Influences of Geographic Environment by Ellen Churchill Semple (i love reading books .TXT) 📖
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The constant pressure of population upon the limits of subsistence throughout Oceanica has occasioned a low valuation of human life. Among natural peoples the helpless suffer first. The native Hawaiians, though a good-natured folk, were relentless towards the aged, weak, sick, and insane. These were frequently stoned to death or allowed to perish of hunger.1017 In Fiji, the aged are treated with such contempt, that when decrepitude or illness threatens them, they beg their children to strangle them, unless the children anticipate the request.1018 In Vate (or Efate) of the New Hebrides, old people are buried alive, and their passage to another world duly celebrated by a feast.1019 However, in the Tonga Islands and in New Zealand, great respect and consideration are shown the aged as embodying experience.1020 The harsher custom recalls an ancient law of Aegean Ceos, which, ordained that all persons over sixty years of age should be compelled to drink hemlock, in order that there might be sufficient food for the rest.1021
Many customs of Oceanica can be understood only in the light of the small value attached to human life in this island world. The overpopulation which lies back of their colonization explains the human sacrifices in their religious orgies and funeral rites, as also the widespread practice of cannibalism. This can be traced in vestigial forms, or as an occasional or habitual custom from one end of the Pacific to the other, from the Marquesas to New Guinea and from New Zealand to Hawaii. All Melanesia is tainted with it, and Micronesia is not above suspicion. The cause of this extensive practice, Stevenson attributes to the imminence of famine and the craving for flesh as food in these small islands, which are destitute of animals except fowls, dogs and hogs. In times of scarcity cannibalism threatens all; it strikes from within or without the clan.1022 Ratzel leans to the same opinion.1023 Captain Cook thought the motive of a good full meal of human flesh was often back of the constant warfare in New Zealand, and was sometimes the only alternative of death by hunger. Cannibalism was not habitual in the Tonga Islands, but became conspicuous during periods of famine.1024 In far-away Tierra del Fuego, where a peculiarly harsh climate and the low cultural status of the natives combine to produce a frightful infant mortality and therefore to repress population, cannibalism within the clan is indulged in only at the imperious dictate of mid-winter hunger. The same thing is true in the nearby Chonos Archipelago.1025
These are the darker effects of an island habitat, the vices of its virtues. That same excessive pressure of population which gives rise to infanticide also stimulates agriculture, industry and trade; it develops ingenuity in making the most of local resources, and finally leads to that widespread emigration and colonization which has made islanders the great distributors of culture, from Easter Isle to Java and from ancient Crete to modern England.
NOTES TO CHAPTER XIII
803.
Table of areas of peninsulas and islands, Justus Perthes, Taschen Atlas, p. 9. Gotha, 1905.
804.H.J. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas, pp. 105-108. London, 1904.
805.W. Deecke, Italy, p. 45. London, 1904.
806.Journey of William de Rubruquis, pp. 187, 204, Hakluyt Society Publication, London, 1903.
807.Archibald Little, The Far East, pp. 35, 45. Oxford, 1905.
808.Strabo, Book X, chap. II, 19.
809.Ratzel, Die Erde und das Leben, Vol. I. pp. 312-313. Leipzig, 1901.
810.Charles H. Hawes, In the Uttermost East, p. 103. New York, 1904.
811.W.E. Griffis, The Mikado's Empire, Vol. I, pp. 26-27. New York, 1904.
812.Darwin, Origin of Species, Vol. II, chap. XIII, p, 178. New York, 1895.
813.A.R. Wallace, Geographical Distribution of Animals, Vol. II, p. 61. London, 1876.
814.Darwin, Origin of Species, Vol. II, chap. XIII, p. 183. New York, 1895.
815.Ibid., Vol. II, chap. XIII, pp. 178-180.
816.A.R. Wallace, Island Life, pp. 331-332, 338-389, 393, 402, 409-410, 449, 456-463. New York, 1893.
817.Ibid., 342, 370-371.
818.Emerson, English Traits, chap. VI.
819.Capt. F. Brinkley, Japan, Vol. I, p. 50. Boston and Tokyo, 1901.
820.W.E. Griffis, The Mikado's Empire, Vol. I, p. 198. New York, 1904.
