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Originally Posted by aiontay
At the risk of throwing another wrinkle in this discussion, maybe in addition to ethnography we might want to add gender? xxx In a lot of American Indian tribes knives were literally part of a woman's everyday dress, and they weren't just for chores. They were also carried for defense.
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What I'll relate below is every bit true, and some people will find this amusing, for sure.
Our mother said that during her teen years (1950s), it was pretty ordinary for women (in the Philippines) to carry in their purse a sewing needle or pin, as an improvised 'weapon'.
The situation being prepared for is this -- in public gatherings or queues in a theater for instance, an occasional pervert (or horny teen) makes use of the tightly packed crowd as an excuse to 'accidentally' touch or bump maidens. And so that pin or needle comes in handy, both as a deterrent and as an actual ethnographic
weapon if needed.
They must have read about the porcupine when they were young!