Des rapports observés entre les moyens d’existence et l’état social des peuples d’espèce malaie du g

CHAP. 19: > Of the relations observed between the means of existence and the social state of the peoples of the Malay species of the great Ocean. — Of the kind of inequalities that exist among these peoples.The islands of the great Ocean, excepting those closest to Asia and which are connected to that continent, are divided between peoples of two species: between peoples classified under the name of the Malay species, and peoples classified under the name of the negro or Ethiopian species. As these two species of men differ from one another in their physical constitution, in the degree of intellectual development they have reached, in their morals, and in their language, it is important not to confound them. As for the peoples who inhabit the islands situated near the Asian continent, and who are classified under the name of the Mongolian species, I will make known their morals and their social state when I speak of the peoples of this species who inhabit Asia.

In describing the social state of the peoples of the Malay species, I will follow the order that I observed in the exposition of the morals of the peoples of the copper-colored species. I will first make known the general constitution of each association. I will then consider, among each people, individuals in their relations with one another as members of a family, as spouses, or as parents. I will consider them, secondly, in the relations that some have with others as chiefs and as subordinates, as servants and as masters, as governors and as governed. I will consider them, thirdly, as a national body, and in the relations that peoples have with one another as allies or as enemies. Finally, I will consider them through the virtues or vices that have no special relation to any of the preceding qualifications, or through the habits whose principal effects are felt by the individual himself and which do not affect others in an immediate manner.

We have seen previously that the peoples of the Malay species who occupy the islands of the great Ocean situated between the tropics, when compared as a national body, differ little among themselves in their physical organization, in their language, and in the development of their intellectual faculties; we are about to see that they differ equally little in the constitution of their societies, in their public and private morals, and in the relations they have with one another.

All the peoples of the Malay species who are placed between the tropics, or who are at a short distance from them, live on the products of agriculture; among them, the land has been divided into private properties since an era unknown to us; the fields are enclosed and well cultivated; the country is generally traversed by well-maintained roads; navigation has already made some progress, and fishing, although abundant, is nevertheless considered only as a supplement to their means of existence. These diverse circumstances are sufficient for us to judge that, among these peoples, the social bonds must be stronger than those that exist among the copper-colored peoples placed under the coldest climate of America.

Travelers have observed, in the archipelagos of the great Ocean and among the same peoples, individuals who differed so much from one another in their physical constitution that they believed they belonged to two particular races [521]. The physical differences they have observed are perhaps not sufficient for us to admit as an established fact the existence on the same soil of two species of men; but, admitting that all the classes they have observed are of the same species, not all appear to be equally ancient in the country. There, as in all the States of Europe before the destruction of the feudal regime, there exist two peoples on each land: the one who was its first possessor, who cleared it, and who still cultivates it; and the one who, arriving later, seized the soil and the cultivators, and who lives by means of what they produce. When an army of barbarians seizes a previously occupied territory, the simplest means of exploitation that presents itself is to consider the cultivators as beasts, and to attach them to the cultivation. If, for the preservation of the conquest, the army remains organized, if the individuals of whom it is composed remain subordinate to one another, a kind of order is established that has been designated by the name of the feudal regime; an order in which the individuals of the conquered classes are placed in the rank of things, and where the others are considered in proportion to the elevation of their rank and the extent of their possessions.

Such is the social state of the peoples of the Malay species, who occupy almost all the islands of the great Ocean. In the Friendly Islands, some of which are very considerable, and whose number exceeds** one hundred and fifty, there exists a supreme chief, and this chief is the general of the army [522]. The main island, in which he resides, is divided into forty-three districts, each of which is subject to a particular chief [523]. All the other islands also have chiefs who are subordinate to one another, and of whom the highest in rank are the immediate subordinates of the general chief; by the effect of this subordination, the ranks are as multiplied in these islands as they are in England.

These chiefs are possessors of all the lands [524]; they also possess the cultivators, and even all the individuals who belong to the laboring classes, since they exercise over them the power of life and death [525]. If the country is threatened, each district chief furnishes a certain number of soldiers whom he commands himself, and the entire army is commanded by the general chief [526]. The authority of this chief or king is hereditary in his family, although it ordinarily passes to his brothers before reaching his children [527]. It does not render inviolable the one who possesses it; for, if he makes himself guilty toward the chiefs, they can depose him or even have him put to death. The individual who enjoys the privilege of executing the sentence can at the same time be invested with the general command of the army [528].

The chiefs do not enjoy absolute power over those who are subordinate to them; the chief of each district deliberates on local affairs with the inferior officers [529]; the supreme chief deliberates on general affairs with the principal officers; it is by majority that the deliberations are taken [530]. The authority of all the officers is hereditary, like that of the general chief; it is transmitted with the lands that depend on it, from male to male, by order of primogeniture [531].

