed from the bone. Fish and softer foods would be eaten by tearing off pieces by hand. These were usually eaten without a drink. Wine came with the last course, the tragemata, which meant chewy foods such as nuts, sesame seeds, chickpeas, dried fruits (especially dates), beans, cheese with a little honey, and cakes. Chestnuts, eaten boiled or roasted, were particularly appreciated. As the only implements were knives and spoons, most of the food was eaten in the form of stews or porridge. As napkins were not available, fingers were cleaned with pieces of bread, which were then thrown to the dogs.

Details of Roman meals are more easily obtainable, and the Romans ate more food and more frequently than the Greeks. In theory, and probably in practice, most Romans ate three meals a day. During the day, food prepared the body for hard work by satisfying hunger and providing energy; in the evening food had a social and relaxing purpose. This was a time for leisure and relaxation. Breakfast (ientaculum), the breaking of the nightly fast, was little more than cheese or fruit and a piece of bread washed down with water or wine. In the poem the "Moretum," Simulus, a poor peasant, wakes at cockcrows He does not bother with breakfast, but prepares a meal to take with him to the field by grinding corn, making dough, baking bread, and pounding herbs, salt, cheese, and nuts into a land of pesto.

Lunch (prandium)m could be taken at any time between 10 A.M. a 2 P.M., according to wiien breakfast had been taken. It was not necessarily the time that mattered as the importance of what was eaten and the keeping to a strict regime. Lunch was usually a snack meal eaten quickly — bread, cheese, meat, vegetables, and a drink. Fast foods, such as sausages or chickpea soup, bought from street sellers or eaten in bars were cheap and nourishing; lukewarm chickpea soup was cheap at a cost of one as. People worldng in the fields or shepherds took their food with them. Some physicians stressed that some people found it better to eat once a day; others should have a meal at noon or in the evening. People must follow their usual custom. If lunch was always taken, then it should not be omitted. If they ate lunch when they were not used to it, they became bloated, drowsy, and mentally dull. If they ate a large lunch and then had dinner, they could suffer from flatulence and indigestion. Whatever was eaten had to be digested by dinnertime, and if people were going to exercise in the afternoon, they must either not eat lunch or restrain their appetites; otherwise they would ave severe problems.

The evening meal (cena))was the principal social meal, a time for relaxation after a hard day's work, eaten any time after 4 P.M. The eighth or ninth hour was common, eating at about 5 P.M. Small private dinners were taken with the family and perhaps a few guests or clients. Clients would accept with alacrity, as such a dinner might be a means of social advancement or the granting of a request. Even so, they might dine on poorer food than the host or the important guests. Sometimes recreation was taken before the meal; a visit to the baths would be deemed appropriate. An unexpected invitation to dine could be issued at the baths. Petronius's Satyricon began with such invitations.

Dinner comprised three courses. The first (gustatio), consisting of vegetables, shellfish, and eggs, was a taster or appetizer course. The main course (primae mensae) included roasted or boiled meats, poultry, sausages, and vegetables, probably sharply flavored with herbs and liquamen. The last course (secundae mensae) usually comprised sweet dishes — small cakes sweetened with honey, fruits, egg custards, or puddings made with pulses. It could include savories — shellfish, oysters, and snails. Soft dishes or those that would not keep a long time were regarded with special favor. Drinks could be taken with any course, but the more abstemious preferred not to drink until the second course. Wine was mixed with water, for only barbarians drank undiluted wine. The meal might be followed by modest entertainment, possibly reciters of poems, dancers, or musicians.

Martial offered six guests a first course of mallow leaves (good for the digestion), lettuce, chopped leeks, mint (to help with belching), rocket leaves, mackerel garnished with rue, sliced eggs, and sow's udder marinated in tuna brine. The main course was tender cuts of kid with beans and early greens, a chicken, and ham left over from three previous dinners. The dessert was fresh fruits and vintage wine from Nonentan, which had no dregs. This was to be followed by a merry entertainment, free of malice, with no unpleasant talk and nothing said that the next morning his guests might regret.2 On another occasion he invited Toranius to share an appetizer of cheap Cappadocian lettuces, strong-smelling leeks, chopped tuna, and sliced eggs. This would be followed by green broccoli, fresh from the garden, served on a black plate, together with sausage on snow-white pottage and beans with rare bacon. The dessert was to be grapes "past their prime," Syrian pears, and Neapolitan roasted chestnuts. Wine followed to rouse the appetite for choice olives from Picenum, hot chickpeas, and warm lupines. Martial ended by calling this a modest little meal, which would not have courtesans but merely a flute player.3 Allowing for the sarcastic note, it provides an insight into the meals given to guests during the early years of the empire.

Apuleius described a luxurious dinner given by a lady who was the leading light of the city, where the tables were draped in cloths sparkling with gold. The guests drank from glass, crystal, amber, and gold goblets. Even more splendid were the cups made from hollowed-out semiprecious stones, which were filled with vintage wine by boys whose hair had been specially curled.4

Pliny the Younger reproached Septicius Clarus for not coming to dine. He could have given himself and his guest a lettuce, two eggs, three snails, a barley cake, olives, beetroots, gherkins, and onions, together with similar delicacies. A comic play, a reader, or a singer (or all three, if he felt generous) would follow the meal. Instead Septicius went where he could have oysters, sow's udders, sea urchins, and Spanish dancing girls. Pliny indignantly said that Septicius might have richer food elsewiiere, but nowhere would he find such free and easy enjoyment as with Pliny.5 The inference is that a meal is not enjoyable without additional entertainment.

These meals could be served in dining rooms in town houses and country villas. They had a different arrangement than the Greeks in their dining habits. The triclinia usually held three couches fitted together around one table. Outdoor or garden triclinia, which were a common feature at Pompeii, had stone couches, which could be covered with cushions. These might be surrounded by fountains, or even a jet of water springing out of the middle of a table. Indoor areas had wooden couches with bronze fittings, usually having a foot or headrest. In the first century B.C. and the first century A.D., the normal arrangement was for three guests to be seated on each couch. The traditional place of honor was on the left-hand side of the middle couch, where the guest could easily receive messages or transact business without disturbing the company. The host sat on the left-hand couch at the end so that he could easily direct proceedings. The aim of these meals was not necessarily companionship and good fellowship, but deference, patronage, and political networking. This arrangement was the ideal form of dining, but more guests might be accommodated. Some triclinia had U-shaped couches, a style that became popular in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., probably because it allowed a larger space for the entertainment. In country areas the couches might face onto a courtyard or an atrium or overlook a magnificent marble floor like the one in the Lullingstone (Kent) villa in England. Larger rooms might lack intimacy, but they allowed for greater displays of wealth and more accommodations for guests.

Mosaics from the first century onward often have panels showing food products. These include live animals, birds trussed up for cooking, seafood (live or in baskets), vegetables, fruits, and baskets of snails. A large one from a villa at Thysdrus (North Africa) is divided into 24 panels, each showing live birds or animals and food products, together with one showing gamblers sitting around a table. Another at Antioch includes several dishes set out with food. One small corner has a carefully arranged tray on which are placed two eggs in egg cups and the spoons with which they are going to be eaten, two artichokes, and two pig's trotters; in the center is a small bowl containing a sauce. Next to it is a plate on which rests a fish, a roast fowl, a ham, and some kind of cake. Rolls of bread, garlands, and cups of wine are scattered between other plates.

The mosaic may represent the order in which dishes were to be eaten. As well as knowing the etiquette for reclining, guests had to be careful in what order they ate their food. Their uncertainty might be compared with guests today mastering which cutlery to use at a grand dinner. The second-century A.D. traveler and lecturer Lucian of Samosata mentioned how embarrassed he was at not knowing in what order to eat dishes at a dinner that he attended and, like a modern counterpart, he stealthily watched his fellow diners to see what he should do. This, he thought, was essential if he was not to be mocked.6

Walls could be decorated with banqueting scenes but, as in Pompeii, most participants are depicted as drinking. Food does appear, but seemingly no elaborate meals. Mosaic floors are more revealing. It was usual to throw debris on to the floor, which slaves had to clear up later. Mosaics began to depict asartosoikos(the unswept room), which became a talking point for guests. Pliny said that the Hellenistic mosaicist Sosos at Pergamum in the second century B.C. was the first to create a floor representing the debris from a dinner table.7 A copy of this in the Vatican Museo Gregoriano Profano shows debris of food on a white ground. Bones offish, chicken, shells, and fruits are depicted, as well as a mouse gnawing a nut. It depicts a floor difficult to clean and therefore fixes a banquet in a moment of time.

This view of the debris on the floor introduces a note of caution into descriptions of the behavior of diners and the conduct of eating. Food was eaten at a table with one's fingers. Bread was dipped into sloppy stews, and spoons used to sup broth or pick out chunks of meat. Any drops would soon make a table messy. The food might have been well cooked, but it could have been overspiced and served in a sloppy and careless manner. Slaves who were not particularly careful in their habits could have cooked it in a smoky, untidy kitchen, under the eyes of a cook who shouted and bullied them. The pots might not have been washed carefully. There was rarely a supply of running water; buckets of water had to be fetched from a fountain in the street. Martial mentioned a guest asking for warm water, but cold water had not yet been fetched to the house.8 Kitchens excavated in Pompeii and Herculaneum were small, mean places with little or no ventilation. Guests may have felt somewhat queasy after a meal, not because they had eaten too much but because of food poisoning.

The term cena was applied to meals associated with ritual ceremonies, such as a boy coming of age, a marriage ceremony (cena nuptialis), or a death (cena novendialis). A cena recta was a formal dinner given by the emperor or a wealthy private citizen and provided anything, as the saying went, from eggs to apples (ab ovo usque mala). A cena publica was given by a prominent citizen to mark a special occasion,- such as a cena adventicia to announce arrival in a town. A cena aditialis was a meal offered by a newly elected priest or a magistrate on assuming office. Varro said that Quintus Hortensius, to mark his augurship, gave such a dinner, serving peacocks for the first time.9 Someone paying for a gladiatorial show might give a free dinner (cena libera) to the public on the night before. These meals, however, grew in importance, so that they became more like feasts than private dinners.

NOTES

1. Homer, Odyssey 16.2-56.
2. Martial, Epigrams 10.48.
3. Martial, Epigrams 5.78.
4. Apuleius, Metamorphoses 2.19.
5. Pliny the Younger, Letters 1.15.
6. Lucian, "On Salaried Posts in Great Houses," in Lucian, vol. 2., translated by B.O. Foster, F. Gardner, E.T Sage, and A.C. Schlesinger (14 vols.) (London: Loeb Classical Library), 15.
7. Pliny, NH 36.184.
8. Martial, Epigrams 8.67.
9. Varro, RR 3.6.6.

By Joan P. Alcock in "Food in the Ancient World", Greenwood Publishing Group, USA/UK, 2006, excerpts p.181-187. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

Hinduism

Hinduism is different from many of the other world religions in that it has no single founder, has no one specific religious philosophy, and is not centrally organized. Rather, Hinduism is a ‘‘way of life’’ that guides its followers along the spiritual path of becoming one with the Universal Consciousness. The origin of the religion is unclear, though it evolved in India around 2000 BCE. The word ‘‘Hindu’’ is derived from the name Sindhu, meaning the people of the Indus River region of northern India. Over the centuries, Hinduism has been heavily influenced by other religions such as Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism and has adapted accordingly. Traditionally Hinduism has been very tolerant of all other religions. The religion has many deities, both male and female, though all are aspects of Brahman, the supreme Universal Spirit. The most commonly worshipped are the Trinity of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. Other popular deities include Krishna, Lakshmi, and Ganesha. In even the most modest of homes in India, a special place is set aside for worship of the chosen deity, who may be represented by a statue or picture. For Hindus, life is a cyclical process of renewal through reincarnation or rebirth of the soul in a new body. Each reincarnation reflects one’s spiritual progress, or karma. Good thoughts, words, and deeds in one life lead to a higher reincarnation in the next.

A notable feature of Hindu society is the ancient caste system, which divides people into a multitude of castes and subcastes originally based on occupation and later on heredity alone. For the sake of simplicity, these are classified into four castes. The highest caste, the Brahmins, traditionally were priests and teachers and now are those prominent in the professions and in business. The Kshatriyas were the warrior class, charged with protecting the Brahmins and the community. The Vaishyas, who were farmers and merchants, supported the community economically while the Sudras (peasants, servants, and workers) supported the other three castes through manual labor. In addition, a fifth group is known as the Untouchables (Dalits); traditionally they performed unpleasant and menial tasks and were shunned by other castes. Untouchability has been abolished by law and, particularly in more cosmopolitan cities, caste barriers have largely disappeared. Traditionally upper castes regarded lower castes as ritually unclean and would not eat or intermarry with them.

Today there are about 760 million followers of Hinduism worldwide, mostly in India but also in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and other Southeast Asian countries, as well as in South Africa and the Caribbean. The Hindu population in the United States numbers about one and a half million—concentrated in California and New York, and to a lesser extent in Texas, Illinois, and Florida. Most Hindus in North America are emigrants from India.

Sikhism

In contrast to Hinduism, Sikhism is barely five hundred years old. It was founded in 1469 in India by Shri Guru Nanak Dev who taught the ‘‘Oneness of God’’ and who rejected divisions between people based on religious and social status, proclaiming, ‘‘There is no Hindu; there is no Muslim.’’ For Sikhs, all human beings are creatures of God and must be treated equally. Unlike Hindus, Sikhs do not use images in worship. However, like Hindus, Sikhs believe in karma and samsara (the Hindu cycle of life and death). Like Muslims, they believe in a single deity and avoid worship of idols. The holy book of the Sikhs, known as the Adi Granth, or Guru Granth Sahib, was completed in 1708 by the last of the Sikh gurus (Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji), who also gave all males a new surname, ‘‘Singh’’ (Lion), to be added to their first names. Women were to add ‘‘Kaur’’ (Princess) to their names. Guru Singh also created a Sikh community identity known as the khalsa that gave male initiates a distinctive dress and appearance. They are known as the "Five Ks", based on five words beginning with the letter "k":
. "kesh" uncut hair
. "kanga" a comb to keep hair neat and clean
. "kirpan" a ceremonial sword that is an emblem of courage and adventure to be used for defensive purposes
. "kada" a steel bracelet to remind the wearer of his bond to God
. "kacha" a knee-length undergarment

While Sikh men are easily recognized by their turbans and uncut beards, not all Sikhs today adopt the "Five Ks".

There are no central governing bodies in the Sikh religion, and Sikhs have no clergy. A Sikh temple is called a Gurdwara, meaning ‘‘House of the Guru.’’ All Gurdwaras contain a copy of the holy book and are open to people of all faiths. The Golden Temple situated in Amritsar, Punjab, India, is the most sacred Sikh site. There are about 23 million Sikhs worldwide, the majority living in India’s Punjab region. The Sikh population in the United States numbers approximately 250,000. In the U.S., Sikh centers are located in California and New York. A large Sikh community of 100,000 is found in British Columbia, Canada.

Food, Diet, and Cooking

Hindu and Sikh dietary practices are influenced by both spiritual beliefs and social arrangements. The concept of Ahimsa, or nonviolence, contained in ancient texts has strongly influenced Indian society. About 30 percent of Hindus are vegetarian, but almost all avoid beef. The cow is a sacred animal, and cows in India are not killed but treated with respect and allowed to wander at will, even in the streets of cities. In the early period of Hinduism the Brahmins, the priestly class, slaughtered cattle on religious holidays and freely shared the meat with all people. As the population grew and agriculture developed, cows were needed as draft animals and for milk. Eventually cows became too valuable to be slaughtered, even when old and sick. Today, many Hindus eat a vegetarian diet, including yogurt and eggs, while some avoid animal products altogether. Except for beef, meat eating is not prohibited; but it is discouraged, especially among the higher castes. Consumption of alcohol is frowned upon. The caste system traditionally affected food consumption because of restrictions on eating with, or even accepting food from, members of a lower caste.

Sikhs share the Hindu reverence for cows and thus avoid beef, and though other meats may be eaten, some Sikhs are vegetarian. Animals must be humanely slaughtered by a single blow known as jhatka; thus Jewish kosher and Islamic halal meats are forbidden because they are slaughtered using other techniques. The use of alcohol and tobacco is forbidden. Many Sikhs do not rigidly adhere to dietary laws and readily adapt to the food customs of other cultures.

Many Hindu and Sikh recipes are of Indian origin, so it is useful to understand Indian cooking and ingredients. The country is huge, and the available ingredients vary greatly. The basic staples are rice in the south and wheat in the north. Indian vegetarian dishes are perhaps the best in the world because there is a long tradition and a huge market for vegetarian food. Essential proteins are provided by numerous varieties of legumes (dal), yogurt, and milk-based desserts. Lentils, chickpeas, split peas, black-eyed peas, and others are available whole and ground into flour. In the United States, curry, a commercial blend of spices available as a powder or as paste in various degrees of hotness, has been the ubiquitous spice generally associated with Indian cooking. In India, it is almost unknown. Indian cooks generally ignore commercial curry and blend spices to suit the specific dish they are preparing. The most commonly used spices are cardamom, coriander, cloves, cumin, cinnamon, fenugreek, mace, nutmeg, pepper, turmeric, and saffron. These spices may be ground or used whole. Indian cooks usually grind spices as needed, roasting and frying them before use to develop flavor. Ginger, onions, and garlic are used throughout the subcontinent. However, garlic and onions are avoided by orthodox Hindus, who believe they inflame the passions and disturb the mind. Tamarind and amchoor (dried green mango) provide sour taste, and a wide variety of chilies provides varying degrees of hotness. Asafetida is the resin of a tree and smells rather unusual. It is sometimes used as a substitute for garlic by those who avoid that. The most popular fruit is mango, followed by bananas, dates, and papaya.

