The Afghan Queen: A True Story of an American Woman in Afghanistan

by Paul Meinhardt

  Vulture and Bull Horn Shrine at Çatal Hüyük (Cinderella’s Housework Dialectics)

  “Hormones, plus species-specific pheromones, may account for both sex storms as well as brainstorms. It’s suspected that testosterone in both males and females can positively affect mental activity. Sex drive is high when ovulation and testosterone levels are high. At such times we usually think of sex and how to get more of it.”

  The Vulture Shrine, is repeated many times at Çatal Hüyük. Dead bodies were left in the open for vultures to clean the bones. Cleaned bones were then buried under the bed-steads. Vultures were religious symbols, along with bull horns, both representing the cycles of life.

  People migrated to Çatal Hüyük to trade, to worship at the site of the Great Mother, and especially to find mates. In a world with few people, Çatal Hüyük could accommodate 10,000 and 10,000 years ago it was probably the largest population center on Earth. To date, no earlier site was found with such a large variety of trade goods and artifacts.

  Jericho, on the west bank of the Jordan River, is perhaps the oldest continually occupied human settlement on Earth. It was settled at least 12,000 years ago and 20 levels of settlement are documented. The site of Jericho is still inhabited and archaeological exploration continues. The ancient site of Çatal Hüyük was long ago deserted, but exploration continues beyond the eighteen excavated levels.

  Both Çatal Hüyük and Jericho show evidence of grain cultivation. Crop culture is necessary to support more than a few hundred people. Even in abundant environments of forests, tribes-clans-bands of more than 200 people, excess population is forced to migrate to new hunting-gathering areas. This was certainly the case with the earliest migrations out of Africa.

  Çatal Hüyük may have had a larger population than Jericho, 10,000 years ago, suggesting that more extensive crop growing and grain storage developed at Çatal Hüyük. The growth of large civilizations, 4,000 to 5,000 years ago along the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers is well documented by vast grain growing and extensive canal systems.

  As important as growing vast grain crops is the ability to distribute and store food. A theocratic communal society grew up in Sumerian, Babylonian and other Tigris-Euphrates cultures. The basis of early civilizations was first bartering food for labor. Later as populations and grain cultivation expanded, war between neighboring settlements resulted in slave labor.

  “I keep thinking of clichés such as getting horny or taking the bull by the horns,” added the husband. “Remember all the depictions of bull horns at Çatal Hüyük? Of all the wall reliefs, bull horns were a dominant theme. Then and now, we are hell bent and practically foaming at the mouth for the Mating Road.”

  The wife continued on this theme, “True, long before the Silk Road there was a Mating Road. Early humans out of Africa probably followed the herds of horned ruminants. The herds were hunted for food, hides and bones. Herds of bison, aurochs, ibex, and other herding creatures followed grazing and water ways. It seems natural that our ancestors would migrate following the herds.

  “Typically, we would expect them to hunt the old, weak and injured stragglers, rather than disrupt the main herd. This they could learn by observing the large cats, as they picked off the stragglers. The large cats were the main human competitors for meat.

  “The big cats may have been our first teachers. Early humans may have learned to hunt by watching the large cats. It may be that the cats did not like the taste of human flesh. More likely, grazing herds provided an easier prey, with more meat for the effort. It’s all speculation.

  “Eventually, early people learned to lead the herds, as do the Sami at the Arctic Circle. This is the supposition about the first modern humans migrating out of Northeast Africa, perhaps 100,000 years ago. The hot, dry climate forced our ancestors to follow the herds and that was an early mating road.

  Bull’s Head Shrine*

  “Over thousands of years, following herds and water ways, human generations would leap frog each other along the Mating Road. It was a road to survival, as well as the road to finding mates. This is why new generations were forced to leap frog prior settlements, to find mates.”

  This Fertility Glyph is thought to represent the uterine horns, with the male represented as a small star between the horns. Found in caves, on stones and pottery shards, this glyph appears to be a fertility symbol, perhaps even an artist’s signature.

