Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was reading an article, some time ago, about Amazon Indians that actually like rotten meat. Apparently, it is quite nutritious, doesn't hurt them (maybe acquired immunity?), and is probably fairly easy to digest (it's halfway there, already). Scavenging spoiled meat is a fairly classic natural trait, and even apex predators won't pass up an easy snack.
>Scavenging spoiled meat is a fairly classic natural trait, and even apex predators won't pass up an easy snack. It has to be said that humans in particular have stomach acidity on the levels of scavenger type meat eaters. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjourn... There's been a decent amount of research on the relation between stomach pH and diet, with animal species that have pronounced scaven…
>McKenzie observed something else as well. Once hauled from the water, the carcasses “were left for some time to Season into a flavor then carried home and at feasts are reckoned a great delicacy.” McKenzie found these ripened “float bison” revolting. But they were a delicacy – documented by many observers – for Missouri River peoples. The more rotten the flesh, the more appealing it was. “When the skin is raised you will see the flesh of a greenish hue, and ready to become alive at the least exposure to the sun,” McKenzie said, the meat, “so ripe, so tender, that very little boiling is required – the stench is absolutely intolerable.” The Indians preferred float bison “to any other kind of food.” It boiled up into a “bottle green” soup that the Mandans “reckoned delicious.” Indeed, McKenzie said, “so fond are the Mandanes of putrid meat that they bury animals whole in the winter for consumption of the Spring.”
I would love to know what kind of microbiome people have that can eat putrid meat. Or perhaps we all have that ability :)
[1] https://centerofthewest.org/2017/08/01/mandan-strong-spirits...