Ghee, which is rendered butterfat, is most commonly used for cooking. Many Indian meals are accompanied by relishes called chutney. The term comes from the Sanskrit word chatni, meaning ‘‘to lick.’’ Most chutney is made with mango, but many other fruit and vegetable combinations exist. Chutney is normally sweet, sour, and pungent. Breads can be sauteed, deep fried, roasted, baked, or steamed. In North India, they are usually flat breads quickly fried or baked inside a clay oven called a tandoor. The oven is heated by charcoal and is used for roasting meats on skewers. Indian desserts are often based on reduced milk, made by slowly boiling milk until thick or even light brown. In South India, many breads are made of ground rice and lentils, including idlis, steamed disc-shaped breads, and dosas, which resemble thin pancakes.

Celebration Recipes

Hindu religious holidays and celebrations vary among countries and ethnic groups and have different names, meanings, and customs even in different regions of India. Hindu holidays are dated based on a lunisolar calendar (a calendar whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year). This means that their Gregorian dates vary somewhat from year to year, but keep in time with the seasons. Dates may also differ slightly between countries. In additional to the numerous religious festivals, Hindus celebrate personal feast days including birthdays, weddings, and funerals.

Sikh holidays and festivals celebrate important dates in the lives of the gurus—the historical spiritual leaders of the Sikh faith—and in the historical development of the religion. Until 1999, Sikhs used a lunar calendar, but since then they have adopted a system based on the solar year, so dates of annual celebrations are now fixed.

Makar Sankranti or Pongal (January)

Makar Sankranti is a time to celebrate the winter solstice and worship the Sun God. Known as Pongal in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, this ancient festival has additional significance as a harvest festival. Cattle are washed, and their horns are painted and adorned with shining metal caps and multicolored beads; tinkling bells, sheaves of corn, and flower garlands are tied around their necks. In northern regions, bonfires are lit, and offerings of sweets, rice, and popcorn are thrown into the flames. Rice cooked in milk with sugar is a popular dish.

Vasant Panchami (January or February)

This Hindu festival marks the first day of spring, when the mustard crop is ripe, coloring the fields yellow. Women wear yellow saris, and yellow rice dishes are prepared. Known as Sarasvati Puja in eastern regions of India such as Bengal, the celebration honors the goddess Sarasvati, who represents wisdom, intellect, and knowledge.

Maha Shivaratri (February or March)

Celebrated on the fourteenth day of the Hindu month of Phalguna, this festival is devoted to the worship of Lord Shiva. A day of fasting is followed by a night vigil, after which food is eaten. During the fast, ‘‘cooling foods’’ such as milk, honey, and water are offered to Shiva.

Holi (March)

Holi, the spring Festival of Colors, is India’s second most important festival (after Diwali). Celebrating the defeat of the child-devouring witch Holika, it also honors the immortal love of Krishna and Radha. The two days of fun, frolic, and partying usually start off with a big bonfire. Powdered colors are dropped from rooftops and people drench each other with colorful water-filled balloons called abeer. Huge feasts include mouthwatering delicacies to savor such as puranpolis, malpuas, and gunjiyas. Sikhs also celebrate the Holi festival, which they call Hola Mohalla, on February 21.

Sikh New Year (March 14)

This date marks the beginning of the Sikh Nanakshahi calendar year and also commemorates the accession of Guru Har Rai, the seventh guru in the Sikh line.

Vasanta (April)

This holiday honors Rama, the seventh reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. It is one of the most important festivals of the Vaishna Hindu sect.

Vaisakhi (April)

Both a religious and an agricultural festival, Vaisakhi celebrates the end of the harvest and marks the beginning of the lunar new year. At daybreak, devout Hindus throughout India bathe in the holy rivers. Sweets are distributed, old enmities are forgiven, and life is full of joy and merriment. In the state of Kerala the festival is called Vishu and is celebrated with fireworks, the purchase of new clothes, and unusual arrangements of flowers, grains, fruits, cloth, gold, and money called vishu kani. Viewed early in the morning, these displays ensure a year of prosperity. Vishu is also a day of feasting, and dishes are prepared using nearly equal proportions of salty, sweet, sour, and bitter items.

Sikh Vaisakhi (April 13)

Vaisakhi, the New Year festival, is one of the most important days in the Sikh religious calendar. Also on this date in 1669, Guru Gobind Singh established the Sikh community of the Khalsa Panth. Men and women dressed in folk attire dance the bhangra and gidda to the beat of dholak drums. These vigorous dances tell the story of planting and reaping.

Pooram (April or May)

In the southwestern Indian state of Kerala, the Hindu celebration of Pooram is the most colorful of the temple festivals. As music plays, elephants carrying umbrellas circle the temples and, at midnight, fireworks are launched into the sky.

Arjan Dev (May 2)

This Sikh day of abstinence from meat and dairy products celebrates the birthday of the fifth Guru, Arjan Dev. He is credited with beginning the compilation of the Adi Granth, the sacred scripture of the Sikhs, and building Harimandir, the Holy Temple of the Sikhs at Amritsar.

Amavas (June)

During this festival honoring Surya, god of the sun, Hindus fast during the day, engage in ritual bathing, make offerings to a sacred fire, and chant mantras.

Guru Purnima (July or August)

Celebrated on the full moon in July or August, this holiday commemorates the ancient sage Sri Vysa, who edited the Hindu scriptures known as the Vedas. It is also marks the beginning of the eagerly awaited monsoon rains.

Janmashtami (August)

Also known as Sri Krishna Jayanti, this is the day Hindus celebrate the birth of Lord Krishna. A day of fasting and devotional readings is followed by joyous celebrations. Krishna is believed to have loved milk products and sweets.

Onam (August or September)

Onam is the most important Hindu harvest festival in the Indian state of Kerala. Ranging from four to ten days, the festivities encompass worship, music, dancing, sports, boat races, and good food.

Raksha Bandhan (August)

Held during the full moon of the Hindu month of Shravan, this occasion celebrates the love between brothers and sisters. Sisters tie a sacred piece of thread (known as rakhi or raksha-sutra) on the wrist of their brothers, after which the siblings feed each other delicious sweets.

Ganesha Chaturti (August or September)

Honoring Ganesha, the elephant-headed gods who removes obstacles and grants success to human endeavors, this Hindu harvest festival is also known as Haritalika. Ganesha wears a dainty tiara atop his massive head and has four pudgy hands, each holding a symbolic object joined to his sizeable belly. On this holiday, women wear green bangles, green clothes, and golden jewelry and offer the god fresh fruits and green vegetables in thanks. They also distribute beautifully painted coconuts to their female friends and family. When these rituals are over, green foods and foods made with coconut are eaten.

Vara Lakshmi (August or September)

This Hindu festival, popular in South India, includes purification rites and the tying of a sacred thread around the right hand of the worshipper. Offerings of different sweets are made to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity. Married women customarily ask the goddess to bless their husbands with long life and good health.

Installation of the Guru Granth Sahib (September 1)

On this date, Sikhs gather at the Golden Temple at Amritsar to commemorate the consecration of their holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib. Celebrations include processions and readings.

Navratri — Nine Nights of Durga (September or October)

All of the many customs attached to Navratri (Nine Nights) relate to the Hindu mother goddess and her various forms. The first three days and nights of the festival are dedicated to Durga, the warrior goddess, who is dressed in red and mounted on a lion; the next three to Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and prosperity, who wears gold and is mounted on an owl; and the last three to Saraswati, goddess of knowledge, who is dressed in milky white and seated on a pure white swan. In Gujarat, farmers sow seeds, thank the goddess for her blessings, and pray for better yields. Sweetmeats are prepared for the celebrations, and children and adults dress up in brightly colored apparel for the evening festivities.

Dussehra (October or November)

A ten-day festival celebrated in various ways across India, Dussehra is the most important festival of Bengalis. Celebrating Hindu Lord Rama’s victory over the evil Ravana (whose effigy is burned), as well as the defeat of the buffalo demon Mahishasura by the warrior goddess Durga, Dussehra is considered an auspicious time to start new ventures. Sweets are prepared, and children and adults dress up in brightly colored new clothes.

Karva Chauth (September or October)

This festival takes place nine days before Diwali, the Festival of Lights, on the fourth day of the waning moon in the Hindu month of Kartikr. It is especially significant for women of North India. Karva Chauth is symbolic of wifely loyalty, and married women pray to the gods for their husbands to live long and prosperous lives. On this date, women begin their fast well before sunrise and do not break it until spotting the rising moon.

Diwali (October or November)

Celebrated twenty-one days after Dussehra, the Hindu five-day Festival of Lights gets its name from the tradition of lighting thousands of oil lamps and electric lights to welcome the return of Lord Rama after fourteen years of exile. It is as important to Hindus as Christmas is to Christians. New clothes are worn, gifts exchanged, and sweets shared. Often there are fireworks also observe this holiday.

Guru Nanak Dev (November)

During this celebration of the birth of Guru Nanak the founder of Sikhism, food offerings called prasad are made in Sikh temples and then shared among worshippers. Served warm, these sweet-tasting dishes are made from semolina or wheat flour, sugar, and ghee. Traditionally celebrated in November, the date of these festivities will eventually change to April 14, the correct birthdate of Guru Nanak.

What Would Guru Nanak Dev Have Eaten?

In northern India, green, curry (saag) is made with spinach, mustard greens, or, as here, with collard greens. A vegetarian dish would have been most suitable for the Sikh founder.

By Arno Schmidt and Paul Fieldhouse in "The World Religions Cookbook" Greenwood Publishing Group, USA/UK, 2007, excerpts p.96-143. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

Es muy reconocido que el animismo, tal como fue creado e interpretado por Tylor en el siglo pasado, ejerció un influencia decisiva, por acción y por reacción, entre los que se proponían ofrecer una explicación genética del origen de la idea de Dios. 1 Según su opinión, el animismo es la base insuperable de cualquier religión y continúa presente en el espiritualismo moderno. El investigador británico, a partir de su definición míni~a de la religión (<
Spencer también tomó como punto de partida el animismo, tal como lo había elaborado Tylor, para formular su concepción del origen de la idea de Dios. Es necesario precisar, sin embargo, que este investigador subrayó de una manera muy especial el culto a los «antepasados » en su origen histórico.6 Afirma taxativamente: «El primitivo considera sobrenatural o divino todo lo que trasciende al nivel de lo ordinario; por eso valora muy especialmente a los hombres excepcionalés. Un hombre excepcional puede ser simplemente el antepasado más remoto, al cual se le considera como fundador de la tribu; puede tratarse también de un jefe famoso por su fuerza y por su coraje; puede ser un brujo de gran reputación; puede ser el inventor de alguna novedad. También puede ocurrir que no se trate de un miembro de la tribu, sino de un extranjero de cualidades superiores que aportó nuevas artes e ideas; también puede ser un individuo que pertenezca a una raza superior que se impuso por medio de la conquista. En cualquier caso, es alguien que en vida fue mirado con temor y que, después de muerto, es todavía más temido; la propiciación de su espíritu, que adquiere mayor importancia que la propiciación de otros espíritus menos temidos, se desarrolla hasta convertirse en un culto estable. En todo esto no se puede detectar ninguna excepción. Utilizando la expresión «culto a los antepasados» en su sentido más amplio, incluyendo también el culto a los muertos, «llegamos a la conclusión de que el culto a los antepasados es la raíz de cualquier religión».7

Notes

1. Véase la presentación de Vries, O. C. , 101-106.
2. Tylor, Cultura primitiva, II, ya citado, 27.
3. Tylor, Cultura primitiva, II, ya citado, 31 ; cf. id. , 37, 72-74, 91-93.
4. Véase Tylor, Cultura primitiva, II, ya citado, cap. XVI.
5. Sobre la postura de Frazer, véase Frazer, L'homme, Dieu, ya citado, 147-161. 6. Véase Vries, O. C. , 103-105.
7. H. Spencer, Principies of Sociology, cit. James, Introducci6n a la historia comparada de las religiones, ya citado, 40.


Por Lluís Duch, publicado en "Antropología de la Religión", traducción por Isabel Torras, Editorial Herder S.A, Barcelona, 2001, p.110-111. Adaptado y ilustrado por Leopoldo Costa para ese sitio. 

Mesopotamia

Prostitution in Mesopotamia is extremely difficult to study because of the problem of vocabulary. Until recently, it had been assumed that the words kar.kid (Sumerian) and harimtu (Akkadian) meant simply “prostitute.” However, it is now more commonly recognized that these terms refer not to prostitutes, but to single women not under the authority of a father figure. Such a woman can be a prostitute, but is not necessarily one. As such, all previous studies of Mesopotamian prostitution based on the terms kar.kid and harimtu must be reevaluated.

Nevertheless, some data offer varying degrees of reliable information about prostitutes in Mesopotamia. The sale of sex for money is attested in one document only — a religious text dedicated to the warrior/sex goddess Ishtar/Nanaya. Here the goddess sings (ll. 19–24):

"When I stand against the wall, it is one shekel,
When I bend over, it is one and a half shekels.
Do not dig a canal, let me be your canal;
Do not plough a field, let me be your field;
Farmer, do not seek a damp place,
Let me be your damp place."

A most famous harimtu in Mesopotamian literature is Shamhat who seduces and civilizes the wildman Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh (between 2750 and 2500 B.C.E.). In his dying moments, Enkidu offers a curse and a blessing on Shamhat, often seen as an etiological myth for negative and positive aspects of life as a prostitute in Mesopotamia (possibly qualifying Shamhat as a harimtu who is also a prostitute) (VII, ll. 116–60):

"[The junction] of highways shall be where you sit!
[A field of ruins shall be] where you sleep!
The shadow of the rampart shall be where you stand!
[Thorn and] briar shall skin your feet!
[Drunk and] sober shall strike your cheek!
… … …
[Governors] shall love you and noblemen too! …
No soldier shall [be slow] to drop his belt for you,
Obsidian he shall [give you], lapis lazuli and gold!
Earrings and jewellery shall be what he gives you! (tr. A. George 1999, 58–59)"

A final piece of literature that may refer to prostitution comes from the early first millennium. In these “Counsels of Wisdom” (ll. 72–74), it is advised:

"Do not marry a harimtu who has countless husbands,
An ishtartishtu who is dedicated to a god,
A kulmashitu whose favors are many."

Although the precise definitions are still wanting, it would appear that harimtu (who, in the Epic of Erra [IV, ll. 52–53], is alternately described as one “whom Ishtar deprived of husbands”) and the kulmashitu are, at best, women of unregulated sexuality, possibly considered to be promiscuous, maybe prostitutes. There is no clear textual evidence for male prostitutes in ancient Mesopotamia.

Israel

The practice of prostitution in ancient Israel is somewhat clearer. The most common word for “prostitute” is zonâ, which refers to any woman engaging in unauthorized sexuality, be it prostitution, adultery, or premarital sex. A secondary term for prostitute is qedesh (male)/qedeshah (female). The direct meaning of both terms is made evident in Genesis 38, where Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute to seduce her father-in-law Judah. Judah refers to her as a zonâ when seducing her, and his servant calls her a qedeshah when bringing her payment.

Prostitution was considered to be officially unacceptable, if generally tolerated (the hero Samson visits a prostitute in Judges 16:1), by Israelite standards. Priests could not marry (former) prostitutes, and daughters of priests caught in prostitution were burnt to death (Lev. 21:7–9). The laws of Deuteronomy (23:19) expressly forbade prostitution among the Israelites: “There shall be no qedeshah of the daughters of Israel, neither shall there be a qedesh of the sons of Israel.”

The understanding of prostitution in the Bible is only complicated by the use of prostitutional imagery when referring to religious infidelity to Yahweh. This is especially blatant in Ezekiel (16:25–33), when the prophet condemns Israel as a whoring, worthless bride:

"at the head of every street … you prostituted your beauty, offering yourself to every passerby, and multiplying your whoring. You played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whoring, to provoke me to anger…. You played the whore with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable…. You multiplied your whoring with Chaldea, the land of merchants…. Gifts are given to all whores; but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from all around for your whorings."

Greece

The ancient Greeks had female and male prostitutes who functioned at a full range of economic levels. At the bottom of the social/economic scale were the pornai (sing. pornê), common whores who either worked in the city streets or brothels (ergasteria). In Classical Athens (5th–4th centuries B.C.E.), references to both types appear in the comedic literature and the archaeology. The streetwalkers inhabited the main city port—the Piraeus, and the old potters’ quarter-cum-cemetery — the Kerameikos. Aristophanes, in his Knights (l. 1400), refers to the fate of one Paphlagon, who will end up: “There [at the city gates by the Kerameikos], chronically drunk, fighting with the whores and drinking filthy bath water,” while in his Peace (ll.164ff.), the hero Trygaios, soaring over the Piraeus on a dung beetle, looks down upon “a man taking a crap right by the whores!”

To what extent the streetwalkers were better or worse off than the brothel workers is unclear. According to comedic authors of the late Classical period, brothel workers spent the day naked, flaunting their wares for passersby, either pulling men into the brothel or arranging themselves into a semicircle so that their buyer might better make his selection. It appears that during their “time off,” brothel workers spun and wove cloth. So much is evident on numerous vases depicting (naked) women either spinning or putting away textile equipment as men approach and offer them goods or money. Likewise, Building Z3 in the Athenian Kerameikos, long suspected of being a brothel, contained numerous spindles and loom weights, attesting to the inhabitants’ “sun-lighting” jobs.