The rank that each individual occupies in the State is marked by the signs he wears, by the denominations he is given, or by the honors that are rendered to him. The respect that even the most considerable personages show to the principal chief is extreme; if he presents himself before them, they prostrate themselves, take his foot, and place it on their neck or on their head [532]; if he is absent, he leaves in his place one of the furnishings that are for the use of his sacred person, the vessel in which he washes his hands, for example, and one pays to this furnishing the same respect as to himself [533]; if he is stripped of his authority, he retains the title and the signs of it; for his quality is inherent in his person and in a divine origin; the members of his family bear the same name that they give to their gods [534].

The great men respect the person of the king, not because of the qualities he possesses, but because this authority is of the same nature as their own: by the homage they render him, they show the homage that is due to them. Cook, having had to thank one of these kings for the presents he had received from him, hoped to see a vigorous young man, with a witty face and an enterprising courage.

“We found,” he says, “a weak and decrepit old man, whom the years had almost rendered blind, and so indolent and so stupid, that he seemed to have scarcely enough intelligence to perceive that his pigs and his women had pleased us [535].”

The advantages that result for the king from the possession of authority, advantages that he shares with the principal chiefs, are, besides the pleasures of command, to consume in each meal an incredible quantity of food [536], to possess several women [537], and to have some who preserve him from the inconvenience of flies with a fan, or who strike him gently on the thighs when he wants to sleep [538].

The members of the general chief's family take the same title as the gods, as we have seen previously; the other chiefs, besides the title of lords of the land, take the title of lords of the sun and the firmament [539]. Each of them has a numerous court, composed of the cadets of the family who hold a rank equal to his own; it is by these cadets that he has his messages delivered, or other offices of his house filled [540]. Each of them also has a particular livery for his servants; this livery consists in the manner of covering oneself, and varies according to rank; the servants of the nobles of the lowest class can cover only their loins [541]. The great men are distinguished moreover by the nature of the wood with which they light their way during the night; for the people of the common class cannot make use of the same wood that the lords of the sun and the firmament employ [542]. A man of an inferior rank, who approaches a great man, uncovers the entire upper part of his body as a sign of respect [543]. If a great man dies, his inferiors give the same marks of grief as if they had lost their most intimate friends, their dearest relatives; they bruise their bodies, they tear their faces, until the blood gushes out [544]. Some of them are strangled on his tomb [545]; the number of victims who are immolated on such an occasion rises in some islands to as many as ten, if the chief to whom they are immolated belongs to a distinguished rank [546]. It is the high priest who chooses the victims, after having secretly consulted the divinity, but he cannot choose them from among the nobles [547]. The priest in charge of the sacrifice tears out the left eye of the victim, presents it to the king, commanding him to open his mouth, and withdraws it without having thrust it in. This ceremony is called "eating the man," or "the chief's treat." It seems to have for its object to establish the ancient right of the victors to eat the vanquished [548]. The privileges of the great men are not limited to this life; they enjoy, in another world, all the pleasures they have tasted in this one, and their souls are immortal. The souls of the common people, as soon as they separate from their bodies, are eaten by their god or by a bird that flutters around the cemeteries, and which they name loata [549]. In these islands the religious beliefs are formed with a view to perpetuating the power of the aristocracy, and the debasement and servitude of the people [550].

The great men are charged with maintaining the police, and they exercise over the men of inferior ranks a boundless power. The things or actions they forbid are said to be taboo [551], and their prohibitions are always sanctioned by religion. If an individual performs an action or touches a thing that is taboo, he is clubbed to death [552]. The women of the great men are taboo for all men of an inferior rank: consequently, those of the latter who are surprised with one of them are killed [553]. Even the daughters of the great men cannot ally themselves with the inferior classes; the children who are born of these alliances are put to death. The father is also put to death, if the woman belongs to the family of the principal chief. But the women of the inferior ranks are not taboo for the great men: the children who are born of their liaisons with them, on the contrary, enter the privileged castes and can succeed their fathers [554], unless the latter see fit to put them to death [555].

The great men, who see to it that the men of the inferior ranks cultivate the portion of land assigned to them, designate, by the taboo, what things the people are permitted to eat, and what things they must forbid themselves; if they see fit to multiply the number of pigs or poultry, they declare them taboo, and then no one can either eat or sell them; if the principal chief enters a house, that house is taboo, and the owner can no longer inhabit it [556].

This aristocracy is perpetuated, as has already been seen, by the transmission that operates, in favor of the first male child, of the power and properties that belonged to the father. But what becomes of the other children? The daughters cannot ally themselves with men of the inferior ranks, since the children who would be born of these alliances would be put to death. The boys must be little disposed to make such alliances, although they are not forbidden to them, since these women possess no lands and consequently cannot give them means of existence. Finally, the non-privileged classes having no other industry than to cultivate the land of the great men and to work for their profit, it is not possible to levy on them taxes considerable enough or to create useless employments lucrative enough to enrich the families of the cadets. These inconveniences are avoided by the creation of a corporation of celibates, which travelers designate by the name of Arreoys or Erreoe,** and to which are aggregated the cadet children of the privileged classes, men and women; the trade of the men is to make war; their means of existence are the products of the labors of the laboring classes [557].

