The Larder: Food Studies Methods from the American South

CHAPTER 4 Bodies of the Dead: The Wild in Southern Foodways

Among the papers of the Mississippi Game and Fish Commission a worn clipping cries, “Water Valley Hides Bodies Of Its ‘Dead!’ Merovka Fails to Find Slaughtered Geese Slain on City’s Streets.” The story goes that on a winter night in 1932, a dense fog forced a flock of wild geese—probably Canada geese—to land in the northern Mississippi town. Citizens reacted with sticks and roasting pans. Effective game laws and enforcement were new to Mississippi at the time,but a citywide goose clubbing drew attention even then. Lawrence Merovka, one of only a handful of federal wardens in the mid-South, investigated but claimed he found no evidence of the incident.“Blinded and helpless, hundreds of the gamest birds in the world, fell defenseless in the streets and were slaughtered by the inhabitants,”wrote a local newspaperman.“They are serving wild geese, deliciously baked and properly seasoned, on family tables in scores of homes up at Water Valley.” These days the only clubs most Canada geese encounter are in the hands of golfers. Though still a respected game bird among waterfowlers, the Canada goose has become a “nuisance” in much of the United States. Attracted by the highly fertilized grass of lawns and golf courses, these urban and suburban geese enjoy a more certain food supply and experience less hunting and predation than their ancestors—and their population has risen accordingly. Many of the problem Canadas are resident birds of the giant race Branta Canadensis maxima, whose forebears had been restocked by game conservation agencies in an effort to replace dwindling flights of migrating geese during the second half of the twentieth century. It was inconceivable to wildlife biologists attempting to restore some of the glory CHAPTER 4 ▶ Bodies of the Dead The Wild in Southern Foodways wiley c. prewitt jr. Bodies of the Dead 77 of waterfowling past that there could ever be too many geese and too little demand. Clearly, when humans pass on ten-pound geese and attack small white balls, things have changed. For many, the gathering of wild food through hunting and fishing connotes age-old practices and unwavering traditions. But as historian Stuart Marks observed,“Hunting is not a timeless pursuit within a cultural void.” Access to game creatures can be ephemeral, and their populations subject to violent cycles. Our perceptions of certain species and their use as game can change drastically over time. The treasure of one era may be the commonplace of the next, and a father’s familiar game may be a rarity for his children. This essay approaches the wild in southern foodways from the perspective of changing animal populations, evolving laws, and the fluid human relationship with the land. The South is a long-settled, long-farmed region where the agricultural use of the land often determined the available game at any particular time. In his hunting stories, William Faulkner described a late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century landscape where hunters traveled to the “Big Bottom ,” a wild hinterland for large game such as white-tailed deer and black bear. People hunted the “settled country” in Faulkner stories, but they were after small game such as“rabbits and possums” that could endure the hunting pressure of the farming community. This pattern of small game in farmed areas and large game in nonfarmed wild areas began much earlier than one might suspect. Anthropologist Charles Hudson suggested that the foodways of the South—like many other customs—began with the Native Americans.He paid particular attention to the Mississippian tradition where large populations lived near their agricultural fields for much of the year.By around ad 1200,Mississippian people in the Southeast grew corn, beans, and squash, familiar parts of the traditional southern diet to this day. During the growing and gathering season, they guarded the crop.Although they certainly foraged for available game in the surrounding area, the main hunt took place in the late fall and winter, well away from the settlements in areas where large game was more plentiful. One of the most interesting illustrations of this pattern is in the accounts of Hernando de Soto’s expedition across the Southeast from 1539 to 1543. De Soto and his men traveled from settlement to settlement, in part search- 78 Wiley C. Prewitt Jr. ing for the precious metal–rich civilizations they believed were there, but also to plunder supplies of native foods...