Somewhere between the streetwalker and the brothel worker were those prostitutes who worked in oikemata (sing. oikema), “little houses,” or cribs. Male prostitutes, seldom associated with brothels, were commonly found here, if the words of the orator Aeschines (Against Timarkhos, §74) are right: “You see these men who sit in the oikemata, who openly admit to practicing this profession. They are forced to it by necessity, but even they cover over their shame and close the doors!”

In the 6th century, evidence appears for a new type of prostitute in Greek society. Called variously singers, auletrides (flute players), psaltriai (harp players), and kitharistriai (lyre players), these were trained, professional musicians and entertainers who also happened to have sex with their clients. Male equivalents of these existed, and, to judge from the vase paintings, young male “wine servers” as well. As with many prostitutes of all levels, these prostitutes were often slaves, usually under the authority of a madam or pimp (pornoboskos, literally a “whore herder”), and their economic value was highly regarded. In one medical text from the Hippocratic corpus, the author noted that “a kinswoman of mine owned a very valuable singer, who used to go with men. It was very important to her that this girl should not become pregnant and thus lose her value” (Demand 1994, p. 31). These entertainer-prostitutes would normally be employed to entertain at the symposia, or ancient Greek drinking parties, playing, dancing, serving wine, and singing at the beginning, and ending the evening by having sex with their hosts.

Demand for such prostitutes was such that some cities had to have ordinances to regulate their work. Aristotle, in his Constitution of the Athenians (§50), noted that the city had 10 city commissioners whose duties included “seeing that the auletrides, psaltriai, and kitharistriai are not hired for more than two drakhmai, and that if more than one person wished to hire the same girl, they cast lots to decide.”

At the far end of the social/economic spectrum were the hetairai, literally “female companions.” There is continued debate as to what, exactly, is the difference between the hertaira and the pornê. Hetairai are generally understood to have been better educated than the pornai, thus intellectual as well as physical “companions.” A certain degree of economic autonomy was available to the hetairai, which was another important point of difference, as was the fact that, while pornai were hired for one “hop in the sack,” hetairai were hired for their company, including sex, sometimes even for long-term engagements. One such long-term engagement for a male “companion” appears in a 4th-century legal case written by the Athenian Lysias (Against Simon, §22), where the defendant claims that this Simon had paid 300 drakhmai to one Theodotos for sexual access and exclusivity.

Nevertheless, while that hetairai may have had some degree of education and autonomy, they were just as likely to be slaves as the pornai. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotos, one of the most famous hetairai in Greek history—Rhodopis—was “brought to Egypt by Xanthos the Samian to ply her trade. Kharaxos of Mytilenê, son of Skamandronymos and brother of the poet Sappho, paid a large sum to free her from slavery. Having in this way obtained her freedom, she remained in Egypt where she amassed a great fortune through her beauty” (§§2. 135–36). Likewise, in 5th-century Corinth, the girl Neaira was purchased by Nikaratê for use as a prostitute. Years later, two of her most common clients got together to purchase her for their exclusive use. Eventually, they agreed to sell her to another client—Phrynion—who brought her to Athens and made excessive use of her person, to the point that Neaira was reportedly raped during dinner parties by guests and wait-staff (Apollodoros [“Demosthenes”] 59).

In spite of such difficult beginnings, it was possible for all types of prostitutes to rise on the social ladder. Like Rhodopis, they might eventually qualify as megalomisthoi, “high priced” prostitutes who lived in the lap of luxury. Some could even become the official significant other of a single client, blurring the lines between hired prostitute and dedicated concubine.

Rome

The two most common words for prostitute in Latin were scortum, literally “leather bag,” referring to a male or female prostitute, and meretrix, a “woman who earned.” The difference between these words was mainly one of attitude: scortum was deliberately derogatory and insulting, while meretrix was neutral (much as the difference between “whore” and “prostitute” in English). The most profane of the “whores” were the lupae, literally “she-wolves.”

Roman prostitutes worked on the streets, in graveyards, in brothels (lupanaria, fornices) and in cribs (cellae), as well as at inns, baths, circuses, and social functions in the homes of employers. According to the Lex Julia et Papia (23.2.43): “We maintain that a woman openly practices prostitution not only where she does so in a brothel, but also if she is accustomed to do so in a tavern or inn or anywhere else where she manifests no concern for her modesty.” Brothels were treated much as any other business: Wealthy investors bought them and their staffs for the purpose of generating profit. Suetonius even recorded that the Emperor Caligula “put a brothel in the palace, where he furnished several cubicles decorously and put in them matrons and freeborn boys” (Life of Gaius, 41). Brothels are often distinguished archaeologically not only by the many rooms, but by the prevalence of erotic art throughout the building.

Cribs are much smaller, consisting of a room with a stone bed at one end (originally covered by a mattress, no doubt). Some of a more elaborate bent might also contain flower pots, erotic art, and latrine niches. At Pompeii, where a number of such structures have been excavated, cribs show up throughout the city in all manner of social contexts. There was no “red light” district.

There were generally two ways for a person to wind up a prostitute in ancient Rome. The most common was through slavery, including war captives (Dio Chrysostom 7.133): “hapless women or children—captured in war or purchased for cash—and exposed for shameful ends in filthy cribs throughout the city…. Neither barbarian nor Greek women—formerly free but now living in complete and utter bondage — should [pimps] put in such shameful constraint … mating humans who feel shame and revulsion with lecherous and dissolute men in a pointless and fruitless physical union ending in destruction rather than generation.”

It was also possible for families to sell their daughters into prostitution when they fell on hard times. Because a girl’s virginity and sexuality technically belonged to her father (or, in his absence, mother) before her marriage, the pater familias did have the authority to sell that sexuality for familial profit. So much is expressed in a lawsuit from 4th-century C.E. Egypt, when a senator — Diodemus of Alexandria — murdered a prostitute. The prostitute’s mother, one Theodora, a pauper, asked for financial compensation: “This is why I gave my daughter to the pimp, so that I might have a means of support. Now that my daughter is dead I am deprived of my support, and on this account I ask that some small amount, appropriate for a woman, be given for my support” (Lefkowitz and Fant 1992, p. 125).

In either event, the prostitute usually lost his or her autonomy to the pimp (Latin: leno). As Pseudo-Quintilian put it (Maj. Decl., 14.7): “You who may not shut out cripples or disdain the dregs of society, who are accessible to the drunk, sold to the wanton, and, which is the ultimate in cheapness, granted nightly to the public.” Nevertheless, there is one known case from the Republican period of a meretrix being allowed to deny access to a customer, when the prostitute Manilia cast rocks at a high-ranking and rather drunk government official to remove him from her door. He tried to sue for injuries, but the local law court sided with Manilia (Aulus Gellius 4.14.1–5).

Likewise, some prostitutes worked independently. Work contracts from 2nd-century C.E. Elephantine, for example, were arranged between the state and the prostitutes themselves, not through lenones. Some prostitutes could even become quite affluent. As Macrobius recounted in his Saturnalia (1.10.16): “Laurentia, having become wealthy through prostitution, left the fields of Turacem, Semurium, Lintirium, and Solinium to the Roman people upon her death, and she set up a magnificent sepulcher for herself and annual rites of honor.”

This was hardly the norm, though. Prostitutes probably did bargain to a certain extent over fees, but prices were often posted alongside a prostitute’s name in her cella. The usual price for a common meretrix was 2 asses (as is the Roman equivalent of a penny)—the price of a loaf of bread, although attested prices could go up to as much as 23 or even 32 asses. Some of the lower prices were payment for “nonstandard” sex, such as fellatio and cunnilingus, apparently offered at a discount. Such sums may seem small, but the ability to service several customers left early Imperial prostitutes earning more than the average urban laborer.

The Romans did not think highly of prostitution, and there were legal and religious penalties against the trade. The Lex Julia et Papia “brands with infamy not only a woman who practices prostitution, but also one who has formerly done so, even though she has ceased to act in this manner, for the disgrace is not removed.” Such women and men could not marry outside the class of freedpersons; could not be members of the senatorial or equestrian orders, or the army; and were barred from municipal honors. Women who spent time in a brothel, even if they never actually had sex, could not be priestesses (Seneca’s Controversia 1.2), and prostitutes were banned from many religious ceremonies.

In general, it was men who made use of the bodies of male and female prostitutes in the ancient world. Bought sex might therefore be either heterosexual or homosexual for male clients. In one famous Classical Athenian law case—Against Timarkhos—the defendant is accused of prostituting himself to men so that he might afford his favorite luxury—female prostitutes. There is very little evidence for women making use of prostitutes of either sex. One possible datum is the Latin term mulier secutuleia, a “chasing woman,” presented as a woman so desperate for sex she pays for it.

By Stephanie Lynn Budin in "Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work", edited by Melissa Hope Ditmore, Greenwood Press, USA-UK,2006, excerpts volume 1 p.34-39. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

Amsterdam has a worldwide reputation as a city for prostitution. This is based on the fame of its red light district, called Wallen, Walletjes, or rosse buurt in Dutch. The red light area is one of the main tourist attractions of the city. Situated in one of the oldest and most beautiful parts of the city, scantily dressed women beckon passing men from lighted shop windows. This open and visible prostitution has long been tolerated and has been legal since 1999. The open red light area and the toleration of soft drugs have earned Amsterdam a reputation as a modern Sodom. Writers and filmmakers from all over the world like to situate their prostitution scenes in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam’s prostitutes have operated for some 700 years in this same neighborhood, the harbor district. The prostitution district has always been near the entrance to the city: Amsterdam was most easily reached by ship, and the Central Station was built in 1889 on an artificial island in the harbor, which made it accessible to sailors and travelers.

The first documentation of prostitution in Amsterdam dates from the 13th century, when Amsterdam was only a small fishing town. During the later Middle Ages, the trade was allowed but restricted to certain side streets. Married men and priests were forbidden to enter the police-supervised brothels. This regulated tolerance was similar to that in other European towns at the times and in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church, that prostitution was, this side of Paradise, a necessary evil. Prostitutes were seen as sinners who could be saved: as elsewhere, a Magdalene nunnery was instituted for repentant prostitutes.

The Reformation did not look kindly on the toleration of prostitution. The new Christian interpretation of policing morality was not of the forgiving of sins, but of the punishments of moral offenses as crimes. It was deeply and widely feared that God would punish society for sins committed and permitted. Amsterdam’s licensed brothels were closed down in 1578 during the revolt against the city’s overlord, the King of Spain, when the city joined the Protestant rebels. The Protestants won; henceforth, any sexual immorality was defined and persecuted as a crime. Until about 1800, some 20 percent of all formal judicial activity was directed toward the suppression of the sex trade.

With more than 200,000 inhabitants, in the 17th century Amsterdam was the third largest city in Europe, after London and Paris. It had grown into a center of traffic and trade and, above all, an important port, where every year thousands of sailors were recruited and discharged, creating a large demand for venal sex. On the supply side, there was a huge surplus of women among the lower classes, mostly poor immigrants who had little chance of finding a husband. Prostitution thrived, especially from 1670 on, when street lighting was installed and nightlife boomed. Travel guides and semipornographic descriptions of the city’s attractions such as Het Amsterdamsch Hoerdom (1681) exploited and magnified the city’s growing reputation for sexual vice. Amsterdam’s reputation as a center of prostitution from the last decades of the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century was comparable with today’s. Visitors to the city invariably paid a visit to a speelhuis or musico, ostensibly a tavern where music was played and one could eat, drink, and dance, but in reality a place where prostitutes picked up customers and customers prostitutes. Most tourists also visited the Spinhuis, the female prison, where one, for a small entrance fee, could gape at convicted prostitutes.

Many believed that prostitution in Amsterdam, although forbidden, was in effect tolerated as a necessary evil. Bernard Mandeville, born a Dutchman, wrote in his "Fable of the Bees" (1714–29),

"Where six or seven Thousand Sailors arrive at once, as it often happens at Amsterdam, that have seen none but their own Sex for many Months together, how is it to be suppos’d that honest Women should walk the Streets unmolested, if there were no Harlots to be had at reasonable Prices? For which Reason the Wise Rulers of that well-order’d City always tolerate an uncertain number of Houses, in which Women are hired as publickly as Horses at a Livery-Stable; there being in this Toleration a great deal of Prudence and Oeconomy."

However, at no time was prostitution in Amsterdam simply tolerated. With the help of a relatively small police force, many formal and informal methods of fighting and controlling prostitution were used, from “harassing” brothels and confiscating capital, to raids of prostitutes, prison sentences, and exposure on the scaffold. The police, moreover, forced the prostitution business into self-regulation, by following up on what was unacceptable, for example, having young girls as prostitutes or causing disturbances in the neighborhood. At that time, prostitution was mostly to be found in small brothels, with a madam as its head.

The end of the Dutch Republic in 1795 meant a restructuring of the entire legal and moral system. Amsterdam’s legislators, physicians, and authorities joined the international debate on prostitution as necessary for curbing male sexual lust, and on the advisability of bringing prostitutes under medical control to prevent the spread of syphilis. From 1810–13, when the Netherlands were annexed by Napoleon, the French introduced such a system to regulate prostitution in Amsterdam.

In the Code Pénal of 1811, which remained valid after the French occupation, prostitution was no longer defined as a crime; only the seduction or enforcement of minors into prostitution was penalized. The central government of the by-now Kingdom of the Netherlands urged the cities to reintroduce medical control of prostitutes. Amsterdam officially refused to comply, but in reality it used an unofficial system of medical control and licensing of prostitutes. The city, which after more than a century of stagnation was growing fast, was more than ever the center of prostitution in the country. Most of it was still to be found near the harbor, from “French” women in large luxury brothels, to dancers and barmaids in the many places of entertainment, to poor immigrant German girls in lower-class brothels.

As elsewhere, the toleration of prostitution and the forced medical control of prostitutes became one of the key political issues of the last decades of the 19th century. In city after city, the regulations licensing brothels were withdrawn; in Amsterdam all brothels were forcibly closed in 1897. Statute laws were only changed in 1911, when a comprehensive morals bill was passed. Prostitution as such was not criminalized, but organizing and profiteering from prostitution were penalized. Brothels were forbidden and largely disappeared from the public eye, but plenty of prostitutes could still be found as waitresses, hostesses, and singers in bars and cafés, as “masseuses” in massage parlors, as “shop assistants” in tobacco shops or art galleries.

Gradually the prostitution came into the open again, and, in the 1930s, the first women who sat visibly behind large windows appeared. The introduction of electricity made red lights possible, and some 40 years later, adequate heating and the sexual revolution made the prostitutes drop most of their clothes. These women worked on their own, paying rent to or sharing profits with the landlords, but many shared their earnings with others. Crime also had its home in the red light district, but on the whole, the neighborhood was under control. There was a modus vivendi with the neighbors and a balancing act with the police and the vice squad. Most prostitutes were from the Netherlands, and among the clients sailors were still prominent, as they had been for centuries. Penicillin had suppressed venereal diseases.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, it was believed and expected that the sexual revolution would put an end to, or at least greatly diminish, prostitution. Instead, the sexual revolution legitimized and boosted the sex business, and the media willingly catered to the semipornographic attraction of prostitution. The sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s had a greater impact in the Netherlands than anywhere else. In Amsterdam’s red light district, not only prostitution, but also sex clubs and pornography shops proliferated. Soft drugs came to be openly and visibly tolerated. The media portrayed prostitution positively. In 1984, a prostitutes’ union was founded, the Rode Draad (“Red Thread”), subsidized since 1987. The De Graafstichting, a state-funded research institute for the study of prostitution, actively promoted the acceptance of sex work.

The prohibition of brothels of 1911 had long been deemed obsolete, and since 1987, committees discussed and drafted a new prostitution law. This law was finally introduced in 1999. Prostitution was officially and openly stated to be a normal occupation for the first time, and prostitutes were to have a right to all social and medical benefits enjoyed by employees of other legal businesses. However, prostitutes now have to register, possess an official work permit, and pay taxes. The law also authorizes local authorities to make detailed bylaws and so regulate prostitution at a local level.

The legalization, discussed in a time of liberal sentiments, has turned out to be the opposite of a “liberalization” of prostitution. In the 1980s, the atmosphere in the red light district changed with the introduction of hard drugs; later, international organized crime threatened to take over the district. The police recovered the red light district to some extent, but drug addiction among prostitutes and traffic of women still are unsolved problems. Confronted with the dark side of prostitution, Amsterdam used the legalization to tighten the control of the sex trade. First, the city anticipated the new law by introducing in 1996 a local bylaw requiring all entrepreneurs in the business to apply for a license. The applicants must not have a criminal record, the premises have to meet strict safety and health regulations, and the women employed must have a work permit. Prostitution is restricted to the red light district and a few (also traditional) streets in other parts of the town. Streetwalking was only allowed on one location, the Theemsweg, away from the center, where there were facilities and supervision provided.

The result is that there is now much less visible, open prostitution in Amsterdam. In spite of possible benefits, women with a work permit have so far declined to come into the open and proclaim themselves prostitutes and pay taxes. Prostitutes from outside the European Union cannot work legally in prostitution. Many of the windows of the red light district are currently empty. In 2003, after continuing problems with addicted and illegal women, the Theemsweg was closed, and streetwalkers are not allowed anywhere in Amsterdam. The object of the legalization, to recognize prostitution as a normal profession, and so decriminalize it, has not been fulfilled. Prostitutes have transferred their activities to other cities, but it is feared that most prostitutes working illegally, from Eastern Europe, Asia, South America, and some African countries, have been driven underground and further into the clutches of criminals. Times have changed. The Rode Draad will shortly lose what is left of its subsidy, and the De Graafstichting has been closed since January 1, 2005.

