Digitale Ausgabe
Download
| TEI-XML (Ansicht) | |
| Text (Ansicht) | |
| Text normalisiert (Ansicht) |
Ansicht
| Textgröße | |
| Originalzeilenfall ein/aus | |
| Zeichen original/normiert | |
Zitierempfehlung
Alexander von Humboldt: „Savage prejudices“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1821-Personal_Narrative_of-13-neu> [abgerufen am 25.04.2024].
URL und Versionierung
|
Permalink: https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1821-Personal_Narrative_of-13-neu |
| Die Versionsgeschichte zu diesem Text finden Sie auf github. |
| Titel | Savage prejudices | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jahr | 1821 | ||||||
| Ort | Liverpool | ||||||
|
Nachweis in: The Kaleidoscope; or, Literary and Scientific Mirror 2:75 (4. Dezember 1821), S. 173.
|
|||||||
| Sprache | Englisch | ||||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung. | ||||||
|
Identifikation |
|||||||
Statistiken
|
|||||||
|173|
|Spaltenumbruch|
|Spaltenumbruch|
The natives near the cataracts or raudales of theOroonoko, up which M. de Humboldt made his wayto a height little known to Europeans, are distinguishedby several remarkable prejudices, among which, noneare more fatal than those narrated in the following:—“Among the causes of the depopulation of the Rau-dales, I have not reckoned the small pox; that maladywhich, in other parts of America, makes such cruelravages, that the natives, seized with dismay, burntheir huts, kill their children, and renounce everykind of society. This scourge is almost unknown onthe banks of the Oroonoko. What depopulates theChristian settlement is, the repugnance of the Indiansfor the regulations of the missions, the insalubrity of aclimate at once hot and damp, bad nourishment, wantof care in the diseases of children, and the guilty prac-tice of mothers of preventing pregnancy by the use ofdeleterious herbs. Among the barbarous people ofGuyana, as well as those of the half-civilized islandsof the South Sea, young wives will not become mo-thers. If they have children, their offspring are exposed,not only to the dangers of savage life, but also to thedangers arising from the strangest popular prejudices.When twins are born, false notions of propriety andfamily honour require, that one of them should bedestroyed. ‘To bring twins into the world, is to beexposed to public scorn: it is to resemble rats, opos-sums, and the vilest animals, which bring forth a greatnumber of young at a time.’ Nay more: ‘two chil-dren born at the same time cannot belong to the samefamily.’ This is an axiom of physiology of the Sali-vas; and in every zone, and in different states of society,when the vulgar seize upon an axiom, they adhere toit with more stedfastness than the better informed men,by whom it was first hazarded. To avoid a disturb-ance of conjugal tranquillity, the old female relationsof the mother, or the mure-japoicnei (midwives) takecare that one of the twins shall disappear. If the newborn infant, though not a twin, have any physical de-formity, the father instantly puts it to death. Theywill have only robust and well-made children, for defor-mities indicate some influence of the evil spirit Ioloqui-amo, or the bird Tikitiki, the enemy of the human race.Sometimes children of a feeble constitution undergo thesame fate. When the father is asked what is becomeof one of his sons, he will pretend that he has lost himby a natural death; he will disavow an action that ap-pears to him blameable, but not criminal. ‘The poormure” (child) he will tell you, ‘could not follow us;|Spaltenumbruch|we must have waited for him every moment; he hasnot been seen again; he did not come to sleep where wepassed the night.’ Such is the candour and simplicity ofmanners, such the boasted happiness of man in a stateof nature! He kills his son to escape the ridicule ofhaving twins, or to avoid journeying more slowly; infact, to avoid a little inconvenience.
SAVAGE PREJUDICES.
The natives near the cataracts or raudales of theOroonoko, up which M. de Humboldt made his wayto a height little known to Europeans, are distinguishedby several remarkable prejudices, among which, noneare more fatal than those narrated in the following:—“Among the causes of the depopulation of the Rau-dales, I have not reckoned the small pox; that maladywhich, in other parts of America, makes such cruelravages, that the natives, seized with dismay, burntheir huts, kill their children, and renounce everykind of society. This scourge is almost unknown onthe banks of the Oroonoko. What depopulates theChristian settlement is, the repugnance of the Indiansfor the regulations of the missions, the insalubrity of aclimate at once hot and damp, bad nourishment, wantof care in the diseases of children, and the guilty prac-tice of mothers of preventing pregnancy by the use ofdeleterious herbs. Among the barbarous people ofGuyana, as well as those of the half-civilized islandsof the South Sea, young wives will not become mo-thers. If they have children, their offspring are exposed,not only to the dangers of savage life, but also to thedangers arising from the strangest popular prejudices.When twins are born, false notions of propriety andfamily honour require, that one of them should bedestroyed. ‘To bring twins into the world, is to beexposed to public scorn: it is to resemble rats, opos-sums, and the vilest animals, which bring forth a greatnumber of young at a time.’ Nay more: ‘two chil-dren born at the same time cannot belong to the samefamily.’ This is an axiom of physiology of the Sali-vas; and in every zone, and in different states of society,when the vulgar seize upon an axiom, they adhere toit with more stedfastness than the better informed men,by whom it was first hazarded. To avoid a disturb-ance of conjugal tranquillity, the old female relationsof the mother, or the mure-japoicnei (midwives) takecare that one of the twins shall disappear. If the newborn infant, though not a twin, have any physical de-formity, the father instantly puts it to death. Theywill have only robust and well-made children, for defor-mities indicate some influence of the evil spirit Ioloqui-amo, or the bird Tikitiki, the enemy of the human race.Sometimes children of a feeble constitution undergo thesame fate. When the father is asked what is becomeof one of his sons, he will pretend that he has lost himby a natural death; he will disavow an action that ap-pears to him blameable, but not criminal. ‘The poormure” (child) he will tell you, ‘could not follow us;|Spaltenumbruch|we must have waited for him every moment; he hasnot been seen again; he did not come to sleep where wepassed the night.’ Such is the candour and simplicity ofmanners, such the boasted happiness of man in a stateof nature! He kills his son to escape the ridicule ofhaving twins, or to avoid journeying more slowly; infact, to avoid a little inconvenience.