Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Science
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Cooperation; Social groups; Social institutions
Unhappily, feuds are not uncommon--not in consequence of "Overstocking
of the area," or "keen competition," and like inventions of a mercantile
century, but chiefly in consequence of superstition. As soon as any one
falls ill, his friends and relatives come together, and deliberately
discuss who might be the cause of the illness. All possible enemies are
considered, every one confesses of his own petty quarrels, and finally
the real cause is discovered. An enemy from the next village has called
it down, and a raid upon that village is decided upon. Therefore, feuds
are rather frequent, even between the coast villages, not to say a word
of the cannibal mountaineers who are considered as real witches and
enemies, though, on a closer acquaintance, they prove to be exactly the
same sort of people as their neighbours on the seacoast.(23)
Many striking pages could be written about the harmony which prevails in
the villages of the Polynesian inhabitants of the Pacific Islands. But
they belong to a more advanced stage of civilization. So we shall now
take our illustrations from the far north. I must mention, however,
before leaving the Southern Hemisphere, that even the Fuegians, whose
reputation has been so bad, appear under a much better light since they
begin to be better known. A few French missionaries who stay among them
"know of no act of malevolence to complain of." In their clans,
consisting of from 120 to 150 souls, they practise the same primitive
communism as the Papuas; they share everything in common, and treat
their old people very well. Peace prevails among these tribes.(24) With
the Eskimos and their nearest congeners, the Thlinkets, the Koloshes,
and the Aleoutes, we find one of the nearest illustrations of what man
may have been during the glacial age. Their implements hardly differ
from those of palaeolithic man, and some of their tribes do not yet know
fishing: they simply spear the fish with a kind of harpoon.(25) They
know the use of iron, but they receive it from the Europeans, or find it
on wrecked ships. Their social organization is of a very primitive kind,
though they already have emerged from the stage of "communal marriage,"
even under the gentile restrictions. They live in families, but the
family bonds are often broken; husbands and wives are often
exchanged.(26) The families, however, remain united in clans, and how
could it be otherwise? How could they sustain the hard struggle for life
unless by closely combining their forces? So they do, and the tribal
bonds are closest where the struggle for life is hardest, namely, in
North-East Greenland. The "long house" is their usual dwelling, and
several families lodge in it, separated from each other by small
partitions of ragged furs, with a common passage in the front. Sometimes
the house has the shape of a cross, and in such case a common fire is
kept in the centre. The German Expedition which spent a winter close by
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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