The Nenets, Khanty, Evenki, Chukchi, Koryaks, as well as representatives of some other peoples of Siberia and the Far East, drink the blood of deer. Moreover, it should be still warm. Therefore, entire families often gather around the carcass of a freshly slaughtered animal to have a joint meal. Why do they do it?
Vitamins and minerals
Needless to say, how difficult a person's life is in the Far North. In addition to freezing temperatures of 50 degrees, polar night and lack of civilization benefits, reindeer herders are deficient in essential trace elements for health. Especially vitamins C and A, as well as iron, a lack of which can cause anemia in a person.
The diet of reindeer in the winter season consists mainly of lichen moss, while in summer these animals feed on grasses, berries and rare shrubs. Vitamins and minerals from the tundra enter the body of deer and saturate their blood. And for a long time, for the representatives of the northern peoples, practically the only way to get the trace elements necessary for health in order to withstand the polar night was the use of reindeer blood. This is how a national tradition, unusual for Europeans, developed.
As a result of numerous studies, scientists have found that a person who eats this product increases the level of hemoglobin in the blood, more oxygen begins to flow into the muscles and tissues, and this, in turn, increases the person's performance and endurance. In the harsh conditions of the Arctic, reindeer blood increases people's chances of survival.
ethnoscience
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It is no secret that the lack of essential vitamins and trace elements in the human diet can lead to the development of numerous diseases. These are metabolic disorders, anemia, hypertension, asthma, osteochondrosis, and cardiovascular dystonia. For centuries, the inhabitants of the Far North had to make do with folk remedies. One of them was the blood of deer, which has a general strengthening effect, contributing to the rapid healing of various wounds and pustules, and recovery from injuries.
Interestingly, reindeer breeders of the Far North did not always slaughter a reindeer to treat a sick person. Sometimes, they just made an incision in his neck and took the required amount of blood into some vessel. Then the animal's wound was covered with clay. And the man recovered, and the deer remained alive.
Another of the ailments that the inhabitants of the tundra treated with a similar means of traditional medicine was impotence. The northerners noticed that the consumption of blood in food naturally increases the sexual activity of people, relieving them of various problems in the pelvic area.
So the anecdotes about the love of the inhabitants of the Arctic, perhaps, did not arise from scratch.
Not only deer
Representatives of the northern peoples drink not only deer blood, other animals also serve as a source of nourishing and life-giving liquid for them.
Previously, successful hunting was a prerequisite for the survival of these people. Not a single family could do on a long polar night, for example, without walrus fat, which was used not only for food, but also for many household needs. Sometimes all the men of the village went to hunt sea and fur animals. Hunters tracked down their prey, often spending a lot of time and effort. And they needed to somehow replenish the body's energy costs in the cold. After the end of the hunt, people cut the throat of the animal and drank the still warm blood to keep warm and full.
What about hygiene? - readers will ask. The fact is that one of the main features of this product is its relative purity. Parasites can live in the organs and tissues of animals, but their blood is generally safe in this regard. Therefore, it can be drunk raw.
Well, what about the Far North and without shamans? They not only allowed the herders to eat this way, but also strongly recommended such a diet.
According to the beliefs of the ministers of pagan cults, the soul of any living creature is in its blood. Thus, a person, drinking the blood of the beast, symbolically takes away its strength. In other words, the blood of a bear will help you to become powerful, the blood of a wolf will help you become brave. If you want to be cunning - kill the fox, aggressive - wolverine.
These ideas are rooted in ancient totemism and animism, when people still did not separate themselves from nature.
Probably, the perception of blood as a source of vitality led to the emergence of vampirism. After all, some criminals, believing in immortality that this red liquid can allegedly bestow on a person, could really kill people in order to prolong their own life.
Fuel economy
Another reason why the inhabitants of the Far North have been eating warm reindeer blood since ancient times is the pragmatic desire to save firewood and other fuel.
Making a fire and maintaining it for a long time requires a considerable amount of wood, and it is not possible to stock up on it for the entire period of the polar night. Warm blood quickly satisfies hunger and gives energy, and people do not have to spend a lot of firewood.
Therefore, the Nenets, Khanty, Evenki, Chukchi, Koryaks and other northern peoples do not make blood sausage - one of the favorite dishes of the inhabitants of some European countries. In addition, cooled blood loses many of its beneficial properties.
Orynganym Tanatarova