Jared Diamond is an anthropologist at UCLA who has written a couple of excellent books, one of which, Guns, Germs and Steel , I used heavily in writing the chapters of my book on prehistoric man. He is an authority on New Guinea and the highlands culture that was only discovered since the Second World War.
He has an article in New Yorker this month on the basic human need for vengeance that is excellent. Until I got to the end, I was afraid he was going to use the usual leftist cop-out but he didn’t. The failure of governments to punish evil-doers in the 1960s led to the lawlessness of the 1970s. One reason was the failure to convince those tempted to break the law that it was too expensive. The other reason was the failure to convince the victims and their families that justice had been done. This is a powerful explanation of how that worked.
Tags: anthropology, Jared Diamond, law, society, tribal law, vengeance
Very interesting.
>>>>The failure of governments to punish evil-doers in the 1960s led to the lawlessness of the 1970s.
I wonder if some of this comes from self hatred, and hatred of acheivers. I was just reading about “a McGovern fundraiser at which Simon and Garfunkel goaded the crowd to boo the patrons in the most expensive seats.”
If one can hate a rival tribe to the point of violence, or inviting violence upon them, can one also hate your own tribe, or self, to the same point?
Self hatred of that type began with Rousseau who was convinced that primitive people are more noble and less violent than the modern (French 18th century) world. He, of course, was smart enough to never test his thesis. Still, given what came along as a result of his fantasy, he can’t be blamed too much for it. We are still paying for the French Revolution.
Oh, I quite agree, Dr. K. When Tahiti was first discovered by Europeans, the Rousseau-types went nuts about this great example of the “Noble Savage.”
Then, when the reports started coming in about constant warfare, slavery, cannibalism, infanticide, and so on, the results were predictable. First the boffins of the period called the sailors and explorers liars (never having been to Tahiti themselves, mind you). Then it morphed into “…well, they were noble until European influence contaminated their culture…”
In other words, it was the fault of nasty white guys. Sound familiar?
James Cook was an interesting person, Dr. K. Have you read much about him?
I have an account of his voyages and know that he found out how wrong Rousseau was by practical experience. His great lieutenant was Bligh, one of the greatest seamen in the history of the Royal Navy and slandered by Nordoff and Hall.
My favorite story about James Cook was the sauerkraut story. He knew that scurvy could be held off by eating citrus, but they could not keep. He also knew that sauerkraut could also stave off scurvy, and could be kept indefinitely.
But the regular sailors would not eat it.
So Cook made an announcement that the officers would be having their private ration of sauerkraut at a particular time, and no regular sailors were allowed to be present.
It took three days for a representative of the sailors to formally request their fair share of the sauerkraut.
Remarkable man.