810-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 25, 1987
Earth-Bating Is Common Among People
WASHINGTON Some peo
ple eat earth and not just in
times of famine or because they’re
crazy. In some societies, it’s nor
mal human behavior.
“We think how horrible, how
revolting, but there’s no stigma.
It’s a nearly universal cross
cultural phenomenon, an accepted
fact of life,” says geographer John
M. Hunter of Michigan State Uni
versity, who has studied earth
eating, known as geophagy, over
the past 20 years, primarily in Afri
ca and Central America.
What earth-eaters consume
mostly are fine white clays such as
kaolin not gntty, organic dirt.
The clays are often shaped like
eggs, disks, or wafer-thin tablets,
baked in the sun or smoked over a
fire, and sold in outdoor markets.
Why people eat earth is rooted
in religious beliefs, cultural tradi
tions, medicinal practices, and
physiological needs.
Clay may be eaten to reduce
hookworm-caused abdominal
pain, ease hunger pangs, soothe
heartburn and nausea, control diar
rhea, or simply satisfy a craving.
To discerning palates, some soil
has a pleasingly sour, lemony
taste.
But the most common manifes
tation of geophagy, Hunter says, is
during preg
nancy, so much so that he calls
clays used for eating “pregnancy
clays.”
In India, for example, elaborate,
baked clay figurines are given as
bridal gifts, to be broken and eaten
during pregnancy.
In Africa, Hunter says, if a preg
nant woman is “undernourished,
exhausted from many pregnancies
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m a few years, has no doctor to see
or pharmacy to go to, and no
money for nutritional supple
ments, she resorts to intuitive,
pragmatic folk medicine.”
Under these circumstances, he
explains, “clays can definitely
supply minerals to the fetus. They
compare favorably with Western
pharmaceutical supplements.”
Hunter’s judgment is based on
laboratory tests at Michigan State
that analyzed clay samples and
simulated human digestion to
determine what the body receives
from clay. His work is supported in
part by the National Geographic
Society.
Depending on where clays
originate, they can contain miner
als such as iron, calcium, magne
sium, potassium, phosphorous,
zinc, copper, and manganese.
Geophagy is a harmless practice
unless carried to excess, Hunter
says. Heavy, habitual clay-eating
can impede the body’s absorption
1/ minerals and block the colon.
But culturally rooted geophagy,
he says, should not be confused
with a psychiatric disorder, com
monly called pica, that is mani
fested by chronic, compulsive eat
ing of nonfoods such as gravel,
chalk, paint chips, or dirt
Geophagy which can be
traced back to ancient Greek and
Roman times, when embossed red
clay medallions were widely used
as medicine is still practiced in
Africa, Asia, the Middle East,
Central America, and the United
States.
Hunter believes that Africans
probably started eating clay to
satisfy hunger pangs. A person
would reach out for the nearest bit
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of clay, breaking off a piece of the
fireplace, for example. “That
smoked clay would be crispy and
crunchy to eat,” he says.
As the practice evolved, a favo
rite family clay pit would be found,
and then one preferred by a group
of families ora village. Eventually
a peasant industry emerged, with
clays sold in markets, sometimes
hundreds of miles away.
Clays for trade are usually
washed, mixed with water,
kneaded, shaped, often decorated,
and dried in the sun. Some are left
in lump form. They all sell for
pennies.
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phagy to the southern United
States. It is still practiced by some
blacks, mostly during pregnancy,
in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia,
and the Carolinas.
Even when some black women
move to Northern cities, they are
sent clays from the family clay
mound. Hunter says. But others
look down on the clay-eating
habits of their mothers and grand
mothers and consume less
nutritious laundry starch instead.
In Central America, clay-eating
is associated with the worship of
the Black Christ at Esquipulas in
eastern Guatemala. Once a sacred
Indian site known for its healing
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muds and hot springs, it became a
Christian shrine after the Spanish
Conquest. A 5-foot-high image of
Christen the cross, carved in 1595,
became known as the Black Christ
because its brown woods
resembled the copper-colored skin
of the Indians.
More than a million people a
year, most from Central America,
now visit the shrine, says geogra
pher Robert N. Thomas of Michi
gan State. Small,glistening white
clay tablets embossed with the
image of Christ and known as “pan
del Senor” (bread of the Lord)
are sold to the pilgrims. The bis
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