By L.C. van de Pol in "Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work", edited by Melissa Hope Ditmore, Greenwood Press, USA-UK,2006, excerpts volume 1 p.26-29. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

Agricultural practices varied greatly in time and country depending on the type of land available, the climate, agricultural practices, and the political regime. In Egypt cultivation of crops depended on the inundation of the Nile caused by rainfall in central Sudan, which caused an increase in the level of the White Nile. A few weeks later rains in Ethiopia raised the level of the Blue Nile, and the combination of the two rainfalls increased the flow of water into Egypt. The fertile area was confined to a narrow strip on either side of the Nile. This was called the Black Land, from the deposits of black silt brought down the river in flood time. The desert was the Red Land, a district to be distrusted apart from the oases where date palms grew. This was a region subject to a scorching wind, which raised clouds of fine dust and dried out the fields.

So dependent were the Egyptians on the Nile flood that Nilometers along the river registered the level of the water to monitor its progress. These were steps leading to below the water surface and marked on a scale of cubits and fractions of a cubit. The Egyptians dated their year from the first months of inundation, which was then followed by months of sowing and harvesting. The river had a seasonal cycle, which Egyptian poets likened to colored cloth. From January to March there was a green cloth when the crops were growing. From April to June the cloth was gold as the crops ripened, and in July and August there was a black cloth of mud, ready for the planting of the next crop. In less prosaic terms there were three seasons. Akhet was the inundation when the river flooded and deposited a fertile layer of silt over the land, Peret was the emergence of the land, and Shemu was the lack of water or the dry season.

The Nile began to rise in mid-July at Aswan and continued to flood Upper Egypt at different heights at different places until August and Lower Egypt until mid-September. By then the force of the water was spent as it entered the flat alluvial plains of the northern reaches, and the Egyptians had to react swiftly to get the water onto the land as well as to move their flocks to higher land. In November the water was dropping, but administrators quickly recorded the boundaries of land, partly to prevent legal wrangles over ownership of property and partly to prepare for assessment of taxation later in the year.

Systematic construction of canals and irrigation channels probably began during the First Intermediate Period (2081-2020 B.C.) when a series of low floods occurred that meant radical measures had to be taken to ensure crops were grown. By the time of the Middle Kingdom (2056-1650 B.C.) the procedure was well established. The water was directed from breaches made in the levees into outflow channels and then to fields and plots, far beyond the immediate reaches of the flood. The outflow was controlled by dams, which could be opened and closed when required. When the flood receded, leaving the rich deposit of mud, work began on the land. Irrigation works were implemented, dykes repaired, canals dredged, and weeds cleared. A bonus was that fish entered the plots when the Nile waters covered them so that they could be scooped up to provide a welcome addition to the food supply.

The land was loosened with a hoe or plowed and cross-plowed with a two-handled wooden plow shod with a bronze blade. The fields were strewn with seeds, in quantities carefully allotted to each farmer by an overseer. Sometimes seeds were cast at the same time as the land was plowed so that the plow planted the crop. At other times cattle or pigs trampled seeds into the ground, in addition contributing their own manure to the rich soil. Hard work was required day after day. When the emmer (corn), barley, and flax crops ripened, the assessor scribes arrived to check the probably yield of the harvest, which would be compared with the actual yield after threshing had been completed. The crops were cut with sickles, usually made of wood or an animal jaw spiked with flint teeth, and women and children collected the sheaves in baskets. No attempt was made to weed the fields, so weeds were mixed in with the grain. Cattle trampling on the grain did threshing. Winnowing meant throwing the grains into the air so that the chaff was blown away. The grain was then placed into sacks, and sweepers made sure that every bit of grain was collected.

Scribes now further assessed the quantity of grain, which was usually taken by skiff or punt along the canals to be stored in granaries. These usually took the form of a round-based cone, made of wood or mud bricks, with a domed top. Trapezoidal-shaped granaries held the grain for the next season's sowing so that future crops would be assured. Temples would have their own granaries. At Ramses II's funerary temple at Thebes, the granaries took the form of rows of mud-brick corridors with barrel-vaulted roofs having filling holes in them. The regularity of the floods and this careful husbandry of grain meant that Egypt could feed the population, even in famine conditions, and have a surplus to sell to foreigners, thus gaining a huge profit for the state.

Water was lifted from irrigation channels by buckets carried across the shoulders on a yoke. At the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty the shaduf was introduced into Egypt, probably from Mesopotamia. This was a bucket placed on the end of a pole and lifted by means of a counterweight placed at the other end. It allowed a greater amount of water to be lifted on the fields but could be as monotonous and wearisome a job as watering with the buckets. In Ptolemaic times, a cattle-manipulated water wheel (sahkian or saqqieh) supplemented the shaduf As a far more efficient method of raising water, it continued to serve farmers even after the tanbur, Archimedes' screw, was introduced into Egypt about 525 B.C. during the Persian period.

Once the grain harvest was over at the end of March, a second crop could be grown. There was sometimes another cereal but more often pulses, which were especially regarded as fertilizing the land. These crops enrich the soil with nitrogen. In addition, rectangular beds surrounded by low dykes that could be used as paths were used to grow vegetables. Plots at the fortress of Mirgissa covered areas of 13 square meters (42.6 square feet) with small irrigation channels. In these were grown vegetables for home consumption or sale. The tax collectors assessed these also, and Horemheb (a general and advisor to the pharaohs in the eighteenth dynasty), for example, forbade his officials to plunder the land by taking the best vegetables and keeping them for their own use. Strict rules were laid down to prevent anyone from obstructing another person in the use of water or blocking a neighbor's supply. More and more land was brought into use, allowing Egypt to become one of the richest food-producing areas in the ancient world. By the Twelfth Dynasty the delta had been drained and part of the Fayum reclaimed, with Lake Moeris being used as a reservoir. The final extension of cultivated land in the Fayum had to wait until the Ptolemaic period.

The Egyptians also had many orchards that needed artificial irrigation, either from a well or a pool. These were walled to keep out thieves or animals. The ground could be flooded, although care had to be taken that the water did not reach too far up the trees. An Egyptian proverb, "If the gardener becomes a fisherman, let his trees perish," may refer to this. The orchards contained a variety of fruit trees, including date and doum palms and carob, apricot, Egyptian plum, and fig trees. The Eighteenth Dynasty tomb of Ana had a list of trees, which seems to have included almost every tree known at the time. The trees were planted in rows with the water channels running between them. Water might also be preserved, for aesthetic purposes, in square pools surrounded by brick or mud walls. Trees were planted for shade and for their association with deities, while flowers were grown purely for the enjoyment they gave. Vines were grown supported by trellises, both for their shade and for their fruit. In addition, garden plots were tended both for culinary and nonculinary plants. For the poor they could include pens for geese; for the wealthy they might hold a menagerie.

Tomb paintings show the gardeners bringing produce to the owners of the gardens. An inscription from one tomb instructed the gardeners to "take great care, hoe all the land, sieve the earth with a sieve, hack with your noses in the work."The hard work needed in a garden and an orchard was recorded in a poem, for many gardeners, like field workers, were bound for life to the owner:

"The gardener carries a yoke.
His shoulders are bent with age;
There is a swelling on his neck
And it festers.

In the morning he waters vegetables,
While at noon he toils in the orchard.
He works himself to death,
More than in all other professions."

All land in Egypt was owned by the state, either by the pharaoh directly or by the temples and the nobles who had received land as a gift from the pharaoh. The laborers were peasant farmers, who were allotted a plot that they rented through taxation, mainly in kind, and to which they were tied for life, with most of the produce going to the landowner or the state. Stewards superintended these. If peasants could not pay their taxes, they were mercilessly punished, as revealed by tomb paintings, which show them being beaten by overseers. In the New Kingdom (1570-1069 B.C.) this tight control lessened. Land was divided into large estates and smallholdings, which could be bought and sold. By the Third Intermediate Period (1070-656 B.C.) the state had almost lost its authority over the peasantry. Land became part of inheritance and could sold with ease.

Probably about a third of the population was involved in agriculture, which was regarded as a gift from the god Osiris, although people could have more than one job. In addition, there were herdsmen who looked after cattle and sheep belonging to estate owners and temples, but their status was regarded as a low one, with criticism being made of their rough clothing, lack of personal hygiene, and habit of living in reed huts that were easily built and dismantled. They moved their animals about to get better pasturage, often feeding them by hand. Many herds were driven to the delta from the upland areas to obtain better grazing. Usually herdsmen specialized in tending only one type of animal — sheep, long-horned cattle, goats, pigs, or horses. Herds were very large, which may have led to overgrazing, but large herds were regarded as necessary to provide an emergency food supply. Herdsmen had to ensure that the cattle were fed and to brand them for identification, usually on the horns. During the dry season the herds were driven to the marshland of the delta. Livestock breeders had a higher status because they fattened beef cattle, and taste and quality were appreciated.

Some men tended flocks of geese on special poultry farms, and in paintings on Middle Kingdom tombs there seems to be evidence for crane farming. As these animals and birds were also assessed for taxation purposes, the care taken for their welfare had to be as vigilant as that of the farmer for his crops. Animals were held in high regard. Some, as Herodotus said, were part of the household, and great care was taken of them.

Fishermen were also regarded as being of low status, partly because fish smelled and went bad easily, so that the smell often clung to their garments. One tomb recorded, "behold my name stinks more than a catch of fish on a hot day." Fish, however, caught in the Nile and its canals as well as on Lake Moeris provided protein for the Egyptian diet. Paintings in the tomb of Kagemni at Saqqara show fishermen taking their catch from the sea, having it recorded by scribes, and giving some to local officials as a tax. The remainder was presumably traded. Marketing scenes indicated their value. One fish equaled a loaf of bread or a jar of beer. Fish were caught by rod and line, in traps, and by teams using a dragnet. Fishermen's work was especially dangerous, for much of the water was home to hippopotamuses and crocodiles.

By Joan P. Alcock in "Food in the Ancient World", Greenwood Press, USA-UK,2006, excerpts p.4-10. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

The annual pilgrimage of Muslims to Mecca — the so-called hajj —  is a remarkable movement of people in the Middle East in terms of both size and durability. As King (1972:62) emphasises, ‘the pilgrimage is one of the world’s greatest gatherings of different races and languages. It has endured the 13 centuries of Islam virtually without interruption’. Rowley (1989) describes the hajj as the axis of Islam’s tendency to centralise and unify sacred space, around which all other religious rites revolve.

Its influence extends to all the countries of Islam, and for one month every year the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia (with a resident population of around 150,000) has more visitors (over a million) than any other city in the world. The hajj is a major source of income for Saudi Arabia (the third largest earner after oil exports and spending by oil companies). Indeed, before oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 1938, spending by pilgrims was the country’s largest source of foreign exchange earnings.

Role of pilgrimage within Islam

To Muslims the pilgrimage to Mecca is not simply an act of religious obedience, it is a duty. It is the fifth pillar (foundation of faith) of Islam — along with declaration of faith, prayer, charity and fasting—although it is the only one that is not obligatory. Islam requires that every adult Muslim perform the pilgrimage to Mecca and to nearby Arafat and Mina — where they receive the grace of Allah—at least once in a lifetime. But the obligation is deferred for four groups of people — for those who cannot afford to make the pilgrimage, for those who are constrained by physical disability, hazardous conditions, or political barriers, for slaves and those of unsound minds, and for women without a husband or male relative to accompany them (Brooke 1987).

None the less most Muslims do make the pilgrimage at least once, and for many of them the trip is the culmination of a lifetime’s saving. For many Muslims (hajjis) the pilgrimage is a time of great hardship and personal suffering, and until recently many pilgrims died along the way (from exhaustion, hunger, thirst, disease). Death during the pilgrimage is regarded as particularly honourable and is believed to guarantee entry into the afterlife.

In a typical year about 0.1 per cent of the world’s Muslims may be in Mecca (King 1972). Official figures reveal that 1.85 million pilgrims took part in 1984, and the 1986 total was 2.25 million according to unofficial estimates (Brooke 1987).

Both Mecca and Medina are forbidden to non-Muslims, and boundary stones on all routes leading into the cities mark the point (30 km out) beyond which non-believers must not pass.

Large numbers of animals are slaughtered annually during the hajj. Brooke (1987) estimates that about a million animals (mainly sheep, goats, camels and cattle) are transported to Mina (near Mecca) and slaughtered there according to strict rituals. Disposal of the vast number of carcasses, within seven days, has to be carefully planned and managed to avoid sanitary problems in the hot, dry environment.

The hajj commences on the eighth day of the twelfth month (Dhu’l-Hijja) of the Muslim lunar year and ends on the thirteenth day of Dhu’l-Hijja. Prescribed rites are performed which follow the order of the farewell pilgrimage in prayers and physical movement to the various sites as performed by the Prophet Mohammed in 632 CE (Rowley and El-Hamdan 1978). The rites and rituals are performed in a tightly defined sequence.

The hajj pilgrimage is multi-dimensional, involving the visit to and walk around the Kaaba (the holy shrine in Mecca, containing the black stone), visits to various other holy sites in and around Mecca, the walk between the two hills of al-Safa and al-Marwah, and finally the return to Mecca for a last visit to the Kabaa.

Most pilgrims stay in Mecca for about a month, although the actual ceremonies take only a few days. Pilgrims who have travelled far to reach Mecca often stay a year or longer, also visiting Medina — Islam’s second holy city, 300 km north of Mecca, where the prophet Mohammed died and is buried (King 1972).

History and evolution

The history of pilgrimage in the Mecca area is described by Rutter (1929), King (1972) and Shair and Karan (1979).

Mecca was already a prosperous commercial centre when Mohammed was born there in 570 CE. It had long been an important city, with an annual gathering of Arab nomads of the region who engaged in ritual celebration and exchanged news and goods. Arab tribes travelled to worship stone idols situated in or near the Kaaba area of Mecca (Wolf 1951). Mecca was the main station for the Arab caravans coming from Yemen and leading north to Damascus and other cities of the Levant. Major commercial caravan routes from Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Persia converged at Mecca.

Pilgrim circulations increased greatly after Mohammed established the Islamic State in Medina and as more and more people accepted the new religion. From the sixth to the tenth centuries commercial trade dropped significantly, and pilgrimage became more dominant. The volume of Muslim pilgrims increased further throughout most of the Ottoman period from the sixteenth century onwards.

Because the sacred city of Mecca is closed to non-Muslims, until recently relatively few Westerners had witnessed the hajj. Lady Evelyn Cobbold was the first English woman to make the journey, which she describes in graphic detail:

"it was with a feeling of awe and reverence that I joined the vast throngs gathered together from the far-flung lands of Islam…. I stood in the Haram (great mosque), whose long arcades stretched away into the dusky distance, while the Holy of Holies, the mighty cube of the Kaaba, rose in simple majesty from the centre of the huge quadrangle. Broad paths led to it, and on each side of them lay exhausted pilgrims stretched asleep on the gravel…. The night before the Great Pilgrimage, Mecca was a seething mass of hadjis and camels. Sleep was impossible…. When we passed through the stone pillars marking the end of the forbidden territory I felt I had not only performed a sacred duty, but I had also seen and lived the greatest pageant of history."
(Cobbold 1935:107–16)

Sources, numbers and pathways

The dynamics of the hajj pilgrimage are described in a number of geographical papers (including Anon 1937, Isaac 1973, and Rowley and El-Hamdan 1977). King (1972) offers the most detailed description.

Most pilgrims travelled overland until the nineteenth century when the Suez Canal was cut and East Indies steamship lines brought vast numbers of Far East pilgrims by sea. Damascus and Cairo were the two most important collecting points for the pilgrims en route to Mecca. Despite transport improvements during the nineteenth century (particularly in shipping), numbers of pilgrims declined mainly because of Bedouin attacks on pilgrim caravans, and political instability caused by Turkish war efforts.

A revival of the hajj during the early twentieth century was assisted by the construction of a special Hejaz railway connecting Damascus with Medina, starting in 1900 (McLoughlin 1958). The railway was built by German engineers and operated by a waqf (self-perpetuating non-profit religious endowment) and paid for largely by donations from Muslims around the world. Its impact was to be short-lived, because the line was blown up in 1917 by Colonel T.E.Lawrence and his Bedouin Arab supporters.

Many pilgrims travelled overland to Mecca, using two main caravan routes, from Syria and Egypt. A popular pilgrim caravan travelled across Central Africa from the west coast (Rutter 1929, Birks 1977) eastwards to Nigeria. Many African pilgrims spent up to three years on their journey, trading, working or begging along the way, travelling mostly on foot with their families. It was not uncommon for children to be born along the way, and for many pilgrims to die before they reached their holy goal.

The growth in significance of the hajj has affected transport in a number of ways (King 1972). New pilgrimage routes were established linking Mecca with Iraq, Iran and Oman, and the overall pattern of transport within Saudi Arabia became highly focused on Mecca. Pilgrim traffic is heavily concentrated at one time in the year, and it is unidirectional in nature (towards Mecca before the pilgrimage, away from Mecca afterwards). The movement of vast numbers of pilgrims towards Mecca has also encouraged the expansion of settlements and oases along pilgrim routes.

The pattern of source areas of pilgrims  suggests a fairly strong distance-decay effect, with most travelling relatively short distances to Saudi Arabia. Middle Eastern Arab countries such as Yemen and Turkey provided many pilgrims in 1968, and an outer ring providing smaller numbers includes Libya, Egypt and Sudan in North Africa and Iran, Pakistan and India to the east. More distant source areas generally provided smaller numbers of pilgrims, although there were some notable exceptions (such as Indonesia and Malaysia).

