Deconstructing American sayings is admittedly one of my favorite past times. Our Americanized English offers some very colorful sayings which give our dialect a lot of historically referenced character. Often, the more interesting American sayings can also have deep roots in prehistoric Americana. Today’s saying is one that goes back more than 5,000 years.
Here it is: “The straw that broke the Camel’s back.”
While we all know what it means, the history of this saying is shrouded in mystery; until now.
Today, we will unpack this mystery and reveal the rich cultural tapestry foundational to this common saying.
“Kerrr SNAP!”
It was a sound heard across America 5,000-10,000 (8,000-3,000 BCE) years ago when Native American’s owned the American landscape.
And, of course, this saying came from the Indigenous First Nations Native Americans, or Indians as I was taught to call them.
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Interestingly, this historic saying is more popular than ever.
Definition: when a real or perceived additional effort or force will over-burden an already maxed-out resource, creating a situation where that resource (usually a person, team, organization, society or civilization) is expected to suddenly and catastrophically snap, crack, break, collapse, or otherwise fail to accomplish its tasks – that final added task is said to be “the straw that broke the Camel’s back”.
To help fast-track this history lesson here is some relevant Q & A:
Q: This saying really came from Native Americans? And were there actually camels throughout North America?
A: Yep. Not only did camels once dot the American landscape as far as the eye can see, they actually evolved in North America and migrated to the rest of the world. Although you won’t find this next fact in history textbooks, camels lived in plentiful populations until the Native Americans spine-snapped them into regional extinction in the new world one straw at a time. For a relatively short period, camels were the domesticated animal of choice amongst Apache, Ute, and Sioux Indian tribes. The history of the camel in North America is actually a fascinating study. Before the American Indian could breed and domesticate the wild mustang, the 2-humped camel was the Native American’s beast of burden upon whose back cultural progress was carried.
“Kerrr SNAP!”
Q: I don’t recall ever hearing about Indian cave paintings involving camels – why is that?
A: Native Americans came to understand camel spirits as having ascended up to earth through the dank, mysterious layers of the spirit underbelly, a world the Indians acknowledged but didn’t want to identify with. Simplifying this origin story, a camel was essentially a giant snake morphing into a Sasquatch; the 2-humped camel represented the halfway point of this transformation. Acknowledging camels in culture and art equated to interrupting the spirit world’s chthonic serpent-to-beast transition. Like stopping the Bruce-to-Caitlin transition halfway, this was forbidden and not for those with an overactive gag reflex. (Some things are better left to the imagination…or not at all). Do so and the Native American’s dreams would be forever haunted. No thanks. Putting this into perspective: Indians also never cave-painted skunks (more on that later), teepee lightning strikes, or wet-willies. Getting the picture?
While used, honored and sometimes revered, camels were also despised by Native Americans. To understand why camels were so hated by the Indians we need to share some true and relevant camel facts:
1) Camel meat can NOT be boiled, roasted, seasoned, blackened, fried, stewed, or preserved into a palatable dish. In culinary circles, they are often referred to as ‘two humped skunks’. Whereas skunks emit their odor on the outside, a camel taints its meat with a putrid, oily coating from the inside, ruining its flavor…and everything else on the stove, kitchen, teepee, and village.
2) A camel carcass is the only mammal that ants will not devour due to skunk-ification. Bonus fact: the Indians used camel oil as an insect repellent and also birth control (kind of a long story there – but you can use your imagination).
3) The only thing which smells worse than a living camel is a dead one. Therefore, Indians went to great lengths to keep camels alive making several failed attempts at the artificial camel heart valve millennia before the invention of the wheel.
4) The sound of camels mating is one of the most sorrowful, haunting, and horrific sounds in the natural, or unnatural world. Think and imagine a howler monkey humping a screech owl with its paw snared in a trap panting violently with a half-swallowed tin-whistle lodged in its windpipe and you’re getting close. How horrific? Camel-mating videos (with accompanying sound) have been completely banned from Youtube. Trust me, don’t bother searching. It will both haunt your dreams and lurk in your browser history longer than you can emotionally withstand nor fully explain to your partner, pastor, parents or IT-department. Think real hard: have you ever seen a baby camel at the zoo? Nope – basically, they don’t exist except for remote desert caves where Jesus died. Coincidence? Maybe he died for our sins…or maybe witnessing camel sex was enough to ask dad for a ride back home knowing camels won’t fit through the eye of a needle no matter how hard you push.
With these facts now laid out, it is can be clearly understood why camel spines were destined to pass right through to the painful side of the bend-not-break threshold.
-Low camel reproduction rate.
-Ever-aging camel populations.
-Camels can’t be eaten.
Plainly stated: Camels. Can’t breed them. Can’t kill them. Can’t Eat them….but they will carry your stuff until they die.
Yadda, yadda, yadda – next thing the Indians knew they were left with a train of geriatric camels to support a migrating semi-nomadic lifestyle.
Before we get back to the great “”Kerrr SNAP!” heard ’round America, mammalogists have something to say about camels as well.
Dr. Heinrich Saddat’s groundbreaking (not to mention spine snapping) dromedary research entitled “Oh say can you see – that is a camel over there!” reveals much about the utility of camels. He arrives at some interesting conclusions regarding the camel’s evolution and adaptability for domesticated integration including:
- Camel anatomy is surprisingly ill-equipped to carry people or goods. Their spine actually consists of three near-90-degree angles closely resembling the letter ‘M’. Nowhere in engineering is this a stable design or even a good idea.
- When attempting to migrate camels southward into the jungles in Central America, baboons often confused the tall, knobby legs of camels as wonderfully soft Kapok tree risers and would climb up and “tug-on-the-coconuts” until something came loose. Let’s just say camels and baboons haven’t been friendly since. This also led to a noticeable and predictable decline in camel reproduction rates.
- So there you have it: as Native American populations grew, camel population remained fairly constant. More Indians, more Indian-stuff to carry across the landscape, and fewer camels to do it.
“Kerrr SNAP!”
Now you know. Another fascinating American saying has been demystified. The next time you say something was “The straw that broke the Camel’s back” – you’ll know where it came from.