  Bull-jumping (Cinderella’s Housework Dialectics)

  The wife continued:

  “It may be that as our ancestors migrated out of Africa, they settled at Jericho as an early source of trade, food, water, and mates. Çatal Hüyük may have been a later settlement by some of the people living in Jericho. An important link for both settlements is that they shared similar burial rites. That is, both buried their dead under their dwellings.”

  AUTHOR COMMENTARY:

  Lela noted that she knew I would be interested in these conversations. She sent me all the notes she took, not just about the anthropologist couple, but also about all the people she traveled with. She supported my intention of writing a book about her experiences.

  She was sure I would love the Gypsy stories and the ideas about the Silk Road and Mating Road. She related her travel experiences with the Afghans and especially with Mike, her Afghan business partner.

  Lela realized that Afghan men were constantly searching for mating opportunities. Mike had recently married a second wife and was keen on marrying two more wives. During their long drives seeking art objects, she asked Mike, “Why do you want more wives? Aren’t two enough?”

  Mike laughed and explained, “Yes, of course, in the West one wife is plenty, given the nature of western society. In this country and most of the Middle East, however, the more wives we have, the better. It’s not so much for mating, although that’s important, but more for extending social, trade, and kinship connections.

  “I’m rich not so much because of my wealth in the western sense of wealth; rather, my real wealth is through all my family and tribal connections. I owe my successful trade connections to my parent’s tribe, and my political connections are the result of my first wife’s people. In fact, it was my first wife that suggested I take a second wife with Kalq Party links.

  “My first wife’s cousin was active in Kalq politics in Kabul. The cousin introduced me to my second wife, a Kalq Party official in Kabul. She sought extensive links to my tribal connections for political purposes. The Kalq Party can arrange other strategic marriages when I’m ready.

  I expect these marriages will benefit me, my wives and children, as well as our entire kinship network.

  “All these family connections increase the security and wealth for all of us, including you, Lela.”

  Mike continued, “Lela, you are a good person. You care about people. All the people, the families you buy from. You treat everyone like family. You see how we care for our own. The old, the young, the sick, all are lovingly cared for.”

  11

  ROAD FEAST - FALL, 1975

  It was Sunday in the Greek countryside and most of the shops were closed. By mid-day we found a shop selling excellent spinach pie and fresh sweet goat’s milk. That night at the garage where the bus transmission was repaired, a marvelous banquet developed.

  The mechanics sent-out for some local specialties: chicken roasted in yogurt and garlic, a uniquely delicious potato salad with fresh cut lemon, chives and cilantro as well as fresh baked buckwheat pita bread, all washed down with ouzo. This dry anise flavored local brew packs an incredible wallop. Everyone in the garage joined in singing folk-rock songs.

  20-Greek Style Potato Salad*

  The favorites were “American woman, stay away from me,” also that great anti-war song: “And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for, don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn, next stop is Vee-et-nam, and it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates, don’t ask me, ah don’t know why, whoopee, were all gonna die.”

  The Greeks love chicke
n fat. Many chickens are free-range in fenced-off olive groves. The birds eat the fallen olives and fertilize the olive trees. The result is lovely fat chickens, harvested at three to four months. The birds eat grass and weeds; also they keep the insects down. Chickens share the olive groves with sheep. Similarly, chickens glean grape arbors.

  One of our hosts said that chickens do too much damage to grape arbors. The others argued this point excitedly as more and more ouzo was downed. I learned that poultry will roost in grape arbors, unless old crates are provided. Another said that the value provided by insect control more than offset the roosting problem.

  Our hosts asked about poultry growing in the States. I related that small growers—such as my family ranch in New Jersey let the birds range free. But large commercial growers will have broiler-chicken houses with as many as 10,000 birds in a long enclosed chicken coop. Less than one-square foot of space is allotted to each bird.

  Red light bulbs must be on continuously to calm the birds and prevent cannibalism. They can grow broilers to three pounds in four weeks. Feed is augured into each chicken house through long troughs. Similarly water is piped in.

