• Echo Dot
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    401 year ago

    Yes this they used to use wheel spinal fluid as a base for perfumes. Because of course they did.

    I think that practise was banned years ago mostly because it isn’t remotely sustainable.

    Iceland has this weird thing about wailing. You see all these whaling ships right alongside whale tour boats. It’s like they sort of get it but can’t quite get over the culture of whale hunting.

    Which in fairness is part of their culture but they have a Costco there now as well so…

      • Are you seriously comparing the responsible hunting of a sustainable number of minke whales to the deliberate genocide of an indigenous population?

      • Echo Dot
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        21 year ago

        I don’t think you know what “culture” means. It’s not just stuff that people did in the past, it’s what traditions are based around.

        How do you think Iceland traditionally got food? They’re not exactly surrounded by arable land are they?

      • @ComplexDonut@aussie.zone
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        11 year ago

        Except can you really say “genociding native americans” and “slavery” are a part of American culture? Is it “customary” of Americans to kill native americans and slavery can be an American trait?

        • @michaelrose@lemmy.ml
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          21 year ago

          If you include the period before we split from England we spent centuries taking land that didn’t belong to us and building our economy at least partly on slavery. If you look at the South in that time frame slavery permeated their culture. It is as fair to say that slavery was if anything much more deeply embedded in Southern culture than whaling in Iceland.

        • Except can you really say “genociding native americans”

          As a country, the US has spent more of its existence genociding native Americans than allowing women to vote, or having a standing army.

          and “slavery” are a part of American culture?

          The US currently has fully legalized privatized slavery. You, specifically you, can own a slave in the US right now. You can even treat them as if the constitution does not apply to them in any way. Simply buy a prisoner and get a judge to commit that prisoner to you for the length of their sentence. It’s so ingrained in our culture, we’ve never stopped the practice.

      • @jcit878@lemmy.world
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        11 year ago

        whales have something in their brain cavity that was considered valuable at the time, can’t remember what it was called or what it was used for but I think that was the equivilant thing they were going for in Avatar

        • Roboticide
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          11 year ago

          Whales have been used for a number of resources in the past.

          Oil from blubber was a big one, and used in everything from lamps to soap.

          Ambergris was a perfume base.

          Spermaceti, the substance in the head of sperm whales, was used for candles and also lamps, as it was a higher quality.