We Hath Disrespected the Powerful Pangolin Gods and this is The Terrible Price We Must Pay
― ogmor, Monday, 16 March 2020 12:30 (four years ago) link
THE OLD PANGOLIN GODS ARE EVER VIGILANTTHEY WATCH AND WAIT IN THE STILL TWILIGHT OF TIMEHISTORY IS BUT A SPECK OF SAND IN THEIR ETERNAL WAKEKNOW THIS, AND BE CRADLED UNTO HOLY INOCULATION
― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Monday, 16 March 2020 12:37 (four years ago) link
Like many people, the Lele distinguish between ritually pure animals, which can be eaten, and ritually impure animals, which can not. But the pangolin is a conundrum. It resists the prisons of thought, by the sheer virtue of its weirdness. ‘It is scaly like a fish, but it climbs trees. It is more like an egg-laying lizard than a mammal, yet it suckles its young.’ And its young are born singly, like human children, rather than in litters. Other animals are teeming and fecund, but this creature is slow, thoughtful, and still. The pangolin is a moment of calm in the chaos of wild nature, and while chaos can be moulded into order, the pangolin continues under its own peaceful laws, and refuses to submit to any other. As Douglas writes, they embody ‘the limitation on human contemplation of existence.’ They are the unapproachable equals of ourselves.Among some peoples, it’s forbidden to kill a pangolin. Anti-poaching initiatives in Zimbabwe are trying to reactivate some of these traditions – how can it be anything other than taboo to destroy an animal that’s so mild, and so defenceless against death? But the Lele do kill and eat pangolins – never for their daily sustenance, but only as part of religious rituals. It is outside of the categories of ordinary life, and they are fully aware that what they are killing is a god. ‘Like Abraham’s ram in the thicket and like Christ, the pangolin is spoken of as a voluntary victim. It is not caught, but rather it comes to the village. It is a kingly victim: the village treats its corpse as a living chief and requires the behaviour of respect for a chief on pain of future disaster. The mysteries of the pangolin are sorrowful mysteries.’
Among some peoples, it’s forbidden to kill a pangolin. Anti-poaching initiatives in Zimbabwe are trying to reactivate some of these traditions – how can it be anything other than taboo to destroy an animal that’s so mild, and so defenceless against death? But the Lele do kill and eat pangolins – never for their daily sustenance, but only as part of religious rituals. It is outside of the categories of ordinary life, and they are fully aware that what they are killing is a god. ‘Like Abraham’s ram in the thicket and like Christ, the pangolin is spoken of as a voluntary victim. It is not caught, but rather it comes to the village. It is a kingly victim: the village treats its corpse as a living chief and requires the behaviour of respect for a chief on pain of future disaster. The mysteries of the pangolin are sorrowful mysteries.’
― ogmor, Monday, 16 March 2020 12:43 (four years ago) link
Fascinating. I hope you won't mind my posting the source:
https://samkriss.com/2019/02/16/for-the-pangolin/
Bonus points for the epigraph.
― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Monday, 16 March 2020 12:47 (four years ago) link
I love pangos.
― emil.y, Monday, 16 March 2020 15:54 (four years ago) link
Jackie Chan warned us to tread carefully.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0i9HjbdcTM
― Sanpaku, Monday, 16 March 2020 15:59 (four years ago) link
Is there an appropriate sacrifice for the pangolin gods? I've got some pistachios and some fruit.
― love will keep us apart (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 16 March 2020 16:00 (four years ago) link
Pictured: Pangolin Overlord Marching Alongside One of Its Biped Underlings as the Sacred Dust of Septic Defilement Swells to the Sound of Booted Footfalls Across the Four Corners of the Known World
https://theincidentaltourist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Armed-guard-accompanying-pangolin-on-evening-walk.-C.-Neil-Aldridge-740x560.jpg
― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Monday, 16 March 2020 16:03 (four years ago) link
pangolins are also bipedal tbf!
― strangely hookworm but they manage ream shoegaze poetry (imago), Monday, 16 March 2020 16:14 (four years ago) link
I think the very least we can do is bfttp
― ogmor, Monday, 16 March 2020 16:16 (four years ago) link
Only some, it seems.
xp
― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Monday, 16 March 2020 16:17 (four years ago) link
o mighty scaly pangolin, humanity turns its lonely eyes to you
― love will keep us apart (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 16 March 2020 16:21 (four years ago) link
between / dusk and day they have not un- / chainlike machine- / like form and / frictionless creep of a thing / made graceful by adversities, con- // versities. To explain grace / requires a curious hand.
― woof, Monday, 16 March 2020 16:30 (four years ago) link
:)
― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Monday, 16 March 2020 16:31 (four years ago) link
I HAVE A PANGOLINI PRAISE IT ALL NIGHT LONG
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Monday, 16 March 2020 20:44 (four years ago) link
pangolin wind, my favorite rod stewart song
― ooga booga-ing for the bourgeoisie (voodoo chili), Monday, 16 March 2020 20:48 (four years ago) link
Youuuuuuuuu touch meI fear the SARS of pangolins
― ogmor, Monday, 16 March 2020 20:52 (four years ago) link
Pangolin Says It Has More Viruses Where That Came From If People Don’t Leave It The Fuck Alone
― sleeve, Monday, 16 March 2020 20:52 (four years ago) link
https://nu.aeon.co/images/133b74cb-9ecb-4be6-be13-8a175fdbe035/header_ESSAY-Space-Pangolin-Web.jpg
Mighty Pholidota, space traveling pangolin of the Outer Reaches - I throw myself upon your cosmic claws.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 16 March 2020 20:56 (four years ago) link
Listen to the pangolin rainA sad song, driftin' low
― love will keep us apart (Ye Mad Puffin), Monday, 16 March 2020 21:23 (four years ago) link
RENOUNCE THE PANGOLIN USURPERS
WE HAVE RISEN FROM THE ASHES TO RECLAIM OUR DIVINE CATHEDRA
WE ARE THE CHIROPTERA
LET OUR FATHOMLESS VOICES RESOUND THROUGH YOUR NEURAL CAVITIES
https://sweetwaterinn.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/flying-fox-bats-1500x609.jpg
― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 12:35 (four years ago) link
why has this terrible squeaking interrupted our pangolin worship
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 12:36 (four years ago) link
Why not both?
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/16/47/f0/1647f0243cd68fb2bf604d1d1ea1a5d5.jpg
― Sanpaku, Wednesday, 18 March 2020 12:39 (four years ago) link
P: THE OLD PARIAH SHALL NEVER BE COUNTENANCED BY OUR ALL-SEEING ELDERS
B: THE UNHALLOWED HYMEN OF YORE SHALL BE THRUST INTO THE FAITHLESS PIT
― romanesque architect (pomenitul), Wednesday, 18 March 2020 12:43 (four years ago) link
God exists!
Identifying SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses in Malayan pangolins
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 4 April 2020 02:13 (three years ago) link
I'm gonna pray to both, just to be sure
― sleeve, Saturday, 4 April 2020 02:16 (three years ago) link
Good news:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caeKbFch-fU(jump to 3.46)
Bad news:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/31/did-pangolins-start-the-coronavirus-pandemic
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Tuesday, 25 August 2020 02:26 (three years ago) link