Changing character of the pilgrimage

Numbers attending the hajj have fluctuated through time, largely in harmony with waves of economic and political change around the world. Data summarised by King (1972) show that the estimated 152,000 pilgrims in 1929 had fallen to 20,000 in 1933 because of world depression, and then recovered to 67,000 in 1936 and 100,00 in 1937. The Second World War saw a fall in the number of pilgrims (there were an estimated 9,000 non-Arab pilgrims in 1939). Since 1945 numbers have risen progressively, with minor downturns associated with Arab wars (such as the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, when many Muslims are reported to have given their hajj savings to the Arab cause).

Shair and Karan (1979) report a number of changes in the pattern of pilgrims since 1945, including their volume, sources of origin and mode of transport. Increasing volumes particularly since the early 1970s largely reflect greater ease of travel and higher per capita incomes in the oil-rich Middle Eastern Arab countries. Rowley (1989) reports an estimated 2.25 million pilgrims in 1986 (1.64 million of them from outside Saudi Arabia). The main source area of pilgrims continues to be the Arab countries (which provided over half in 1974), and non-Arab Asian and African countries. Numbers from particular donor countries (such as Nigeria, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, Algeria, Egypt and Indonesia) vary through time in response to the changing domestic economic and political climate. Travel by air has opened up the hajj to travellers from much further afield (1975 saw 55 per cent of pilgrims travel by air, 13 per cent by sea and 32 per cent overland)—particularly from Iran, Bangladesh, Thailand, Singapore and Afghanistan. Most use Jiddah airport, which has been enlarged and developed by the Saudi Arabian government. New good roads have also encouraged more overland pilgrims in recent years (the number tripled between 1958 and 1969).

King (1972) emphasises that one of the most important improvements in the hajj has been medical improvements, which have reduced the traditionally high mortality rates amongst pilgrims associated with unsanitary and crowded conditions in the holy cities, and exposure to many contagious diseases (particularly smallpox, cholera and malaria).

Explanatory models

Two interesting geographical attempts have been made to develop statistical models of pilgrim movements associated with the hajj. Rowley and El-Hamdan (1978) sought to explain the contemporary pattern of hajjis and predict future numbers for 1983 and 1993, using empirical data. They tested the hypothesis that the total number of pilgrims coming from a country is a function of the size of the country’s Muslim population, its per capita income, its distance from Mecca, the cost of travel between it and Mecca, and the time it takes to travel between it and Mecca. The results, based on data from 36 countries, highlight two important factors (relative time and cost) which influence pilgrims’ choice of mode of travel (by air or sea). The longer the duration of the journey from a country the higher is the percentage of its pilgrims who travel by air. The higher the cost of air travel relative to sea travel from a particular country, the lower is the percentage of its pilgrims who choose the air mode. Their logarithmic multiple regression model predicted that in 1993 more pilgrims would arrive by air than the total number (including Saudis) that undertook the hajj in 1973.

Shair and Karan (1979, see also Shair 1979) similarly developed a multiple regression model to explain the spatial pattern of pilgrimage to Mecca. This used the ratio of pilgrims per thousand Muslim population (the mean for 1965–75) as the dependent variable, and distance to Mecca, annual per capita national income, and percentage of Muslim population in the nation as independent variables. Per capita national income emerged as the most important factor determining the number of pilgrims (explaining 61 per cent of the variations for Arab countries, 74 per cent for non-Arab Asians, 72 per cent for non-Arab Africans, and 100 per cent for the North African countries).

Residuals from the regression could then be mapped. Positive residuals — with higher than predicted numbers of pilgrims—were explained in terms of high per capita national income (Bahrain, Qatar and Libya), ease of travel (Jordan, Yemen and the Democratic Yemen) and the presence of rich merchants who place a high value on pilgrimage (South Africa). Negative residuals—with lower than predicted numbers of pilgrims — were found in former Yugoslavia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Greece, Iran, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Pakistan and Tunisia. A variety of explanations were offered, including a lower value placed on pilgrimage, inequalities in wealth distribution (few very rich, many poor), government restrictions, and political instability.

By Chris C. Park in "Sacred Worlds: An Introduction to Geography and Religion",Routledge, London, 2003, excerpts p.263-271. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

The first humans evolved in Africa around two million years ago. By 9000 BC their descendants had spread to most parts of the globe and in some areas were beginning to practise agriculture. From around 4000 BC the first civilizations developed, initially in the Near East and India and subsequently in China, Mesoamerica and South America. In the centuries that followed, to AD 500, many states and empires rose and fell.

Some five to eight million years ago, a species of small African primates began walking upright. While there are many theories about the advantages conferred by moving on two legs rather than four, there is general agreement that the success of the hominid line (humans and their ancestors) is due in part to the adoption of this new method of locomotion. Between five and one million years ago, hominid species proliferated in East Africa and southern Africa, giving rise by 1.8 million years ago to the new genus Homo to which we ourselves belong.

The development by Homo of stone tools - and, we may presume, tools that have not survived, made of other materials such as bone and wood - was a major advance in human evolution, allowing our ancestors to engage in activities for which they lacked the physical capabilities. This ability to develop technology to overcome our physical limitations has enabled us to develop from a small and restricted population of African apes to a species that dominates every continent except Antarctica and has even reached the moon. Between 1.8 million and 300,000 years ago, members of our genus colonized much of temperate Europe and Asia as well as tropical areas, aided by their ability to use fire and create shelter. By 9000 BC the only parts of the globe which modern humans - Homo sapiens - had not reached were some remote islands and circumpolar regions.

FROM HUNTING TO FARMING

In 10,000 BC the world was inhabited solely by groups who lived by hunting and gathering wild foods. Within the succeeding 8,000 years, however, much of the world was transformed. People in many parts of the world began to produce their own food, domesticating and selectively breeding plants and animals. Farming supported larger and more settled communities, allowing the accumulation of stored food surpluses - albeit with the counterpoised risks involved in clearing areas of plants and animals that had formerly been a source of back-up food in lean years. Agricultural communities expanded in many regions, for example colonizing Europe and South Asia, and in doing so radically changed the landscape.

FIRST CIVILIZATIONS

As the millennia passed there was continuing innovation in agricultural techniques and tools, with the domestication of more plants and animals and the improvement by selective breeding of those already being exploited. These developments increased productivity and allowed the colonization of new areas. Specialist pastoral groups moved into previously uninhabited, inhospitable desert regions. Swamps were drained in Mesoamerica and South America and highly productive raised fields were constructed in their place. Irrigation techniques allowed the cultivation of river valleys in otherwise arid regions, such as Mesopotamia and Egypt.

High agricultural productivity supported high population densities, and towns and cities grew up, often with monumental public architecture. However, there were also limitations in these regions, such as an unreliable climate or river regime, or a scarcity of important raw materials (such as stone), and there was often conflict between neighbouring groups. Religious or secular leaders who could organize food storage and redistribution, craft production, trade, defence and social order became increasingly powerful. These factors led to the emergence of the first civilizations in many parts of the world between around 4000 and 200 BC. A surplus of agricultural produce was used in these civilizations to support a growing number of specialists who were not engaged in food production: craftsmen, traders, priests and rulers, as well as full-time warriors - although the majority of soldiers were normally farmers.

Specialists in some societies included scribes. The development of writing proved a major advance, enabling vast quantities of human knowledge and experience to be recorded, shared and passed on. Nevertheless, in most societies literacy was confined to an elite - priests, rulers and the scribes they employed - who used it as a means of religious, political or economic control. In most parts of the world, the belief that there should be universal access to knowledge recorded in writing is a recent phenomenon.

RITUAL AND RELIGION

Although without written records it is impossible to reconstruct details of the belief systems of past societies, evidence of religious beliefs and ritual activities abounds, particularly in works of art, monumental structures and grave offerings.

Ritual and religion were a powerful spur to the creation of monumental architecture by literate urban societies such as the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, but also in smaller societies dependent on agriculture, such as the prehistoric inhabitants of Europe who built the megalithic tombs, or the moundbuilders of North America. Monuments also reflected other factors, such as a desire for prestige or to affirm territorial rights. Although such building activity implied the ability to mobilize large numbers of people, this did not necessarily require hierarchical social control; it could be achieved within the framework of a community led by elders or priests.

Concern with the proper disposal of the dead was displayed from Neanderthal times, more than 50,000 years ago. In the burial or other treatment of the body regarded as appropriate (such as cremation or exposure), the dead were often accompanied by grave offerings. These could range from food or small items of personal dress, to large numbers of sacrificed relatives or retainers as in tombs dating from the 3rd millennium BC in Egypt and the 2nd millennium BC in Shang China. The offerings might be related to life after death, for which the deceased needed to be equipped, but also frequently reflected aspects of the dead person's social position in life.

Grave offerings often provide valuable clues about past social organization. They also point to the important part played by artisans in the development of civilized communities, in particular producing prestige items for use by the elite and manufactured goods to be traded in exchange for vital raw materials. In developed agricultural societies, craft production was unlikely to be a fulltime pursuit for more than a handful of individuals, but this did not prevent high standards being reached in many communities.

Unlike pottery, which was made by the majority of settled communities, and stone, used for tools worldwide from very early times, metalworking did not develop in all parts of the globe, due in part to the distribution of ores. Initially metal artefacts tended to be prestige objects, used to demonstrate individual or community status, but metal was soon used for producing tools as well. The development of techniques for working iron, in particular, was a major breakthrough, given the abundance and widespread distribution of iron ore.

STATES AND EMPIRES

By about 500 BG ironworking was well established in Europe, West and South Asia, and in parts of East Asia and Africa. States had developed in most of these regions at least a thousand years before, but for a variety of reasons the focal areas of these entities had changed over the course of time. The formerly fertile lower reaches of the Euphrates, cradle of the Mesopotamian civilization, had suffered salination, and so the focus had shifted north to the competing Assyrian and Babylonian empires. In India the primary civilization had emerged along the Indus river system; after its fall, the focus of power and prosperity shifted to the Ganges Valley, which by the 3rd century BC was the centre of the Mauryan Empire.

Europe was also developing native states, and by the 1st century AD much of Europe and adjacent regions of Asia and Africa were united through military conquest by the Romans. The rise and expansion of the far-reaching Roman Empire was paralleled in the east by that of the equally vast Chinese Han Empire.

Military conquest was not, however, the only means by which large areas were united. The Andean region, for example, was dominated in the 1st millennium BC by the Ghavin culture, seemingly related to a widely shared religious cult centred on a shrine at Ghavin de Huantar. A complex interplay of political, economic, religious and social factors determined the pattern of the rise and fall of states.

On the fringes of the human world, pioneers continued to colonize new areas, developing ways of life to enable them to settle in the circumpolar regions and the deserts of Arabia and to venture huge distances across uncharted waters to settle on the most remote Pacific islands. By AD 500 the Antarctic was the only continent still unpeopled.





In "Philip's Atlas of World History", general editor Patrick K. O'Brien, by Philip's an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group, London, 2007, excerpts p.12-15. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

Laïos, tu supplies d'avoir une descendance prospère. Je te donnerai le fils que tu souhaites, mais tu laisseras ta vie ent re ses mains. C'est par ces mots terriblesque fut annoncée au père d'OEdipe la prophétie de l'oracle, qui avertit également le jeune homme qu'il tuerait son père et épouserait sa mère. Les tentatives du pére et du fils pour éviter la réalisation d'une telle prédiction furent vaines, on le sait: sur la route de Thèbes, OEdipe tua Laïos à son insu et Jocaste, sa mère, lui fut donnée comme épouse par la cité reconnaissante de l'avoir débarrassée du Sphinx qu'il venait de vaincre. Quand il apprit sa méprise, il se punit en se crevant les yeux. Tous les oracles de Delphes ne furent pas si tragiques. Parmi les quelque 500 questions et réponses delphiques qui nous sont parvenues, à l'exception des exemples mythiques ou légendaires, seuls 10 % d'entre elles sont avérés et la majorité concerne des préoccupations politiques, militaires ou religieuses, sujets fondamentaux pour les cités. Dès le VIII siècle av. J-C., le temple du dieu Apollon, à Delphes, attire les voyageurs. En général, chaque cité envoyait des délégations sacrées qui faisaient part à l'oracle de queslions relatives aux affaires publiques: fondation de nouvelles communautés civiques, adoption de lois, introduction el réglementation de culles. Des consultants privés voyageaient aux côtés des représentants officiels. Leurs questions différaient de celles formulées par la cité: convenance d'un mariage, avoir des enfants, risques pris pour leurs affaires ...

Prodiguer des Sanctions Divines

À l'origine, la consultation de la divinité se limitait au septième jour du mois de Bysios (février), le jour anniversaire de la naissance d'Apollon. Puis les visites furent autorisées le septième jour de chaque mois. La sollicitation croissante de l'oracle oblige a même les autorités à multiplier les consultations en dehors des dates officielles. Les cités pouvaient envoyer régulièrement des délégations. Certaines d'entre elles eurent même des rapports privilégiés avec le santuaire de Delphes, comme Corinthe, Athènes, ou Sparte qui disposaient d'ambassadeurs spécifiques. Même si une multitude de pèlerins se pressaient au sanctuaire en quête d'un conseil, la fonction essentielle de l'oracle n'était pas de prédire l'avenir mais plutôt de cautionner tes décisions politiques des cités: sans intervenir directement, il ratifiait les lois et même les constitutions, il approuvait la fondation de nouvelles cités, il conseillait les initiatives guerrières ou les désapprouvait.

Ainsi,la constitution du législateur légendaire de Sparte, Lycurgue, lui aurait été transmise par Apollon; lorsque l'Athénien Clisthène fit voter ses réformes en 508-507 av. J-C., les noms des dix tribus constitutives du corps civique athénien furent tirés au sort par la Pythie à partir d'une liste de cent héros athéniens. Les oracles du dieu pouvaient, au besoin, être utilisés comme une arme politique. La Pythie aurait également orienté les émigrants grecs vers les terres à coloniser à partir du VIII siècle av. J-C. On connaît nombre d'oracles de fondation décrivant le lieu où établir la nouvelle cité: très vraisemblablement créés a posteriori, ils légitimaient leur présence sur un territoire. Lorsque les pèlerins arrivaient au pied du mont Parnasse, ils rencontraient d 'abord le sanctuaire d'Athéna Pronaia, sorte de vestibule du sanctuaire d'Apollon, qui abritait de nombreuses offrandes. Les pèlerins longeaient les installations sportives du sanctuaire,le xyste (piste de course), le gymnase et la palestre où s'enuainaient les sportifs venus de tout le monde grec pour les jeux Pythiques. Ils se purifiaient ensuite aux eaux de la source Castalie, qui jaillissait entre les roches Phaedriades ("les brillantes"). Puis ils empruntaient la Voie sacree à l'entree du sanctuaire. Ce chemin abrupt était bordé d'offrandes monumentales et de "trésors", comparables à des temples miniatures construits par les cités les plus éminentes, qui abritaient les dons de leurs citoyens et affichaient leur richesse et leur puissance. Les cités les avaient souvent consacrés pour remercier le dieu d'un bienfait: ainsi le trésor de Siphnos construit avec La dîme du revenu des mines d'or de l'île vers 530 av.J-C.

La voie les menait d'abord sur l'Aire, où le dieu aurait lutté contre le dragon - serpent Python pour s'emparer de l'oracle de Gaia, et où avait lieu la cérémonie la plus sainte du sanctuaire, le Septérion, qui commémorait l'exploit originel d'Apollon. Puis elle les conduisait au temple. En amont se trouvaient le stade, centre des compétitions sportives, et le théâtre, siège des concours musicaux, lyriques et dramatiques célébrés en l'honneur d'Apollon, dieu protecteur des arts. C'est là qu'étaient célébrés les jeux Pythiques et, plus tard,la fête des Sôtéria, instituée en 178 av. J-C. pour remercier le dieu d'avoir épargné le sanctuaire lors de l'invasion gauloise.

La Pythie Entre en Transe

Les consultations de l'oracle se "payaient" d'abord par des sacrifices probatoires, accomplis sur l'autel du dieu: on immolait généralement une chèvre dont le tremblement signifiait que le dieu conscentait à répondre. Le consultant acquittait alors une taxe, le pélanos, à l'origine une offrande en nature, "un gâteau rituel",qui devint rapidement une somme d'argent. Les plus nantis avaient pour habitude d'offrir, en plus d'un sacrifice, des statues, des trépieds et d'autres ex-voto. Les taxes dont il fallait s'acquitter pour accéder à l'oracle étaient naturellement plus élevées pour les consultations civiques que pour celles d'ordre privé.

On connaît d'autres taxes en nature ou en argent qui octroyèrent au sanctuaire une réputation de rapacité méritée, Les jours de consultation, certaines grandes cités jouissaient du privilège de la "promanteia", priorité de consultation, comme Chios qui avait érigé l'autel du dieu à l'est du temple. Les Delphiens étaient les premiers à consulter, suivis des membres de l'Amphictyonie, collège chargé de protéger les intérêts du sanctuaire.

