The origin and development of the moral ideasWestermarck, Edward
Philosophy
The origin and development of the moral ideas
Westermarck, Edward
Ethics; Ethics -- History; Prehistoric peoples
On the authority of a zoologist "whose scrupulous accuracy was
known to many persons," Darwin relates the following story:--"At the
Cape of Good Hope an officer had often plagued a certain baboon, and
the animal, seeing him approaching one Sunday for parade, poured water
into a hole and hastily made some thick mud, which he skilfully dashed
over the officer as he passed by, to the amusement of many bystanders.
For long afterwards the baboon rejoiced and triumphed whenever he saw
his victim."[80] Prof. Romanes considers this to be a good instance of
"what may be called brooding resentment deliberately preparing a
satisfactory revenge."[81] This, I think, is to put into the statement
somewhat more than it really contains; but at all events it records a
case of revenge, in the sense in which Dr. Steinmetz uses the word.
The same may be said of other instances mentioned by so accurate
observers as Brehm and Rengger in their descriptions of African and
American monkeys, and of various examples of resentment in elephants
and even in camels.[82] According to Palgrave, the camel possesses the
passion of revenge, and in carrying it out "shows an unexpected degree
of far-thoughted malice, united meanwhile with all the cold stupidity
of his usual character." The following instance, which occurred in a
small Arabian town, deserves to be quoted, since it seems to have
escaped the notice of the students of animal psychology. "A lad of
about fourteen had conducted a large camel, laden with wood, from that
very village to another at half an hour's distance or so. As the {38}
animal loitered or turned out of the way, its conductor struck it
repeatedly, and harder than it seems to have thought he had a right to
do. But not finding the occasion favourable for taking immediate
quits, it 'bode its time'; nor was that time long in coming. A few
days later the same lad had to re-conduct the beast, but unladen, to
his own village. When they were about half way on the road, and at
some distance from any habitation, the camel suddenly stopped, looked
deliberately round in every direction, to assure itself that no one
was within sight, and, finding the road far and near clear of
passers-by, made a step forward, seized the unlucky boy's head in its
monstrous mouth, and lifting him up in the air flung him down again on
the earth with the upper part of his skull completely torn off, and
his brains scattered on the ground."[83] We are also told that
elephants, though very sensitive to insults, are never provoked, even
under the most painful or distracting circumstances, to hurt those
from whom they have received no harm.[84] Sometimes animals show a
remarkable degree of discrimination in finding out the proper object
for their resentment. It is hardly surprising to read that a baboon,
which was molested in its cage with a stick, tried to seize, not the
stick, but the hand of its tormentor.[85] More interesting is the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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