  Sanitation is carefully maintained. Workers and visitors entering chicken “ranches” must enter and exit a sanitation room. Disposable antiseptic paper suits, caps and boots must be worn at all times. When exiting, the suits and boots are disposed of in special high temperature furnaces. In this way the incidence of disease is greatly reduced.

  Even with the most rigorous nutrition and sanitation there are disease problems. Coccidiosis, a type of microscopic protozoan, mostly affects weight gains and feed efficiency. Most poultry feed contain small amounts of coccidiostat drugs to minimize this problem.

  A single chicken ranch can produce millions of birds each year. As chicken is the most popular and cheapest source of protein in America, billions are produced yearly. The typical American consumes over 100 pounds of poultry each year.

  I told them that my husband grew up on a cattle ranch in south Florida and now is a biochemist doing research for an international drug company. He tells me all about his research. What sticks in my mind are some of the more dramatic research projects.

  For a long time the poultry industry used small amounts of arsenilic acid (arsenic) to speed chicken growth and give the birds a golden skin color. Even the skin and egg color is “fine-tuned” in the poultry industry. Now a safer and cheaper poultry pigmenter is marigold meal.

  I explained that Americans have color preferences for poultry as well as people. This, my hosts did not understand, until I explained that most Americans from the Mediterranean and Middle East regions of the world, preferred a “golden-skin” chicken, and also egg-yolks.

  People of Latin origin prefer a deeply pigmented, almost red colored bird. Americans of North European origin prefer lighter, nearly white, chickens. So we have the North Europe, Mediterranean and Latin group color preferences, as the main markets.

  Now my hosts understood the idea of marketing chickens and other food according to ethnic color preferences. In this area of Greece a light-skinned chicken is preferred. The restaurant keeper mentioned that cooked greens develop a beautiful bright green when steamed with a small amount of baking soda. The baking soda tenderizes vegetables and slightly sweetens them.

  We were talking about our most unusual food experience. I mentioned a visit to a squab ranch on Long Island. At the time my husband was researching poultry diseases that crossed into people. A customer raising squab was referred to Paul.

  My husband dealt successfully with the squab-grower’s problems. The grower invited Paul and me to dinner. The elderly man was a retired successful Wall Street stockbroker. He bought the squab ranch from an Asian family, as a retirement pastime.

  No one at the garage knew about squab. Some thought it was a ball-game like squash. I explained: as with pigeons, squabs are doves. They knew about pigeons. Some raised pigeons for sport racing and eating.

  Essentially squab are young pigeons grown until pinfeathers appear. Then they are shipped live to Asian restaurants and markets. The demand is quite high; squab fetches $5 to $10 a pound.

  The owner took us on a tour of his squab ranch. It was attractive and sanitary with a mild poultry smell. It looked more like an elaborate zoo aviary than a commercial operation. A screened auger moved bird seed slowly through the aviary. The squab leisurely pecked at the seed and drank from a narrow open trough of circulating water.

  Although the nearest neighbor is a half-mile away, odor and sanitation must be carefully controlled. Feed and management are relatively inexpensive compared to sanitation, insect and odor control.

  The squab aviary was long and wide with a rounded wire covered roof. The flooring was wire, allowing bird-droppings to fall onto a wide conveyor below. At the end of the aviary a wide brush meshed with the long looping bird manure belt emptying into a manure-spreader truck below.

  The ranch owner was proud of the sanitary system he devised. In the distance he pointed out his five-acre hemp field. Hemp is related to marijuana and produces excellent bird seed. His main problem at the time of our visit was flies. He had been using an expensive synthetic pyrethrum with only moderate effectiveness.

  My husband studied the aviary as well as the feed and water formulations. At dinner that evening he recommended adding natural Dalmatian daisy powder (pyrethrum) along with marigold meal to the feed. Adding small amounts of baking soda to the overhead water-sprinklers also helped to repel insects, reduce mold-fungus and deodorize the aviary.