L'organisationà l'intérieur du temple reste assez méconnue. On y trouvait la Pythie, prêtresse du dieu Apollon qui s'exprimait à travers elle, ainsi que les prêtres chargés de la seconder. Le pèlerin entrait dans le temple par le "chresmographeion", où était conservé le registre du sanctuaire. C'est probablement là qu'il formulait sa question car il n'entrait pas dîrectement en contact avec la Pythie. Selon la tradition, dans la partie la plus retirée du temple d'Apollon se trouvait l'"adyton", "pièce interdite d'accès", parfois décrite comme une salle souterraine où la Pythie escendait, avec une couronne et une branche de laurier (arbre sacré d'Apollon), au moment d'entrer en extase et de communiquer avec la divinité. On raconte qu'elle mâchait les feuilles de laurier, buvait l'eau de la source Cassôtis, puis s'asseyait sur un grand trépied (attribut du dieu), posé sur une fissure naturelle du sol d'où lui parvenait le "pneuma", souffle divin, l'entraînant dans un délire proche de la folie, la "mania". La prêtresse entrait alors en transe et prononçait des paroles, parfois incohérentes, déchiffrées par les "prophetai", Une fois la consultation terminée, le pèlerin se voyait remettre par écrit la réponse de l'oracle, formulée de manière solennelle, parfois même en vers. Le rituel de la consultation n'est cependant pas présenté de manière identique par la tradition antique.

Le Mythe de Delphes en Question

Historien et biographe, Plutarque fut également prêtre d'Apollon à Delphes aux I et II siècles. Sa version de la consultation diffère de la description présentée plus haut. Il explique, par exemple, que l'"adyton", loin d'être une pièce secrète, était ouvert aux consultants. Il ne dit rien non plus de la transe de la Pythie,ou de l'incohérence de ses paroles. Il rapporte seulement que la prêtresse se retirait dans un lieu souterrain lorsqu'elle n'était pas disposée à parler ou qu'elle n'arrivait pas à prophétiser, ce qui provoquait chez elle la folie. Certains exemples de consultations historiques laissent penser que la Pythie faisait non seulement face aux consultants mais aussi qu'elle s'adressait directement à eux.

En définitive, les consultations et les agissements de la Pythie restent un mystère. L'origine de son inspiration a même alimenté différentes hypothèses. Certains ont tenté de l'expliquer par l'usage de substances psychoactives présentes dans l'eau et le laurier, ou par des gaz issus des profondeurs de la terre. Mais les recherches menées dans le temple n'ont rien prouvé. D'autres, enfin, affirment qu'elle durait pu recourir à l'hypnotisme. Finalement, la situation troublée du monde grec entre le déclenchement de la guerre du Péloponnèse (431 av.J-C.) et l'avènement d'Alexandre le Grand (336 av.J-C) contribua à la perte d'influence de l'oracle et à la désuétude des routes de pèlerinage. Son prestige commença à décliner lorsque Philippe de Macédoine mit fin à l'indépendance des cités grecques en 338 av.J-C. car le sanctuaire avait été le grand représentant de leur prospérité et de leurs vicissitudes.

Delphes devint un lieu de tourisme et de rayonnement de la culture grecque: les maximes gravées dans le vestibule du temple, comme le "Rien de trop" ou le "Connais-toi toi-même", furent recopiées jusqu'aux confins du monde grec. En 391, l'empereur romain Théodose ordonna l'interdiction de toute divination. Le Christianisme avait condamné au silence la voix des anciens dieux.

LA QUÊTE D'APOLLON À DELPHES

Selon la légende,Zeus et Athéna n'étaient pas d'accord sur le centre du monde. Alors, Dieu lâcha deux aigles des points extrêmes oriental et occidental du monde jusqu'à ce qu'ils se croisent à Delphes,où l'un d'eux laissa tomber l'"omphalos", le "nombril", pierre qui symbolise le centre du monde. En ce lieu existait un oracle de la déesse de la Terre, Gaia, gardé par un de ses fils, le serpent Python. le dieu Apollon lutta contre ce monstre pour prendre le controle du sanctuaire el le tua. Il acquit le don de prophétie, se purifia dans la source Castalie et refonda un ancien oracle local. Ce dernier resta à charge d'une prêtresse, la Pythie, qui reçut son nom de Python, l'ancien gardien du sanctuaire. Le tragédien Eschyle se réfère il une autre version du mythe selon laquelle Apollon reçut l'oracle en héritage maternel, puisque sa mère était la petite-fille de Gaia.

LES PROPHÉTIES AMBIGUËS DU DIEU

La voix d'Apollon n'était pas facile à interpréter. Héraclite parle de l'ambiguité des reponses et dit que "le dieu dont l'oracle est à Delphes ne révèle pas, ne cache pas, mais indique". Il existe des exemples de malentendus fatals, comme celui du roi Crésus de Lydie à qui l'oracle annonça à propos de sa guerre contre la Perse :" Si tu traverses le fleuve Halys, tu détruiras un grand empire". Crésus franchit le fleuve pour affronter Cyrus le Grand et connut une grave défaite qui détruisit un grand empire, le sien. Philippe Il de Macédoine fit également une mauvaise interprétation de la réponse l'oracle lorsqu'il lui demanda s'il réussirait à conquérir la Perse, L'oracle lui répondit: "le taureau est paré. Tout  est prêt pour le sacrifice. L'officiant est prêt".. Or le taureau n'était pas la Perse, mais Philippe lui-même, Qui mourut assassiné au cours des noces de sa fille.

UN TEMPLE OBJET DE CONFLITS

600-590 av. J.C.

l'Amphictyonie, un conseil de quatre-vingt magistrats-prêtres, délégués par douze cités grecques, se charge de l'administration du sanctuaire du dieu Apollon, à Delphes.

585 av. J.C.

La première guerre sacrée débute: l'Amphictyonie affronte la cité de Krissa, accusée par certains pèlerins de les maltraiter lorsqu'ils refusent de payer des droits de passage qu'ils considèrent comme abusifs.

338 av. J.C.

Aprés son triomphe lors de la Bataille de Chéronée, le roi Philippe II de Macédoine devient le maitre incontesté de la Grèce. Il prend alors le contrôle du sanctuaire d'Apollon à Delphes et de son oracle.

191 av. J.C.

Rome et la Macédoine signent un accord de paix aprés la deuxième guerre Macedoinienne, au cours des jeux Isthmiques. Selon cet accord, Rome finit par contrôler Delphes, cédé par la Macédoine.

391 apr.J.C.

Après avoir déclaré le Christianisme religion officielle Théodose I décréte l'abolition du cult païen, la fermeture des temp´les et l'interdiction des oracles, dont celui de Delphes.

Par Mireia Movellán Luis dans "Histoire-National Geographic", Paris, n.8, novembre, 2013. Édité et adapté pour être posté par Leopoldo Costa.

What do the statues mean?
The more we learn about Easter Island from archaelogist and researchers, the more intriguing it becomes.

"There exists in the midst of the great ocean, in a region where nobody goes, a mysterious and isolated island," wrote the 19th century French seafarer and artist Pierre Loti. "The island is planted with monstrous great statues, the work of I don't know what race, today degenerate or vanished; its great remains an enigma." Named Easter Island by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who first spied it on Easter Day 1722, this tiny spit of volcanic rock in the vast South Seas is, even today, the most remote inhabited place on earth. Its nearly 1,000 statues, some almost 30 feet tall and weighing as much as 80 tons, are still an enigma, but the statue builders are far from vanished. In fact, their descendants are making art and renewing their cultural traditions in an island renaissance.

To early travelers, the spectacle of immense stone figures, at once serenely godlike and savagely human, was almost beyond imagining. The island's population was too small, too primitive and too isolated to be credited with such feats of artistry, engineering and labor. "We could hardly conceive how these islanders, wholly unacquainted with any mechanical power, could raise such stupendous figures", the British mariner Capt. James Cook wrote in 1774. He freely speculated on how the statues might have been raised, a little at a time, using piles of stones and scaffolding; and these has been no end of speculation, and no lack of scientific investigation, in the centuries that followed. By Cook's time, the islanders had toppled many of their statues and were neglecting those left standing. But the art of Easter Island still looms on the horizon of the human imagination.

Just 14 miles long and 7 miles wide, the island is more than 2,000 miles off the coast of South America and 1,100 miles from its nearest Polynesian neighbor, Pitcairn Island, where mutineers from the HMS Bounty hid in the 19th century. Too far south for a tropical climate, lacking coral reefs and perfect beaches, and whipped by perennial winds and seasonal downpours, Easter Island nonetheless possesses a rugged beauty - a mixture of geology and art, of volcanic cones and lava flows, steep cliffs and rocky coves. Its megalithic statues are even more imposing than the landscape, but there is a rich tradition of island arts in forms less solid than stone - in wood and bark cloth, strings and feathers, songs and dances, and in a lost form of pictorial writing called rongorongo, which has eluded every attempt to decipher it. A society of hereditary chiefs, priests, clans and guilds of specialized craftsmen lived in isolation for 1000 years.

History, as much as art, made this island unique. But attempts to unravel that history have produced many interpretations and arguments. The missionary's anecdotes, the archaeologist's shovel, the anthropologist's oral histories and boxes of bones have all revealed something of the island'story But by no means everything. When did the first people arrive? Where did they come from? Why did they carve such enormous statues? How did they move them and raise them up onto platforms? Why, after centuries. did they topple these idols? Such questions have been answered again and again, but the answers keep changing.

Over the past few decades, archaeologists have assembled evidence that the first settlers came from another Polynesian island, but they can't agree on which one. Estimates of when people first reached the island are as varied, ranging from the first to the sixth century A.D. And how they ever found the place, whether by design or accident, is yet another unresolved question.

Some argue that the navigators of the first millennium could never have plotted a course over such immense distances without modern precision instruments. Others contend that the early Polynesians were among the world's most skilled seafarers - masters of the night sky and the ocean's currents. One archaeoastronomer suggests that a new supernova in the ancient skies may have pointed the way. But did the voyagers know the island was even there? For that, science has no answer. The islanders, however, do.

Benedicto Tuki was a tail 65-year-old master wood-carver and keepers ancient knowledge when I met him. (Tuki has since died.) His piercing eyes were set in a deeply creased mahogany face. He introduced himself as a descendant of the island's first king, Hotu Matu'a, who he said, brought the original settlers from an island named Hiva in the Marquesas. He claimed his grandmother was the island's last queen. He would tell me about Hotu Matu'a, he said that day, but only from the center of the island, at a platform called Ahu Akivi with its seven giant statues. There, he could recount the story in the right way.

In Tuki's native tongue, the island - like the people and the language - is called Rapa Nui. Platforms are called abu, and the statues that sit on them, moai (pronounced mo-eye). As our jeep negotiated a rutted dirt road, the seven moai loomed into view. There faces were paternal, all-knowing and human - forbiddingly human. These seven, Tuki said, were not watching over the land like those statues with their backs to the sea. These stared out beyond the island, across the ocean to the west, remembering where they came from. When Hotu Matu'a arrived on the island, Tuki added, he brought seven different races with him, which became the seven tribes of Rapa Nui. These moai represent the original ancestor from the Marquesas and the kings of other Polynesian islands.Tuki himself gazed into the distance as he chanted their names. This is not written down,"he said. "My grandmother told me before she died." His was the 68th generation, he added, since Hotu Matu'a.

Because of fighting at home, Tuki continued, chief Hotu Matu'a gathered his followers for a voyage to a new land. His tatooist and priest, Hau Maka, had flown across the ocean in a dream and seen Rapa Nui and its location, which he described in detail. Hotu Matu'a alld his brother-in-law set sail in long double canoes, loaded with people, food, water, plant cuttings and animals. After a voyage of two months, they sailed into Anakena Bay, which was just as the tatooist had described it.

Sometimes, says Cristián Arévalo Pakarati, an island artist who has worked with several archaeologists, the old stories hold as much truth as anything the scientists unearth. He tells me this as we climb up the cone of a volcano called Rano Raraku to the quarry where the great moai were once carved. The steep path winds through an astonishing landscape of moai, standing tilted and without order, many buried up to their necks, some fallen fucedown on the slope, apparently abandoned here before they were ever moved. Pakarati is dwarfed by a stone head as he stops to lean against it. "It's hard to imagine", he says, "how the carvers must have felt when they were told to stop working. They'd been carving these statues here for centuries, until one day the boss shows up and tells them to quit, to go home, because there's no more food, there's a war and nobody believes in the statue system anymore!" Pakarati identifies strongly with his forebears, working with Jo Anne Van Tilburg, an archaeologiSt at the Universiyy of California at Los Angeles, he's spent many years making drawings and measurements of all the island's moai. (He and Van Tilburg have also teamed up to create the new Galeria Mana, intended to showcase and sustain traditional artisanry on the island.)

Now, as Pakarati and I climb into the quarry itself, he shows me where the carving was done.The colossal figures are in every stage of completion, laid out on their backs with a sort of stone keel attaching them to the bedrock. Carved from a soft stone called lapilli tuff, a compressed volcanic ash, several figures lie side by side in a niche. "These people had absolute control over the stone," Pakarati says of the carvers, "They could move statues from here to Tahai, which is 15 kilometers away, without breaking the nose, the lips, the fingers or anything."Then he points to a few broken heads and bodies on the slope below and laughs. "Obviously, accidents were allowed."

When a statue was almost complete, the carvers drilled holes through the keel to break it off from the bedrock, then slid it down the slope into a big hole. where they could stand it up to finish the back. Eye sockets were carved once a statue was on its ahu, and white coral and obsidian eyes were inserted during ceremonies to awaken the moai's power. In some cases, the statues were adorned with huge cylindrical hats or topknots of red scoria, another volcanic stone. But first a statue had to be moved over one of the roads that led to the island's nearly 300 ahu. How that was done is still a matter of dispute. Rapa Nui legends say the moai "walked" with the help of a chief or priest who had mana, or supernatural power. Archaeologists have proposed other methods for moving the statues, using various combinations of log rollers, sledges and ropes.

Trying to sort out the facts of the island's past has led researchers into one riddle after another - from the meaning of the monuments to the reasons for the outbreak of warfare and the cultural collapse after a thousand years of peace. Apart from oral tradition, there is no historical record before the first European ships arrived. But evidence from many disciplines, such as the excavation of bones and weapons, the study of fossilized vegetation, all the analysis of stylistic changes in the statues and petroglyphs allows a rough historical sketch to emerge: the people who settled on the island found it covered  with trees, a valuable resource for making canoes and eventually useful in transporting the moai. They brought with them plants and animals to provide food, although the only animals that survived were chickens and tiny Polynesian rats. Artistic traditions, evolving in isolation, produced a rich imagery of ornaments for the chiefs, priests and their aristocratic lineages. And many islanders from the lower-caste tribes achieved status as master carvers, divers, canoe builders or members of other artisan's guilds. Georgia Lee, an archaeologist who spent six years documenting the island's petroglyphs, finds them as remarkable as the moai. "There's nothing like it in Polynesia," she says of this rock art, "The size, scope, beauty of designs and workmanship is extraordinary."

At some point in the island's history, when both the art and the population were increasing, the island's resources were overtaxed, too many trees had been cut down. "With out trees you've got no canoes," says Pakarati. "Without canoes you've got no fish, so I think people were already starving when they were carving these statues. The early moai were thinner, but these last statues have great curved bellies. What you reflect in your idols is an ideal, so when everybody's hungry, you make them fat, and big. "When the islanders ran out of resources, Pakarati speculates, they threw their idols down and started killing each other.

Some archaeologists point to a layer of subsoil with many obsidian spear points as a sign of sudden warfare. Islanders say there was probably cannibalism, as well as carnage, and seem to think no less of their ancestors because of it. Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley, who has studied the bones of some 600 individuals from the island, has found numerous signs of trauma, such as blows to the face and head. But only occasionally, he says, did these injuries result in death. In any case, a population that grew to as many as 20,000 was reduced to only a few thousand at most when the captains of the first European ships counted them in the early 18th century. Over the next 150 years, with visits by European and American sailors, French traders and missionaries, Peruvian slave raiders, Chilean imperialists and Scottish ranchers (who introduced sheeps and herded the natives off the land, fencing them into one small village), the Rapa Nui people were all but destroyed. By 1877 there were only 110 natives left on the island.

Although the population rebounded steadily through the 20th century, native islanders still don't own their land. The Chilean government claimed possession of Easter Island in 1888 and, in 1935, designated it a national park, to preserve thousands of archaeological sites. (Archaeologist Van Tilburg estimates that there could be as many as 20,000 sites on the island.) Today, about 2,000 native people and about as many Chileans crowd into the island's only village, Hanga Roa, and its outskirts. Under growing pressure, the Chilean government is giving back a small number of homesteads to native families, alarming some archaeologists and stirring intense debate. But though they remain largely dispossessed, the Rapa Nui people have re-emerged from the shadows of the past, recovering and reinventing their ancient art and culture.

Carving a small wooden moai in his yard, Andreas Pakarati, who goes by Panda, is part of that renewal. "I'm the first professional tattooist on the island in 100 years',he says, soft eyes flashing under a rakish black beret. Panda's interest was stirred by pictures he saw in a book as a teenager, and tattoo artists from Hawaii and other Polynesian islands taught him their tehniques. He has taken most of his designs from Rapa Nui rock art and from Georgia Lee's 1992 book on the petroglyphs. "Now" says Panda, "the tattoo is reborn'"

Other artists of Panda's generation are also breathing new life into old art. In his small studio that doubles as living space, the walls lined with large canvases of Polynesian warriors and tatooed faces, Cristián Silva paints Rapa Nui themes with his own touch of swirling surrealism. " I paint because I appreciate my culture" ~ he says. "The moai are cool, and I feel connected to ancestral things. On this island you can't escape that! But I don't copy them. I try to find a different point of view."

