Mycophobia
Mycophobia, the fear (phobia) of fungi (myco), is a cultural phenomena which manifests in fear or anxiety of mushrooms, fungi, and/or mycelium.
As a cultural phenomenon, mycophobia's strongest manifestations have been in Western European countries such as England and Spain, often becoming most acute in colonial and spiritual conflict.
"Fungi disrupt the Western cultural values of individualism, predictability, and control. By embodying collective, unpredictable, and uncontrollable biologies, fungi have been perceived as antagonistic, and the priority was not in understanding them but in eradicating them" [1]
Cultures
Spanish
Mycophobia in Spanish culture has acutely manifested in Spanish propaganda attempting to justify the colonization of Turtle Island, on the basis of Indigenous spiritual practices involving psilocybin mushrooms being heretical or evil. The widespread use of mushrooms for medicinal and spiritual purposes amongst many Native communities was heavily demonized and suppressed by the Spanish during over a century of genocide and enslavement from the onset of colonial rule.
English
Early Discourse
Few, if any, cultures expressed such a low opinion of all things fungal than the English at the start of the 1600s. Several writers referred to mushrooms as "excrements of the earth." Cultural examples expressing this disdain for mushrooms include:
1. A common English proverb that "the best of mushrumps are worth nothing";
2. A mid-century satirical poem advised prospective mushroom-eaters to “Dress them with care, then to the dunghil throw’um / A hogg wont touch um, if he rightly know um."
English doctors in the 1600s also repudiated mushrooms as categorically unhealthy, including:
1. Dr. Tobias Venner:
"Many phantasticall people doe greatly delight to eat of the earthly excrescences called Mushrums; whereof some are venemous, and the best of them vnwholsome for meat: for they corrupt the humors, and giue to the bodie a phlegmaticke, earthie, and windie nourishment … Wherefore they are conuenient for no season, age, or temperature.”
2. Dr. Stephen Bradwell:
“Some have (from strangers) taken up a foolish tricke of eating Mushroms or Toadstooles... let them now be warned to cast them away; for the best Authors hold the best of them at all times in a degree venomous."
3. Dr. James Wise:
Referring to mushrooms as "excrements of the earth," advised readers "altogether to abstaeine" from them. He opined: "Who then that is wise... will venter on a doubtfull dish, when God of his infinite goodnesse hath affoorded us such plentie of profitable and pleasant food?”[2]
Irish Potato Famine Genocide
Though often attributed to a "fungal" blight, this saga in Irish history was not due to the failure of potato crops but to the theft of the many other vegetables and meats that the Irish produced by troops of British colonizers. While potato crops were wiped out at this time due to heavy rains and the infection of Phytophthora infestans they brought, the loss was only a small percentage of the country's self-sufficient food system. And yet, contemporary mycophobia has enabled this lie to seep into history books unquestioned, effectively perpetuating a fungal fear while covering up a forgotten assault on the Irish people.[3]
In recent years, Tim Pat Coogan, Ireland's most prominent contemporary historian, has played a major role in demonstrating that the British campaign and violation of Irish food sovereignty - which killed more than 1.2 million people - meets the legal definition of genocide.[4][5]
Darwinism
In conjunction with England's oversized influence on scientific communication and research in the era of the British empire, Darwinism's emphasis on "competition" and "survival of the fittest" has led to the neglect, and often ridicule, of the evidence for the extent of symbiotic associations between fungi and other life (such as plants and mycorrhizal fungi).[6]
This false view of evolutionary biology, combined with Darwin's racism and his cousin Galton's foundational role in establishing the field of eugenics, played a major role in shaping the subsequent development of capitalism and rise of fascism.