  The dinner featured roasted squab. The meat was dark and as soft as chicken liver. Our host showed us how he cooked the squab in covered roasting pots with chicken stock. Squab were prepared by splitting and degutting the birds and laying them in an inch of chicken stock.

  The opened birds were coated with lemon zest, kosher salt, fresh garlic, strips of fresh fennel and extra virgin olive oil. Small multi-colored Peruvian potatoes were added and all were roasted at 500 degrees for thirty minutes in large closed roasting pots. Five minutes before completion, a cup of Pinot Noir was added to each roasting pot.

  The squab tasted wonderful—almost with a chicken liver taste. Our host served the same Pinot Noir with the dinner. The bones were thin and soft as rice noodles. We were encouraged to suck the small amount of marrow from the bones and chew them. The bones were a tasty soft cartilage texture, softer than the bones in canned salmon. All the flavors blended marvelously.

  In this particular region north of Athens, the main crops are olives, grapes, figs and sheep. Chicken is not yet a large-scale commercial crop, though they are starting to supply an excellent chicken soup stock and jarred chicken fat with garlic. They spread this on bread and toast it. Also, chicken fat with garlic is used in cooking just as we use butter.

  Chicken fat and garlic are considered medicinal as well as a savory food.

  They have a small cannery for processing roast chicken in yogurt, with garlic and olives. The total production is contracted to a gourmet food chain in Athens. A type of scampi is made with garlic chicken fat, fresh lemon, thin-sliced tomatoes, and pitted green olives, all sautéed in a hot skillet for a few minutes before adding shrimp, calamari or other seafood.

  It was the fresh-roasted chicken in garlic, yogurt and olives that cured my head cold. I’m sure the ouzo was a potent part of the cure. I asked how the chicken was processed. We were all well-lubricated with ouzo so the information flowed, along with the ouzo.

  Olive Grove without chickens*

  The range-fed chickens are allowed to graze olive groves and grape arbors. After a few months on “free-range,” they are herded into large cages that are stacked in refrigerator trucks. Red lights in the truck calm the birds, before blocks of dry ice (carbon dioxide) gently lull the chickens into a permanent sleep. This is considered the most humane way to process the birds.

  Producers are keen on minimizing trauma, as violent death releases “fear” chemicals that reduce the flavor
of chicken. Birds are defeathered in a caustic bath and rinsed thoroughly. The birds are then degutted, hacked into quarters and put in boiling “soup stock” cookers.

  After degutting, all parts of the chicken are used in the soup stock. Chicken feet, bone marrow, crop and head are especially flavorful. The soup stock is finally strained. The solids are dried for animal feed. The soup stock is vacuum-dried to the consistency of a paste. The paste is jarred for consumers. A teaspoon of the chicken paste in a cup of boiled water makes superb bullion. I purchased a case of twelve small jars to send home.

  LELA:

  Anticipating my flight home, the drive in and around Athens reminded me of my previous bus trip through what was then Yugoslavia. Marshall Tito’s political power still united the separate nations in a fragile Serbian-dominated federation. But even in the 1970s, it was evident by the poor roads that the Yugoslav federation was literally and figuratively disintegrating under our vehicle tires.

  I bring up this aspect of my trip since my journalist friends and our garage hosts were nervous about the expected dismantling of Yugoslavia. How would this effect Greece and other neighboring nations? The journalists speculated that Serbian nationalism would attempt to dominate the fragmented Yugoslavia.

  [As we now know, that is exactly what occurred. A disastrous war of “ethnic cleansing” involved the UN, NATO and especially the United States. Fortunately, President Clinton brought the war to a conclusion in the 1990s.]

  In more pleasant days, before Yugoslavia was disemboweled, we approached the Yugoslav border, as the afternoon sun blazed down gloriously on our caravan. We were fourteen travelers approaching the Yugoslav border, as our little caravan proceeded to pass through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

  Just as things were looking up, a road-stone cracked the bus windshield. I related this event to my journalist friends as a small piece of gravel etched another pit at the edge of our rented car windshield. But we were “old-hands” at this sort of thing.