Burusho

{{bronze}}[[File:Bearded man, Hunza Valley.jpg|thumb|right|165px|A Burusho man]]
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The '''Burusho''' are a small ethnic group living in the sub-Himalayan region of [[Pakistan]], called the Hunza Valley or simply Hunza. They would not be particularly notable, except for two rather unique and interesting features. The more interesting, but less famous, of these features is that their [[language]] (Burushaski) is unrelated to any other in the world. This in itself is not unusual, as there are many {{wpl|language isolates}} throughout the world. Their better known feature is their spot as a ploy in one of the most egregious instances of [[diet woo]] that has ever been perpetrated in history.

==Happy, Healthy Hunza, where everyone has just enough!==
[[File:Lost Horizon lobby card.JPG|thumb|left|165px|The 1937 film adaptation of ''Lost Horizon'' included [[Yellowface|white actors portraying the Burusho]].]]
James Hilton's 1936 novel ''Lost Horizon'' introduced the world to the notion of Shangri-La, a too-good-to-be-true Himalayan paradise of near-[[Immortality|immortal]] godlike beings who have achieved perfect health and contentment.<ref>''Lost Horizon: A Novel'' by James Hilton (2012) Harper Perennial. ISBN 0062113720.</ref> While Shangri-La is usually portrayed as a quasi-Tibetan paradise, the idea itself appears to have been based on fabricated accounts of the Burusho. Robert McCarrison, a leading nutritionist of the [[British Empire]], made a report on their supposed perfect health and lack of sickness or disease &mdash; claims which were later picked up by writers such as J. I. Rodale (neé Jerome Irving Cohen of [[organic farming]] fame),<ref>[http://arts.adelaide.edu.au/centrefooddrink/publications/reports/martinlevenstein0evsreps.html Secrets of the Happy, Healthy Hunza: The Magical Qualities of 'Natural Foods'], a Talk by Prof. Harvey Levenstein, report by A. Lynn Martin. Research Centre for the History of Food & Drink</ref><ref>''The Healthy Hunzas'' by J. I. Rodale (1949). Rodale Press</ref> Allen E. Banik,<ref>[''Hunza Land: The Fabulous Health and Youth Wonderland of the World'' by Allen E. Banik & Renée Taylor (1960) Whitehorn Publishing Company.</ref> Renée Taylor,<ref>''Hunza Health Secrets for Long Life and Happiness'' by Renée Taylor (1978). Keats Publishing. ISBN 0879835494.</ref> and [[Dr. Bronner's Soap|Dr. Bronner]].<ref>[https://www.drbronner.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/bronner-US-liquid-32oz-rose-LSRO32US6-02.pdf 18-IN-1 DR. BRONNER'S HEMP ROSE PURE CASTILLE SOAP] Dr. Bronner's soap label</ref> None of these authors spent a significant amount of time with the Burusho, and all of them essentially parroted what their king told them.

==The devil in the details==
It turns out that virtually every single one of these writers aformentioned had based their "scholarship" on nothing more than hearsay by the ''mir'' (king) and his attendants. Hunza was, at the time, an absolutist and isolationist [[monarchy]], and the ''mir'' was very careful about what sort of information he let others hear. Like certain [[North Korea|other absolutist, dictatorial states throughout history]], Hunza was closed from the outside world and the privileged few who were allowed to enter were given a guided tour in which they learned, among other things, that Hunza was greatest country in the world, and all other countries were run by little girls. Like any good [[despot]], the ''mir'' made sure to drill into the minds of everyone who graced his halls that his kingdom was the greatest, noblest, purest, and yes, ''healthiest'' place on Earth. That his guests took everything he said at face value is perhaps a stunning testament to the power of [[wishful thinking]] on an unsceptical mind.

John Clark, a [[geologist]], lived with the Burusho for almost two years and gained the favor of the ''mir''. Unlike all the other writers who had travelled to Hunza over the years, Clark managed to win the confidence of the ''mir'' and his retinue so well that he was allowed to stay for quite a while and see the grittier and more ''real'' Hunza. While at first he bought into the usual garbage about the "clean mountain air" and the "land where everyone has just enough", sustained contact with these people brought him to the realization that they were actually a very poor, frequently starving populace oppressed by both a very harsh, dictatorial elite and backward agricultural methods. Many of them had very debilitating [[disease]]s such as [[Parasite|intestinal worms]], and malnutrition. Most people had friends or family who had died very young.<ref>[http://www.biblelife.org/hunza.htm Hunza: The Truth, Myths, and Lies About the Health and Diet of the "Long-Lived" People of Hunza, Pakistan, and Hunza Bread and Pie Recipes] Bible Life Ministries</ref><ref>''Hunza, Lost Kingdom of the Himalayas'' by John Clark (1956). Funk & Wagnalls.</ref> D. L. R. Lorimer, another writer who had more sustained contact than the average woo-peddler, found the people so economically insecure that widespread starvation happened every spring.<ref>[http://www.jstor.org/stable/215849?seq=10#page_scan_tab_contents Household Food Supply in Hunza Valley, Pakistan] by  Nigel J. R. Allan (Oct., 1990). ''Geographical Review'', Vol. 80, No. 4 , pp. 399-415.</ref>

==But that doesn't stop us!==
Woo-peddlers very rarely have any reaction to [[fact]] or [[evidence]] (besides an occasional "we don't believe you, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah"), so it is perhaps no surprise that the Burusho/Hunza have been propelled to the status of pop-culture legend within the [[pseudoscience]] community. They have been used to sell everything from [[water woo|special water]] to [[veganism]], and their likeness has been exploited shamelessly by such paragons of reason as [[NaturalNews]] (who unironically buy the claim that there are 200-year-olds living in Hunza to this very day).<ref>[http://www.naturalnews.com/043088_Hunza_people_longevity_healthy_lifestyle.html Live long and prosper, the secrets of the Hunza] by Adrian Cooper (Sunday, December 01, 2013) Natural News</ref> 

The usual reaction of Hunza enthusiasts to being presented with evidence against their claims is to ignore/disbelieve the evidence, [[shill gambit|accuse the skeptical individual of being in 'collusion']] with Agribusiness or [[Monsanto]], or (if they are truly at their wits' end) lash out at you for being a "[[racist]]", "[[Ethnocentrism|ethnocentric]]" and a "carnivore". This reaction is especially interesting, since it appears not to occur to them that perhaps their own view of the Burusho &mdash; peaceful, happy [[noble savage]]s who [[Orientalism|possess secret, ancient Eastern knowledge which us westerners can't possibly comprehend]] &mdash; is maybe a tad ethnocentric and condescending. In addition, one finds it just a skosh difficult to take seriously any accusation of racism coming from a (presumably white and privileged) [[Westerner]] who appropriates a native culture in order to sell magic beans.<ref>Also, it should be pointed out that almost all the woo-meisters and their disciples make very little effort to understand the Burusho or their culture &mdash; except for their value as a talking point. Almost all pseudoscientific sources call them the "Hunza people" &mdash; a term which is unknown to the Burusho themselves, who prefer either Burusho or Hunzakuts. Saying ''Hunza people'' is like saying ''America people'' or ''France people'' &mdash; it sounds a little condescending. Also, there is much woo about Alexander the Great and the ancient [[Greeks]] abound in these circles; many of woo-pushers desperately want to believe the Burusho represent an island of wholesome [[Aryan]]ity in a vast sea of brown [[Muslim]] savages.</ref>

==See also==
*[[Yellowface]]

==References==
{{reflist|2|90%}}

[[Category:Food woo]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

Categories: Food woo, Pseudoscience