Controversy #10: Paku Menu

[Professor]

Very simply, we have what appears to be contradiction within the series about what the Pakuni will and will not eat.

Hypothesis #1: The Pakuni are strict vegetarians. References to meat-eating, like the iguana in the stone soup, are jokes, and that's not chicken Cha-ka is eating in "The Paku Who Came to Dinner," but rather some vegetable.

Hypothesis #2: The Pakuni are no more vegetarians than most humans. They have a taboo against eating fish; other than that, they'll eat whatever meat they can get. They just can't get it very often. Their description as vegetarians is an exaggeration or a mischaracterization.

Which is it? And why?

[Professor]

Just bringing this thread to the top so it appears on your front page.

[enoch]

#2. The iguana? I don't think Ta was joking. He's always serious: I think if he indicated he wanted the iguana in the soup, he wanted to eat it.

[lostfound]

I'm saying #2 here. I think they're diet consist mainly of veg. only because it's what is easiest to obtain. The pakunis aren't exactly "swift" creatures so the chance of catching a pig etc would be a challenge but if they could via a trap i believe they would eat it no problem. As far as fish go they either had a bad reaction to it at some point (although i'm not sure how they would get a fish without help) or it's Paku superstition.

[Crawford]

I am going to say Hypothesis #2 as well. For the most part the Paku diet does consist of fruits and veggies, but then again given their plight so does the Marshalls. Holly did look rather greedily at the pig but Rick was correct in saying with no way to freeze the meat it will spoil pretty quick. I can't really see the Paku themselves actively hunting, Cha-ka is far too young to be effective and Ta is just too lazy, the animal would pretty much have to walk into his hand. It would be interesting to see if the Paku scavenged any leftover meat from a Grumpy or Alice kill. As far as the taboo against fish is concerned, this could be either religious or cultural in origin. Of course, Season 3 Cha-ka doesn't seem to believe in that anymore since he eagerly accompanies Will on a fishing trip so perhaps that again is a human influence.

[enoch]

It would be interesting to see if the Paku scavenged any leftover meat from a Grumpy or Alice kill.

In other words, if a Paku invites you over for a spot of stew, it might be a stew of Spot.

[PLT3008]

Hello from Maumee,OH.
I have to go with #2 on this one, hands down. I can see no evidence what-so-ever that the Pakuni would be vegetarians. I am discounting the fact that the writer(s) tried miserably to insert this foolish notion here and there. Other than that I can find nothing that would make any sense to support this position. And I fully agree with the last two sentences from post #1. And besides, Cha-Ka DID grab a piece of chicken when he came to dinner. What do you think he had in mind? That's right! He was gonna chomp on that yard bird like a monkey man on ten cent wing night at Ralphies.

PLT3008 OUT

[Professor]

Surely there's someone out there who can argue for #1? borgwoman? Somebody?

And this has nothing to do with my opinion on the matter, which I will divulge only at the end of the week.

[emwhy]

OK Professor I'll come to the rescue here. As far as we can tell the Pakuni are somewhat mistified by fire, and don't appear to have it figured out yet. I base this on the way Chaka plays with Rick's lighter in "Sleestak God". That being said, if they were meat eaters, they would be eating it raw, which might not be the healthiest of diest for them. Also as stated above, they don't like fish or pigs. I will have to rewatch "Paku who camto Dinner" before going any furhter with this. I've just alwasy thought of them as being vegans.

[Professor]

As far as we can tell the Pakuni are somewhat mistified by fire, and don't appear to have it figured out yet.Thanks for representing this position. I don't think I agree with the fire-based line of reasoning, though. These Pakuni clearly understand how fire gets made, even if they're not capable of making it efficiently; isn't that what they're working on at the beginning of "Cha-ka"? This inefficiency could, of course, just reflect that these three particular Pakuni aren't any good at making fire; it doesn't mean that the larger community from which they originally sprang hasn't had mastery over fire for generations. In addition, what good would the recipe for stone soup be if the Pakuni couldn't get a fire going? I think there are other reasons to argue for their being vegetarian/vegan/whatever, but I don't think they're without fire. Besides, what's wrong with raw meat? Plenty of animals eat it, all the way "up" to chimpanzees, which love to feast on colobus monkey.

[emwhy]

Besides, what's wrong with raw meat? Plenty of animals eat it, all the way "up" to chimpanzees, which love to feast on colobus monkey.

Unfortunately I am out of my element there and can't really comment. Didn't take enough anthropology courses in college.


We do see the Pakuni using stolen light crystals in one scene of "Stone Soup" in place of fire. It is obviuos they have some knowledge of it. I guess it comes down to us not knowing enough about what type of species they are. But I might start to lean back toward 2. I do now remember a fishing scene in season 3 where Chaka starts eating worms.

[Rick_66]

I'm going with choice 2. I don't think the Pakuni are vegetarians, though it's possible they tend to prefer vegetarian dishes. Holly's description of Cha-Ka as a vegetarian is either inaccurate, or Cha-Ka, for some reason, eventually adopted a vegetarian diet. Maybe he didn't like the chicken.

And even if one Pakuni- Cha-ka- is a vegetarian, that doesn't follow that the others are as well. As Enoch pointed out, Ta's always serious. He wasn't joking about the iguana.

Rick

[enoch]

Besides, what's wrong with raw meat? Plenty of animals eat it, all the way "up" to chimpanzees, which love to feast on colobus monkey.

That's a another point. Pakuni are portrayed as being rather human-like or chimpanzee-like. Both of these species are omnivorous.

[Professor]

We had one vote for #1, but emwhy subsequently lost some faith in it; everyone else (and I'll add my name to the list for all the good reasons you folks have come up with) went against a direct statement within the show, indicating that information provided by a character about something in the Land of the Lost could in fact be incorrect. That's a precedent for further discussions, isn't it? Thus, the Pakuni are, by our almost unanimous consensus, not in fact vegetarians.

[enoch]

I've not seen "The Paku who Came to Dinner" for a while. However, I did watch "Stone Soup" right before this "controversy" was placed, and that iguana Ta was waving was rather strong evidence for me. What's next: Sleestak cuisine?

[Professor]

What's next: Sleestak cuisine?You can be sure we'll get there eventually, but not yet. Next stop: "The Search."