The dancers and musicians of the Kari Kari company, shouting native chants and swaying like palms in rhe wind, are among the most striking symbols of renewal "We're trying to keep the culture alive," says Jimmy Araki, one of the musicians. "We're trying to recuperate all our ancient stuff and put it back rogether, and give it a new uprising." Dancer Carolina Edwards,22, arrives for a rehearsal astride a bright red all-terrain vehicle, ducks behind some pickup trucks on a hill overlooking one of the giant statues and emerges moments later in the ancient dress of Rapa Nui women, a bikini made of tapa,or bark cloth. "When I was little they used to call me tokerau, which means wind, because I used to run a lot, and jump out of trees", she says, laughing. "Most of the islanders play guitar and know how to dance. We're born with the music".

But some scholars, and some islanders, say the new forms have less to do with ancient culture than with today's tourist dollars. "What you have now is reinventing," says Rapa Nui archaeologist Sergio Rapu, a former governor of the island. "But the people in the culture don't like to say we're reinventing. So you have to say, 'OK, that's Rapa Nui culture.' It's a necessity. The people are feeling a lack of what they lost."

Even the oldest and most traditional of artisans, like Benedicto Tuki, agree that tourists provide essential support for their culture - but he insisted, when we spoke, that the culture is intact, that its songs and skills carry ancient knowledge into the present. Grant McCall, an anthropologist from the University of New South Wales in Australia, concurs. When I ask McCall, who has recorded the genealogies of island families since 1968, how a culture could be transmitted through only 110 people, he tugs at his scruffy blond mustache. "Well, it only takes two people," he says, "somebody who is speaking and somebody who is listening."

Since many families' claims to land are based on their presumed knowledge of ancestral boundaries, the argument is hardly academic. Chilean archaeologist Claudio Cristino, who spent 25 years documenting and restoring the island's treasures, frames the debate in dramatic terms. "There are native people on the island, and all over the world, who are using the past to recover their identities, land and power," he says. Sitting in his office at the University of Chile in Santiago, he is not sanguine. "As a scientist, I've spent half my life there. It's my island! And now people are already clearing land and plowing it for agriculture, destroying archeological sites. Behind the statues you have people with their dreams, their needs to develop the island. Are we as scientists responsible for that? The question is, who owns the past?"

Who, indeed? The former mayor of Hanga Roa, Petero Edmunds, who is Rapa Nui, opposes the Chilean government's plans for giving away land. He wants the entire park returned to Rapa Nui control, to be kept intact. "But they won't listen," he says, "They've got their fingers in their ears." And who should look after it? "The people of Rapa Nui who have looked after it for a thousand years," he answers. He becomes pensive, "The moai are not silent, he says. "They speak, They're an example our ancestors created in stone, of something that is within us, which we call spirit. The world must know this spirit is alive."

By  Paul Trachman in "Mysteries of the Ancient World - Smithsonian Collector's Edition", Fall 2009, Smithsonian Institution, USA. Typed, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

"FOLHA DE S. PAULO"

No Sevillano, cozinha europeia se mescla a interferências autorais.

Chef brasileira, que trabalhou dez anos na Espanha, não se propõe a executar movimentos de vanguarda.

O nome do novo restaurante da alameda Lorena, Sevillano, remete à cozinha espanhola da Andaluzia. Já o currículo da chef e sócia, que realça uma passagem, em 2005, pelo restaurante do hotel de Ferran Adrià naquela região, sugere aventuras moleculares no cardápio.

Na verdade, não ocorre nem uma coisa nem outra. O restaurante tem inspiração espanhola, é verdade, mas esta não domina seu cardápio. E quanto à chef Claudia Almeida, brasileira com dez anos de trabalho na Espanha, ela não se propõe a executar aqui os arriscados movimentos da vanguarda espanhola.

O que o Sevillano serve é uma cozinha europeia com presenças espanholas e interferências autorais, às vezes bem-sucedidas. A Espanha está presente com itens típicos como as croquetas de jamón (com recheio de bechamel e presunto) e o salmorejo cordobés (sopa andaluza de tomate com presunto ibérico e ovos de perdiz).

Mas a melhor das entradas não é especificamente espanhola:o foie gras bem cremoso, empanado num mix de frutos secos e recheado com discreta goiabada, servido com redução de vinho do Porto, azeite de manjericão e gelatina de frutas vermelhas.

Entre os pratos principais, volta uma referência ao país que acolheu a chef: o polvo com batatas confitadas e cebolas caramelizadas, de resultado incerto.

Explico: tudo é bem-feito, o polvo firme e macio, as batatas quase derretendo, como as cebolas que agregam certa doçura; mas no lugar do que seria um condimento tradicional — o picante da páprica — temos a dura acidez de um vinagrete de frutas, que não realça o polvo.

O outro carro-chefe da casa é a paleta de cordeiro marinada e confitada por muitas e muitas horas, servida com redução de vinho tinto, frutas cítricas e cuscuz trufado. Segundo o maître,de derreter na boca, de cortar com a colher.Mas,no nosso caso, veio seca e precisando muito de uma boa faca.

Uma das sobremesas é um desafio interessante, a sopa de chocolate com azeite de oliva, farofa de chocolate e sorvete de iogurte. Outra, mais convencional, é a torta sablée de maçã-verde, com doce de leite, farofa de amêndoas e sorvete de canela.

Baiana de 37 anos, a simpática chef Claudia cresceu numa família envolvida com comida, e chegou a ter sua própria casa em Sevilha, o Jano. A volta para o Brasil aconteceu com a decisão de abrir um ponto com o ex-cliente e amigo Leandro Teixeira, 31, mineiro que, após viver na Espanha, foi transferido para São Paulo.

Texto de Josimar Melo publicado no caderno "Comida" da "Folha de S. Paulo" de 18 de dezembro de 2013. Adaptado e ilustrado para ser postado por Leopoldo Costa.


"O ESTADO DE S. PAULO"

Deixem que a boa comida se defenda

A cozinha tem boas qualidades e promete. O serviço é tão prestativo que atrapalha. Se eu tivesse apenas duas linhas para descrever minhas visitas ao Sevillano Bistrô, a síntese seria assim. Aberto há pouco mais de um mês na Al. Lorena, no ponto que já abrigou o izakaya Itigo, o novo restaurante é comandado pela chef (e sócia) Claudia Almeida. Nascida na Bahia, ela se estabeleceu em São Paulo depois de trabalhar por dez anos na Espanha, em regiões como Andaluzia, Alicante e Catalunha (nessa última, passando pelo extinto El Bulli).

O cardápio do Sevillano é sucinto e de inspiração hispano-mediterrânea. Seus pratos são feitos com bons ingredientes e há um evidente cuidado com as cocções e com o equilíbrio. O menu executivo, por exemplo, destaca entradas como o salmorejo (a sopa fria de tomate e alho, que recebe a adição de pedacinhos de jamón). E principais como o peixe fresco do dia na chapa – que pode ser a pescada amarela, bem marcada por fora, úmida e gelatinosa por dentro –, além de sobremesas como pera ao vinho tinto. Tudo por R$ 38,90.

Foi escolhendo pela carta, porém, que provei as melhores pedidas (com exceção da croqueta de jamón, um tanto pesada). A chef trata com capricho as coisas do mar, e prepara um bacalhau bem confitado (um item que poucos acertam por aqui), de sabor piscoso, fishy, mais ao estilo basco. Serve uma tenra paleta de cordeiro (R$ 68). Dá também atenção especial às guarnições, notadamente os vegetais. E surpreende com uma sobremesa como a sopa de chocolate com azeite de oliva, farofa de chocolate e sorvete de iogurte (R$ 18).

Dito isso, é importante mencionar que o serviço, gentil, exagera na eloquência. Mal o cliente se acomoda, é abordado com toda uma pregação sobre a moderna cozinha da Espanha. Há uma insistência em explicar demais, contar que polvo é polvo, que croqueta é croqueta… Um excesso de informações que fazia sentido, quem sabe, no tempo em que Ferran Adrià dominava o Ocidente e os pratos nunca eram o que pareciam. Mas que perdeu o propósito, virou passado – e que não tem nada a ver com o que o Sevillano serve.

Também não carece circular pelas mesas para perguntar, a cada cinco minutos, se está tudo bem (quando não está, as pessoas avisam). Ou se o comensal está percebendo as sutilezas das receitas. Ou ainda antecipar as sensações que devem ser percebidas em cada prato. É só deixar que a comida se defenda por si. Ser menos presente, em suma, facilitaria a vida da brigada. Em lugar de interromper a conversa dos casais ou transformar uma singela pergunta sobre vinho numa palestra, bastaria ser eficiente e educado. Sobraria tempo para outras coisas, como cobrar da cozinha mais agilidade no menu executivo. E os clientes poderiam comer tranquilos.

Por que este restaurante? Porque é uma novidade, com pratos bem feitos.

Texto de Luiz Américo Camargo publicado no caderno "Paladar" de " O Estado de S. Paulo de 11 de dezembro de 2013. Adaptado e ilustrado para ser postado por Leopoldo Costa.

Tra le prime ci fu Rea Silvia, tra le ultime Celia Concordia: in mezzo, un mondo a parte, durato oltre mille anni, di sacerdotesse consacrate alla dea latina del focolare domestico, Vesta. Le vestali erano le uniche donne di Roma antica a costituire un ordine religioso. "Selettivo, regolato da rigide norme, con obblighi e privilegi statali per i suoi membri, molti studiosi lo considerano una casta, perché, al pari di altri sacerdozi romani, come quello dei flàmini e dei salii, le vestali conducevano una vita separata dal resto della società" precisa Diana Guarisco, storica delle religioni all'Università di Bologna.

Diventare vestale significava trasformarsi in una creatura sacra e inviolabile, madre dello Stato e del popolo romano. Era certo un onore, ma anche un grande onere: come nei club più esclusivi, infatti, non tutti potevano entrare, una volta dentro non era così facile uscirne e, pur a fronte di tanti privilegi,la "quota d'iscrizione" rimaneva salata. I criteri di ammissione infatti erano molto rigidi:le nuove sacerdotesse venivano estratte a sorte tra un gruppo di venti bambine tra i 6 e i 10 anni, selezionate dal pontiFex maximus, la più alta carica religiosa dell'antica Roma.

PERFETTE 

Dovevano essere vergini, prive di qualunque difetto fisico, appartenenti a famiglie patrizie, con entrambi i genitori in vita e il padre residente nella penisola italica. Una volta eletta, la piccola sacerdotessa si tagliava la capigliatura per offrirla in sacrificio alla dea. E infilava la veste bianca dell'ordine, che avrebbe indossato fmché fosse rimasta nel tempio. "Poi le toccavano lO anni di apprendistato, lO anni di servizio alla dea e lO anni di insegnamento alle novizie" spiega Guarisco.

E la "ragione sociale del club"? Custodire il fuoco sacro della divinità, che rappresentava l'eternità dell'urbe. Ma l'attività non si esauriva intorno alla brace: le ves tali presenziava no a molte cerimonie religiose e festività connesse al culto domestico, pregavano per la salute del popolo romano, custodivano documenti importanti e preparavano la mola salsa, un composto di farro e sale da cospargere sulle vittime dei sacrifici.

Solo dopo trent'anni di questa vita, se lo desideravano, potevano tornare alle loro case e sposarsi, anche se le poche che lo fecero non ebbero, raccontano gli antichi, matrimoni felici. Forse per questo, ma soprattutto perché era difficile rinunciare all'intoccabilità e ai grandi privilegi cui ormai erano abituate, la maggior parte di loro non abbandonava più il tempio. Co e Cossinia di Tivoli, che per 66 anni rimase sacerdotessa e quando morì venne sepolta, per decreto del Senato, con la sua vecchia bambola d'avorio sulla sponda del fiume Aniene, vicino alla sua città.

RICCHEZZE 

Abitualmente le vestali, considerate sacre, venivano invece tumulate all'interno delle mura cittadine, una pratica vietata per motivi igienici alla gente comune. Ma i favori loro destinati non si esaurivano qui: erano ricchissime, perché, oltre a essere esentate dal pagamento delle tasse, ricevevano uno stipendio statale, porzioni di terre pubbliche e donazioni da privati e imperatori. "Avevano anche il grande privilegio di essere persone giuridiche, perciò potevano gestire il loro patrimonio e fare testamento senza bisogno di alcuna tutela maschile, a differenza di tutte le altre donne)) aggiunge l'esperta. Contrariamente al luogo comune, non erano ragazze" tu tte casa e tempio": usci vano liberamente dalla Casa delle vestali accompagnate dai littori, delle specie di guardie del corpo che proteggevano le autorità di Roma. I magistrati cedevano loro il passo e i consoli abbassavano le insegne quando le incrociavano per strada sulle loro lettighe o sui sontuosi carri. La folla si apriva alloro passaggio e chiunque allungasse le mani rischiava la vita.

SEPOLTE VIVE 

L'unico svago concesso a queste elette erano gli spettacoli: da posti riservati potevano assistere a rappresentazioni teatrali, combattimenti di gladiatori e corse di bighe, ma non alla lotta tra atleti serninudi. Da qui è facile intuire uno dei loro obblighi fondamentali: mantenersi vergini per tutto il tempo in cui avessero servito la dea. Se infatti, salvo rare eccezioni, la pena per chi lasdava spegnere il fuoco sacro erano le frustate del pontefice massimo, andava molto peggio a chi trasgrediva il voto di castità.

Le colpevoli, accusate di incesto con i "figli" romani, venivano sepolte vive a Porta Collina, murate in una stanza sotterranea sigillata dall'esterno. Così era finita Rea Silvia, sacerdotessa di Vesta ad Alba Longa (da dove il culto della dea sarebbe stato importato a Roma): condannata a morte, secondo la leggenda, dopo la violenza subita dal dio Marre e la nascita dei due famosi gemelli, Romolo e Remo. Come lei finirono, in circa 10 secoli, tra le 12 e le 20 sacerdotesse di Vesta, contando anche le vittime della politica, della scaramanzia o degli interessi personali degli imperatori.

Lo storico latino Tito Livio ricorda che all'inizio del V secolo a. C., durante un periodo di battaglie sfortunate e foschi presagi, la jella romana fu attribuita alla castità perduta della ves tale Oppia, perdò condannata. Peggiore il caso dell'anziana Cornelia, mandata a morte dall'imperatore Domiziano (I secolo d. C.) perché i suoi riti non gli avevano assicurato la vittoria sui nemici Daci e Celti: ovvio segnale che la sacerdotessa non era pura. Nessuna di queste accuse comunque scalfi mai l'amore che i Romani nutrirono per le loro vestali fino al 394, quando l'imperatore cristiano Teodosio proibì i culti pagani e spense per sempre il sacro fuoco.

Di Maria Leonardo Leone, estratti "Focus Storia", n. 64, febbraio 2012, Milano.  Compilati, digitati e adattati per essere postato per Leopoldo Costa.

yoga (yogi, yogini)- Yoga is an ancient Hindu practice and belief system that aims at releasing the adept from the bonds of the endless cycle of birth and rebirth. The word yoga is derived from the root yuj, “to yoke,” probably because the early practice concentrated on restraining or “yoking in” the senses. Later the name was also seen as a metaphor for “linking” or “yoking to” God or the divine.

The earliest form of yoga may have been the Jain yoga (c. 900 B.C.E.), which involved severe sensual denial and restraint. To free the soul from birth and rebirth Jains felt it was necessary to restrain the senses completely so as to be beyond both “love” and “hate,” or more accurately, beyond any positive or negative  The early Jain monks and TIRTHANKARAS (perfected beings) would train themselves to ignore the body completely and to train the mind to ignore even the strongest positive and negative stimuli. The details of these ancient Jain practices are lost to us. Jain yoga today is focused more on restraining oneself to prevent injury to any living being, which was always a concern in that tradition.

An element of worldly denial has always been part of all yoga, and even today yogis can be found who perform extreme feats of restraint. Yoga of this sort is ultimately about controlling all bodily functions, so that even the autonomic nervous system can be under the adept’s control. When SWAMI RAMA first traveled to the United States in the 1970s, he demonstrated such control by stopping his heart completely for more than a minute while being attached to a heart monitor.

The BUDDHA’s yoga (c. 600 B.C.E.) was created specifically to counter the earlier push toward complete bodily denial. He declared that mental control was the final object of yoga and did not need to be accomplished by hurting the body. Central to his yoga were watching of the breath and observing of the sensations of the body.

The UPANISHADS (c. 900–300 B.C.E.) do not discuss yoga per se, but they point toward a mental practice that aims to realize the unity of one’s own self with the ultimate Self. This yoga is known as JNANA YOGA, sometimes called “the Yoga of Knowledge.” Nothing is said about postures and only one Upanishad speaks of sitting in a quiet place to meditate. A form of MEDITATION, however, seems to have been central to this type of yoga. A number of passages in the Upanishads imply both bodily denial and attention to the breath.

The BHAGAVAD GITA (c. 200 B.C.E.) makes the first mention of a yoga that uses focus on God as the central practice (in the later YOGA SUTRA, a focus on God is an adjunct practice to the central disciplines). The yoga developed in the Bhagavad Gita was called “devotional yoga,” or BHAKTI YOGA. One focused one’s mind in the same yogic way as in other practices, but one used God as a focus point for all consciousness. Nowadays the chanting of the Gita itself or other texts will be part of the practice.

The Bhagavad Gita also contains the earliest reference to KARMA YOGA—in which the focus is on good conduct in the world. One acts in a disinterested way without regard to the fruits of one’s actions. This makes everyday life a form of yoga. MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI considered this the most important yoga; he wrote extensively about this practice.

