 |
| Author | Post |
|---|
David Harcourt
Administrator
| Joined: | 12 Jul 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 1074 |
|
Posted: 2 Jan 2009 03:25 am |
|
Somewhere (but damned if I can find it) in THE LOST WORLD OF THE KALAHARI by Laurens Van Der Post is a brief description of the manner in which the Bushmen of the Kalahari disposed of their elderly and sick.
When they felt that the burden of some among them had become too great, the younger members of the tribe simply moved on, living their parents and other elderly and infirm relatives behind them. Those left behind remained within the circle of thorned branches which this ancient people erected, each time they stopped on their perpetual ramblings, to protect themselves from the depredations of lions and hyenas. According to Van Der Post, those abandoned to their fate sat quietly as the others left, bearing no resentment towards those who were moving on, until their inevitable deaths a day or two later.
Of course, Van Der Post could not possibly know whether or not it was true that the Bushmen left behind died as he described. Neither he nor the Bushmen who moved on - who made certain that they were many miles away before the ramshackle shelters were breached - were there to see and hear what happened when the wild animals broke in. The Bushmen who moved on were too far off to witness the despair and mounting terror of those who watched the carnivores gathering, and circling, and testing the perimeter. They could not hear - had made quite sure that they could not hear - the screams of anguish as flesh was torn from living bodies and bones cracked under canine teeth.
Van Der Post's account of the death of the Bushmen's unwanted ones is as sentimental and revolting as virtually everything he else he said about them (and what he says is sickening beyond imaging: read the book and judge for yourself), but is nevertheless interesting because it provides a glimpse into that half-way world between man and beast which for most of us is not a century past, as it is with the Bushmen, but tens of thousands of years past.
Attached Image (viewed 70 times):
|
David Harcourt
Administrator
| Joined: | 12 Jul 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 1074 |
|
Posted: 2 Jan 2009 04:11 am |
|
Wikipedia is as politically correct as anything else in this already depressing Third Millenium. It needs to be, of course, but that doesn't make it any more right that it should feel that there are higher ideals than truth.
It is Wikipedia which tells us that, contrary to legend, the Inuit (what we once called Eskimos) did not dispose of their elderly and/or infirm in a manner which was nearly as revolting as that employed by the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. No, although legend tells us that the Inuit sat their unwanted ones on small ice floes, pushed them off into the ocean wastes, and never gave them another thought, Wikipedia says the truth is quite different. Here's what it says on the subject:
"A pervasive European myth about Inuit is that they killed elderly and unproductive people." This is not generally true. In a culture with an oral history, elders are the keepers of communal knowledge, effectively the community library, and there are cultural taboos against sacrificing elders because they are of extreme value as the repository of knowledge. Knud Rasmussen found that the death of elders by suicide was a commonplace among the Iglulik Inuit. He heard of many old men and women who had hung themselves. By ensuring they died a violent death, Inuit elders purified the soul for its journey to the afterworld. According to Franz Boas suicide was not of rare occurrence and was generally accomplished through hanging. Writing of the Labrador Inuit, Hawkes (1916) was considerable more explicit on the subject suicide and the burden of the elderly:
"Aged people who have outlived their usefulness and whose life is a burden both to themselves and their relatives are put to death by stabbing or strangulation. This is customarily done at the request of the individual concerned, but not always so. Aged people who are a hindrance on the trail are abandoned."
People seeking assistance in their suicide made three consecutive requests to relatives for help. Family members would attempt to dissuade the individual at each suggestion, but the third request became obligatory. In some cases, a suicide was a publicly acknowledged and attended event. Once the suicide had been agreed to, the victim would dress him or herself as the dead are clothed, in this case with clothing turned inside out. The death occurred at a specific place, where the material possessions of deceased people were brought to be destroyed. When food is not sufficient there is little doubt that the elderly are the least likely to survive. In an extreme case of famine the Inuit fully understood that a hunter was necessarily the one to feed on whatever food was left if there was to be any hope of obtaining more food.
Goodbye, Granny. Have a nice trip.
Attached Image (viewed 54 times):
|
David Harcourt
Administrator
| Joined: | 12 Jul 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 1074 |
|
Posted: 2 Jan 2009 04:17 am |
|
As you see, what Wikipedia says in rebuttal of the "pervasive European myth" tends to leave the jury still out deliberating its verdict.
Consider the manner in which the myth is contradicted.
The Inuit pushed their unwanted ones out into the frozen Northern seas, to die miserably of cold, or starvation if they survived the cold?
Not so, says Wikipedia. The useless ones ("...people who have outlived their usefulness...") killed themselves.
This, of course, is quite a different thing.
This was not gerontocide. Dear me, no. It was perhaps - get ready now - the managed organisation of the death of the unwanted and elderly by assent (although, it must be admitted, "...not always so...") in the interests of the whole community.
That's pretty much how I imagine a publicist for the Nazis' programme of eugenics would describe it today. I'm disappointed, but not surprised, to find Wikipedia peddling such tripe. This is now the way of the world.
Someone with real expertise in the field of how to deal with "useless people":
Attached Image (viewed 58 times):
|
Current time is 03:27 am |
|
|
|
|
|