Scientific evidence now shows that fungal symbiosis was actually essential to the evolution of life on land. [7] Shattering the myth of the "survival of the fittest," mycology shows that it is in fact the "extension of generosity of surplus to other members of the community to build biodiversity" that brings evolutionary success not to 'individual' species, but to ecological communities that cooperate.[8]
Implications
Fungi play a vital role in maintaining the health and balance of ecosystems across the planet. They provide humans with food, medicine, and numerous ecosystem services. Both mycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi are essential allies in building soil and sequestering carbon. Other fungi can help regenerate degraded ecosystems through mycoremediation. Fungi play a sacramental role in many spiritual traditions and have widespread cultural value.
The extent of mycophobia in Western European culture, and the colonies established by countries such as England and Spain, has impeded the spread and acceptance of accurate and vital mycological science, medicine, and culture.[9] It was not until 1969 that fungi were formally classified in 'Western' science as distinct from plants[10]. Mycophobia has resulted in the science of mycology being chronically marginalized in European and colonial science for centuries.[11]
Planetary Survival
Mycology should be funded equally to the computer industry, because it's so fundamental to our survival.[12]
This lack of understanding, cultural bias, and aversion to mycology has led to the threat posed by the Sixth Mass Extinction to fungi be drastically understudied. Despite there being more than one million species of fungi, only 551 have been listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, compared to 25,452 species of plants and 68,054 species of animals (an underrepresentation by a factor of 100x).[13][14]
This underappreciation of fungi could have cascading implications for endangered plants and throughout the ecosystem. Mycorrhizal fungi can shield endangered plants against extinction, facilitate the dispersal of plants from unsuitable environments, alleviate the effects of abiotic stressors, enable plants to adapt to new climates, and otherwise facilitate their growth. [15]
Fungal symbiosis has empirically played a key role supporting species resilience and collective survival during multiple previous mass extinctions:
Fungi are fundamental to life on earth. They are ancient, they are widespread, and they have formed partnerships with many other species. We know from the fossil record that evolution on this planet has largely been steered by two cataclysmic asteroid impacts. The first was 250 million years ago. The earth became shrouded in dust. Sunlight was cut off, and in the darkness, massive plant communities died. More than 90 percent of species disappeared. And fungi inherited the earth. Organisms that paired with fungi through natural selection were rewarded. Then the skies cleared, and light came back, and evolution continued on its course until 65 million years ago, bam! It happened again. We were hit by another asteroid, and there were more massive extinctions. That’s when the dinosaurs died out. Again, organisms that paired with fungi were rewarded. So these asteroid impacts steered life toward symbiosis with fungi: not just plants and animals, but bacteria and viruses, as well.[16][17]
Sources
- ↑ https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/33523/26712
- ↑ https://shakespeareandbeyond.folger.edu/2019/08/20/mushrooms-in-early-modern-england-excrements-of-the-earth/
- ↑ Radical Mycology, p. 76
- ↑ https://www.irishcatholic.com/the-irish-famine-natural-disaster-or-genocide/
- ↑ https://www.irishcatholic.com/the-irish-famine-natural-disaster-or-genocide/
- ↑ What a Mushroom Lives For, p. 60
- ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/fungi-are-responsible-for-life-on-land-as-we-know-it
- ↑ Paul Stamets on Fungal Intelligence, youtu.be/yBkg70fhV2A, ~10min
- ↑ "What a Mushroom Lives For" p. 57-60
- ↑ https://fundis.org/resources/blog/137-justice-for-fungi-through-project-fe-and-the-3-f-s
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/aug/23/the-future-is-fungal-why-the-megascience-of-mycology-is-on-the-rise
- ↑ Paul Stamets on Fungal Intelligence, youtu.be/yBkg70fhV2A
- ↑ https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/33523/26712
- ↑ https://theconversation.com/beyond-flora-and-fauna-why-its-time-to-include-fungi-in-global-conservation-goals-181226
- ↑ https://microbiologysociety.org/publication/past-issues/life-on-a-changing-planet/article/impact-of-climate-change-on-fungi.html
- ↑ https://www.edrosenthal.com/the-guru-of-ganja-blog/going-underground-paul-stamets-on-the-vast-intelligent-network-beneath-our-feet
- ↑ see also: https://paulstamets.com/mycological-strategies