In this association, the two sexes live in common, and it is rare that the same man and the same woman remain together for more than two or three days. One of the first laws of the corporation is not to keep any children: if, therefore, a woman becomes pregnant, the child is put to death at birth; it is suffocated by applying a piece of wet cloth under its nose and over its mouth. A mother can, however, save the child she is carrying, if she feels for it some movement of tenderness; but for that she must renounce the society of which she is a part, and find a man who consents to serve as a father to her child. The individuals who belong to this society enjoy several privileges and great consideration; having no living children is for them a subject of pride [558].

There is another condition necessary for the maintenance and duration of the aristocratic classes: it is that esteem and consideration be exclusively attached to the qualities that alone constitute the aristocracy, that is to say, to birth, and to the heredity of lands and power. The consideration that would be granted to personal merit, to virtues or to talents, would be an attack on the constitutive principle of such a social order; since it would give the men of the inferior classes the means to emerge from their debasement and to place themselves on the level of the privileged classes. Thus these islanders view with sovereign contempt any person of their nation who is not born in the superior ranks, whatever his riches and personal qualities may be besides.

“It appears,” says Cook, speaking of an inhabitant of Tahiti who had returned to that island a long time after having left it, “it appears that he knew little of the character of the inhabitants of the Society Islands, and that he had lost sight, in many respects, of their customs; otherwise he would have felt that it would be extremely difficult for him to attain a distinguished rank in a country where personal merit has perhaps never caused an individual to leave an inferior class to be raised to a higher one. The distinctions and the power that follows from them seem to be founded here on rank; the islanders are subject to this prejudice in so obstinate and blind a manner, that a man who was not born into the privileged families will surely be despised and hated if he tries to arrogate to himself a kind of dominion. The compatriots of Omai (whom Cook had brought back to his island and enriched) did not dare to show their disposition toward him too much, as long as we were among them; we judged, however, that he inspired in them a feeling of hatred and contempt [559].”The individuals who do not belong to the aristocratic class are distinguished by a tattooed mark that announces their inferiority [560]. They cultivate the land, go fishing, perform the domestic service of the great men's houses, and prepare their food [561]. But, although it is they who, by their labors, produce all the sustenance, they have only a small part of it; meat and fish are reserved for the class of the great; fruits, vegetables, and rats are the foods reserved for the people. Even the men who engage in fishing do not consume its product; if they wish to taste fish, they must eat it raw, at the moment they have just caught it [562]. Finally, these men do not even have houses under which they can find shelter. If the weather is fine, they sleep in the open air like animals; if it is bad, they seek refuge under the eaves of the great men's dwellings [563]. They are covered with vermin, which they get rid of by eating it [564]. Their way of life and especially the foods on which they nourish themselves affect them in such a way that they are almost all infected with a type of scabies or skin disease [565].

The aristocracy, in its organization, has two objects: one is to maintain in subjection the men obliged to cultivate the soil for its profit; the other is to defend its possessions against foreign invasions, or to invade lands that suit it. If some trouble arises among the subjugated men, the masters themselves settle the quarrel; but if a dispute arises among the great, there are no common judges, and it is force that decides. Each side arms its vassals, implores its friends, and the strongest seize the lands and cultivators possessed by the vanquished. The only case in which recourse is had to a judicial proceeding is when the principal chief is accused of having harmed the interests of his great vassals. From the absence of all justice among the great are born the vices that we have seen develop among the copper-colored peoples of the north of America: dissimulation, perfidy, vengeance, cruelty [566]. We will see how these passions manifest themselves in the relations that the tribes have with one another.

Such is the social order established in all the archipelagos of the great Ocean situated between the tropics. This order has not been observed in all the islands with the same care as it has been in those of the Society and Friendly Islands; but the parts that have been recognized in the greatest number correspond exactly to what has been observed in the principal ones. In the Sandwich Islands, the population is divided in the same manner as in the Friendly Islands [567]. In the one as in the other, people of the common class are immolated on the tombs of men who belong to the aristocratic class. The principal difference observed between them is that, in the Sandwich Islands, the number of victims is more considerable than it is in the others [568]. The French and English travelers who observed the inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands did not speak of their social organization; but American travelers found among them the feudal regime in all its power [569].

There exist, however, some differences between the peoples of these archipelagos. The individuals who belong to the subjugated class seem less numerous in some than in others; but it may be that these differences are more apparent than real. The superior chiefs, who, in all the islands, are the tallest and best-constituted men, ordinarily surround the general chief or king [570]. The navigators who landed on the principal islands must therefore have found a greater number of strong and well-constituted men than the navigators who landed on other islands [571].