why they didn't use the banana

Apropos of nothing, and from The Golden Bough:

Among the Indians of Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon, when a man wishes to increase the size of his generative organ he strikes it with the fruit of a white aquatic plant called the Aninga, which grows luxuriantly on the banks of the river. The fruit, which is inedible, resembles a banana and is clearly chosen for this purpose on account of its shape.

And so we have the origins of herbal penis enlargement spam. But why didn’t they use an actual banana? Maybe it’s a masculinity thing. The aninga was supposed to work through sympathetic magic. It transmitted its banana-like size and shape because that was an inherent, coherent quality which could be passed on. In a sense, it was a form of technology, since all technology is subjectively magic if you don’t know how it works. So just hitting your dick with a banana wouldn’t have done the job since it wouldn’t have had this magical – or technological – quality. Men, eh? Always fiddling about.

Or maybe men did use bananas for this purpose at one stage, but, in typical masculine style just left them lying around afterwards where women and children could find and eat them. They were forced to change their behaviour after their womenfolk objected on the grounds of hygiene and domestic economy. So, you see, the traditional model of the family does work.

Put that banana down, child. You don’t know where it’s been.

Comments

[dsquared]

I think you're right here; the fruit in question is probably delicious and nutritious, but is rendered "inedible" because you can't be sure that you're the first person to reach that particular tree.