The ASHTANGA (eight-limbed) YOGA of PATANJALI (c. second century C.E.) involved a sitting yoga, sometimes called raja yoga, which focused on breathing. As one observed the breath, one developed ways of concentrating the mind and eventually controlling the mind. ASANAS, or postures, are well developed in today’s versions of PATANJALI yoga, but his Yoga Sutra does not list any postures; these may have been later additions to the practice, or they may have developed separately and then merged with the Patanjalian school. There are strong resemblances between the practices found in the early Buddhist texts and those found in Patanjali.

HATHA YOGA is an amalgam of practices that may have emerged separately and were later combined. It includes the basic practices that can be found in Patanjali as well as postures. The term hatha originally meant “violent,” and it is possible that this style of yoga originated in certain types of severe yoga that were softened for protection of the body.

In some systems hatha yoga includes KUNDALINI YOGA as part of its path. The focus of breath control becomes the “serpent” or “Goddess Energy” (kundalini) at the base of the spine, which must be awakened and forced upward to pierce the psychic centers or CHAKRAS that run parallel to the spine. The NADIS or subtle bodily channels are used to guide breath into the central spinal channel to help the raising of the kundalini through the centers. Finally, the rising kundalini meets the god SHIVA at a point above the head called SAHASRARA CHAKRA. This meeting provokes absolute enlightenment. Kundalini yoga practice itself can vary; the kundalini methods used in hatha yoga are somewhat different from those used in TANTRA yoga.

Tantra is the most esoteric of all of the yogas. All yogas, and in fact all paths toward spiritual advance in the Indian tradition, depend upon the guidance of a GURU. However, the tantra yoga practices are so complicated and often dangerous that a guru is of the utmost importance. The basic realization of tantra yoga is that the phenomenal world is nothing but the divine truth — the transcendent and the earthly divinity are one and the same. Whereas other yogas look toward a retreat from the sensual, tantra plunges into the dangers of the senses in order to reach the highest realization.

This is true in particular of the notorious practices of “left-handed” tantra. In the process of worship the devotee (most often a male) drinks alcohol, eats the forbidden beef, and has sexual intercourse with a low-caste partner or “goddess.” The sexual union is seen as the union of the divinity in its transcendent form with the divinity in its mundane aspect. The practice aims to produce an understanding of the divinity in its totality. Alcohol too helps teach about the “bliss” of the infinite. Eating forbidden beef and other acts normally thought as “polluting” teach that even the dirt and refuse in the world are essentially divine. “Right-handed” tantra yoga does not resort to these forbidden practices. It includes much ritual and chanting of MANTRAS to guide the consciousness to its chosen goal.

Apart from these general categories of yoga, many specialized disciplines have emerged, including KRIYA YOGA and Integral Yoga.








By Constance A. Jones and James D. Ryan in "Encyclopedia of Hinduism", Facts on File Inc., New York, 2007, excerpts p. 511-512. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa. 

Penitenza, mal d'amore, ascetismo, vanità, malattia, possessione demoniaca: i mille volti dell'anoressia.

Un filo rosso lega sant'Antonio, santa Caterina da Siena, la principessa Sissi e la modella degli anni '60 Twiggy: il volto affilato, le ginocchia ossute, una sconfinata magrezza. Una condizione umana condivisa da corpi anonimi, che ha attraversato epoche lontanissime tra loro mostrando facce ogni volta diverse. Del resto il cibo è sempre stato fonte di contraddizioni: è indispensabile alla vita ma, contemporaneamente, induce al peccato (non fu forse l'irresistibile morso a una mela a far cacciare dall' Eden Adamo ed Eva?). Lo stesso vale per il suo contrario: il rifiuto ostinato del cibo è stato, di volta in volta, scala verso la santità, segno di possessione demoniaca, atto di ribellione, fenomeno da baraccone, scelta edonistica, sintomo di malattia. E persino struggente prova d'amore, come nel caso della aegritudo amoris, il digiuno amoroso celebrato nella poesia greca e latina, da Saffo a Ovidio, ma che colpì persino, nella mitologia, il bel Narciso, talmente innamorato della propria immagine da languire senza più mangiare né bere.

IMPOPOLARE

Essere sottili come acciughe, nell'antichità, non pagava. Eroi come il Sansone nell'Antico Testamento, l'Achille dell'Diade o l'Ulisse dell'Odissea erano possenti e muscolosi, non magri come chiodi. E ad Atene, città dedita alla filosofia, nel V secolo a.C. il cittadino che passeggiava nell' agorà doveva essere "rotondo" e "panciuto". "Nel mondo antico essere magro significava essere malato" chiarisce Donatella Lippi, docente di Storia della medicina all'Università di Firenze. "L'obesità era al contrario un segno distintivo di ricchezza e benessere". A essere emaciati erano i vecchi, gli ubriachi, i curvi e i calvi. E se nella pittura murale greca e romana l'invidia (personificata dalla dea Phthonos) veniva ritratta spesso come una vecchia magra, consunta e sofferente, il Trimalcione del Satyricon di Petronio (I secolo d.C.), mostrando ai convitati una bambola scheletrica d'argento, impartisce la seguente lezione: "Sic erimus cuncti postquam nos auferet Orcus: ergo vivamus". Ovvero:"Così saremo tutti, dopo che ci avrà rapiti l'Orco (la morte, ndr). Dunque, viviamo!".

Proprio nell'età dell'opulenza, però, nell'Impero Romano ci fu un brusco cambiamento. "Gli imperatori Nerone, Vitellio e Domiziano furono additati dai loro nemici per i loro eccessi alimentari oltre che per le loro scelte di governo. Il filosofo Seneca opponeva all'obesità del tiranno la frugalità dell'uomo libero, e all'idea di opulenza come sinonimo di benessere si sostituì la magrezza come sinonimo di vita morigerata" spiega la storica.

SANTA ANORESSIA

Nei primi secoli del cristianesimo l'astensione devota dal cibo toccò i suoi vertici. Il digiuno penitenziale si trova del resto già nella Bibbia, lo praticano Mosè sul Sinai ("Mosè rimase con il Signore quaranta giorni e quaranta notti senza mangiar pane e senza bere acqua ", Esodo, 34:28) e il profeta Elia ("Si alzò, mangiò e bevve. Con la forza datagli da quel cibo, camminò per quaranta giorni e quaranta notti fino al monte di Dio, l'Oreb", 1Re,19:8). In seguito divenne sinonimo di elevazione spirituale: per Tertulliano, nel III secolo d.C. "il corpo denutrito ed emaciato passa più facilmente attraverso la stretta grata del Paradiso" e per san Pietro Crisologo (IV-V secolo) lo spirito della "gastrimargia" (la concupiscenza della gola) rendeva pazzi.

Autentici virtuosi del digiuno furono i "padri del deserto" cristiani che dal IV secolo vissero in solitudine tra Palestina, Egitto e Siria. "Con sant'Antonio abate e san Romualdo debuttò il cosiddetto "digiuno ascetico", un modo per contrapporsi al demonio, la cui esistenza pareva confermata dalle alludnazioni che ne conseguivano e che all'epoca non venivano messe in relazione (come spesso invece sono, ndr) con la mancanza di cibo" dice la studiosa. Sulla loro scia in tutta l'Europa medioevale si diffuse il fenomeno delle "sante digiunatrici", che smettevano di nutrire il corpo, simbolo di lussuria e debolezza, aspirando alla perfezione spirituale. Tra queste Chiara d'Assisi, Caterina da Siena e Angela da Foligno che oggi, secondo lo storico americano Rudolph Bell, autore di un saggio oramai classico sull'argomento, sarebbero diagnosticate come "anoressiche".

Se nel '300 Caterina da Siena, patrona d'Italia, si "stuzzicava la gola con uno stelo di finocchio o con una piuma d'oca" fino a provocarsi il vomito, nel '500 la spagnola Teresa d'Avila usava allo stesso scopo un ramoscello d'ulivo, per liberare totalmente lo stomaco e accogliere l'ostia consacrata, unica fonte di sostentamento. Le "sante anoressiche" ossute e iperattive si opposero con tutte le forze all'alimentazione, ma non solo per motivi spirituali. "Il digiuno era anche una forma di ribellione alla struttura sociale e patriarcale del cattolicesimo medioevale e persino alle regole monastiche, che imponevano sobrietà ma non digiuno" sostiene Lippi. Tant'è che l'astinenza da cibo cominciò a essere bollata come un atto di superbia verso Dio. E dato che era accompagnata da prorompente vitalità, cominciò a far sospettare alla Chiesa lo zampino del diavolo: nel manuale antistreghe "Malleus malencarum", redatto nel 1487 dai frati domenicani Heinrich Kramer e Jakob Sprenger, uno dei fantasiosi criteri per identificare le figlie del demonio, da spedire poi sul rogo, era lo scarso peso grazie al quale, si diceva, erano in grado di volare.

MALATE

Con il Rinascimento, tra popolo affamato dalle carestie e sfarzo smodato delle corti, l'obesità tornò a essere sinonimo di ricchezza. Paragonati all'aspetto rubicondo esibito da papi, cardinali, arcivescovi, re e regine, i poveri erano regolarmente più magri. Quanto al digiuno autoindotto, più che indice di santità fu da allora considerato sintomo di malattia. Numerosi sono i casi descritti nella letteratura medica del Cinque-Seicento. Come quello di Margherita Weiss, una bambina tedesca di l0 anni, che restò per un anno "senza pigliar nutrimento di sorta nessuna", affidata al medico personale dell' imperatore tedesco Ferdinando I d'Asburgo, ma per controllare che non mangiasse di nascosto. O quello di Apollonia Schreier, la scheletrica "Vergine digiunatrice" di Berna, che nel 1604 restò senza mangiare per il mesi per poi mettersi all'improvviso a mangiare lenzuola e coperte, tentando perfino di ingerire le posate.

Per spiegare questi fenomeni di deperimento volontario fiorirono le tesi più fantasiose: dall"'emaciazione nervosa" ipotizzata nel 1689 da sir Richard Morton, medico della Corona inglese, al "delirio ipocondriaco" considerato tipico delle fanciulle in età puberne teorizzato nell'Ottocento dal luminare parigino Louis-Victor Marcé.

MENTI SCONVOLTE

Nell'Ottocento si cominciò a etichettare ogni comportamento anomalo femminile come "isteria". Anoressia indusa. Lo psichiatra inglese William Withey Cull parlò di una "apepsia hysterica" dovuta a "perversione dell'ego", sostituita dalla "anoressia isterica" del collega parigino Ernest-Charles Lasègue, che così la descrisse: "L'isterica riduce gradatamente il cibo talvolta con il pretesto del mal di testa [...] Dopo qualche settimana non si tratta più di ripugnanze passeggere [...] è un rifiuto dell'alimentazione che si prolungherà indernitamente".

Ma la spiegazione più bizzarra per quei disturbi che colpivano più frequentemente le giovinette fu formulata dallo psicologo Paul Sollier nel 1863. Il francese puntò il dito sugli spasmi all'esofago, provocati a suo parere da "cause morali" come la noia e la civetteria, e da illusioni sensoriali prodotte dalla "macropsia", cioè dalla tendenza a percepire più grandi le dimensioni di alcuni oggetti, per esempio la quantità di cibo nel piatto.

A cavallo tra Ottocento e Novecento, il padre della psicanalisi Sigmund Freud fu lapidario:il drastico deperimento era collegato alla malinconia ed esprimeva il rifiuto della sessualità. In tutti i casi, la terapia più efficace per le anoressiche era la cura del riposo: lontane dalle preoccupazioni, e soprattutto dai parenti, essendo questi "i peggiori custodi".

IDEALE DI BELLEZZA 

Alla fine del XIX secolo, dopo anni di rigida morale vittoriana e dopo le profonde trasformazioni della famiglia borghese, anche l'ideale femminino cambiò. "Dalle forme opulente legate alle necessità 'riproduttive' e dal modello di donna 'a clessidra' con vita sottile e busto ben piantato, si passò al corpo snello, privo dell'enfasi sulla maternità" spiega Donatella Lippi. I chili di troppo divennero un problema e gastronomi come Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935) ridussero drasticamente il numero delle portate e misero a punto pasti più leggeri. A imporre la moda della magrezza fu però Elisabetta d'Austria (1837-1898), meglio nota come principessa Sissi, moglie dell'imperatore Francesco Giuseppe. Le cronache dell'epoca la descrivono bella e irrequieta, capelli castani folti e lunghissimi, che sciolti arrivavano quasi alle caviglie. Per conservare il suo vitino da vespa la ribelle Sissi aveva una sua dieta personale (per esempio, beveva misture di albume d'uovo e sale), praticava numerosi sport (soprattutto estenuanti cavalcate) e costringeva le dame di compagnia a seguirla in interminabili passeggiate quotidiane. Un'ossessione per la magrezza che la fa considerare la capostipite delle moderne anoressiche, precedendo di anni l'attrice Greta Garbo e l'androgina Twiggy, top-model degli anni '60. Tutte vittime di una malattia oggi diffusissima causata in ogni epoca e luogo, secondo la psichiatra tedesca Hilde Bruch, soprattutto dal desiderio di conquistare la propria identità attraverso il corpo, considerato come una "gabbia d'oro".

Il contrario dell'anoressia: una fame da bue.

La parola bulimia (da greco bous, 'bue', e limós, "fame") si potrebbe tradurre con 'fame bovina': chi ne è affetto sarebbe capace di mangiare un bue e ha sempre un appetito da bue. Il mangiar troppo non ha mai goduto di buona fama. Molti secoli prima che il cristianesimo indicasse l'ipocondrio, cioè lo stomaco, come sede degli istinti più bassi, il filosofo greco Platone condannava l'ingordigia in quanto nemica della filosofia e delle museo. Non si trattava di un fenomeno raro: lo scrittore greco Senofonte, nel V secolo a.C., descrisse nell'"Anàbasi" la fame irrefrenabile che colpiva i soldati durante le campagne militari: e il filosofo Seneca condannò i patrizi romani che, nei loro interminabili banchetti, alternavano abbuffate e vomitate.

Peccati di gola 

Anche durante il cristianesimo medioevale i peccati di gola erano disprezzati perché avvicinavano l'uomo alla condizione bestiale, tanto che nel VI canto dell'"Inferno" Dante condanna i golosi a essere immersi in una palude di fango fetido, sotto una pioggia nera, mista a grandine e neve. Per secoli in Europa la penuria di cibo generò una fame atavica: la'cinoressia' (incontenibile fame 'canina' che sfociava in vomito) apparve nell'elenco delle patologie alimentari redatto da Bartolomeo Anglico nel XIII secolo. Tra i bulimici più famosi, il pittore fiammingo Hans Memling, morto nel 1494 dopo aver ingerito un enorme luccio.

I virtuosi del digiuno

I digiuno volontario ha suscitato in ogni epoca curiosità, ammirazione e timore. Ed essendo interpretato come prova di forza d'animo, è stato usato anche per scopi politici o autocelebrativi.

Stomaco in sciopero.

Nella greca Sparta il legislatore Licurgo (VIII secolo a.C) avrebbe digiunato per protesta contro i cittadini che cercavano di fargli cambiare le leggi. E nel Medioevo santa Chiara d'Assisi minacciò di astenersi dal cibo se il papa le avesse negato il permesso di fondare il suo ordine. Una delle prime proteste di massa fu invece cuella dei coloni del Massachusetts e della Virginia che, nel 1774, cigiunarono contro l'Inghilterra. E all'inizio del XX secolo, prima che Gandhi usasse il digiuno (una pratica comune tra i sadhu, gli asceti induisti) contro la dominazione britannica in India, lo sciopero della fame fu l'arma di antimilitaristi e suffragette (che chiedevano il voto femminile).

Digiuno spettacolo.

Alla fine del XIX secolo il digiuno estremo s trasformò persino in fenomeno da baraccone con i cosiddetti 'scheletri viventi" o 'artisti della fame' che si esibivano nelle fiere e nei circhi. L'italiano Giovanni Succi si esibì digiunando (anche per un mese consecutivo) in tutte le capitali d'Europa, sostenendo di essere posseduto da uno spirito benigno che gli permetteva di vivere senza cibo.

I rimedi per mangiare

Il termine anorexya per indicare la mancanza totale di appetito fu coniato dal medico greco Galeno di Pergamo (II-III secolo). Sulla sua cura, però, i medici si sono arrovellati per secoli: il bizantino Alessandro di Tralle (VI secolo), pensando si trattasse di "eccesso di umori" nello stomaco, prescrisse vomito, purganti e, nei casi più difficili, brodo di piccione e uva. Molto diffusa, nel Medioevo, fu invece l'alimentazione forzata: si cacciava in bocca della donna un imbuto, in cui venivano versati acqua e latte.

Aria di campagna. 

Più complessi i metodi dell'inglese Richard Morton a fine '600: prima tentò di applicare "sacchetti aromatici" sullo stomaco delle scheletriche pazienti, poi utilizzò sciroppi composti con "acque cefaliche e antisteriche". Infine prese a consigliare di "abbandonare gli studi, respirare aria di campagna, andare a cavallo".

Secondo Giorgio Baglivi, medico seicentesco di origine dalmata, la migliore cura era invece un "medico dalla lingua sciolta e maestro nell'arte della persuasione". Ultimo, e più clamoroso, il caso del fisiologo tedesco Morris Simmonds all'alba della prima guerra mondiale: convinto che il dimagrimento estremo derivasse da un grave scompenso dell'ipofisi, prescriveva ormoni in dosi da cavallo.

Di Claudia Giammatteo, estratti "Focus Storia", n. 64, febbraio 2012, Milano.  Compilati, digitati e adattati per essere postato per Leopoldo Costa.