821.Arthur M. Knapp, Feudal and Modern Japan, Vol. I, pp. 211, 220, 221. New York, 1900.
822.Emerson, English Traits, chap. III.
823.Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries in Crete, pp. 134-136, 141, 162, 177. New York, 1907.
824.Ibid., chapters IV and V.
825.Ibid., p. 179. Angelo Mosso, The Palaces of Crete, pp. 46, 54-55, 61-62, 81. London, 1907.
826.Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries in Crete, pp. 64-65, 82, 84, 147-150. New York, 1907. James Baikie, The Sea Kings of Crete, pp. 235-237. London, 1910.
827.J.B. Bury, History of Greece, pp. 8-10. New York,1909.
828.R.M. Burrows, The Discoveries in Crete, pp. 36, 44-46, 50-51, 85, 149-150, 179. New York, 1907.
829.Ibid., 136-137.
830.Private communication from Mrs. Harriet Boyd Hawes.
831.Recent Discoveries in Crete, The Chautauquan, Vol. 43, p. 220. 1906. R.M. Burrows, The Discoveries in Crete, pp. 103, 162. New York, 1907.
832.Grote, History of Greece, Vol. IV, pp. 244-245. New York, 1857.
833.Strabo, Book XIV, chap. II, 7-13.
834.Strabo, Book VII, chap. VI, 16.
835.A.P. Niblack, Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia, pp. 382-384. House Misc. Doc. 142. Washington. Dr. George Dawson, The Haidas, Harper's Monthly, August, 1882.
836.Ratzel, History of Mankind, Vol. I, p. 180. London, 1896-1898.
837.Article, The National Academy of Sciences, Nation, Vol. LXXX, p. 328. 1905. Capt. James Cook, A Voyage Towards the South Pole, 1772-1775, Vol. I, p. 284, 288-296. London. 1777. George Forster, Voyage Round the World, Vol. I, pp. 566-567, 580-581, 586-591. London, 1777.
838.G. Sergi, The Mediterranean Race, chap. VII. London and New York, 1901. Helmolt, History of the World, Vol. IV, pp. 222-223. New York, 1902-1906.
839.Charles W. Hawes, The Uttermost East, pp. 113-116. New York, 1904.
840.William Bright, Early English Church History, pp. 224-234. Oxford. 1897. P. W. Joyce, Social History of Ireland, Vol. I, pp. 320, 389, 390. London, 1903.
841.W.H. Dall, Masks and Labrets, p. 137. Third Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1884.
842.A.P. Niblack, Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia, pp. 236-382. Washington.
843.H.R. Mill, International Geography, p. 187. New York, 1902.
844.A.B. Ellis, The West African Islands, p. 202. London, 1885. History of the Conquest of the Canaries, Introduction, pp. XIII, XVII, XXXIII, XXXIV. Hakluyt Society, London, 1872.
845.Henry Gannett, People of the Philippines, Report of the Eighth International Geographical Congress, Washington, 1904.
846.H.R. Mill, International Geography, p. 549. New York, 1903.
847.W. Deecke, Italy, p. 451. London, 1904.
848.Nelson Annandale, The Faroes and Iceland, p. 14. Oxford, 1905.
849. J. Partsch, Central Europe, Map, p. 131, and p. 133. London, 1903. 850.W.Z. Ripley, Races of Europe, pp. 272, 304, 305, 317. New York, 1899.
851.Ibid., p. 303.
852.Ibid., Map, p. 251, and p. 253.
853.W. Deecke, Italy, p. 451. London, 1904.
854.Darwin, Origin of Species, Vol. II, chap. XIII, pp. 179, 180, 184. New York, 1895. A. E. Wallace, Island Life, pp. 284-285, 290-291. London and New York, 1892.
855.H.R. Mill, International Geography, p. 554. New York, 1902.
856.Ratzel, Die Erde und das Leben, Vol. I, p. 364. Leipsig, 1901.
857.Ratzel, History of Mankind, Vol. I, pp. 454-456. London, 1896-1898. H.R. Mill, International Geography, p. 1018. New York, 1902.
858.Ratzel, History of Mankind, Vol. I, p. 456. London, 1896-1898.
859.Nordenskiold, Voyage of the Vega, pp. 563, 588, 591. New York, 1882.
860.A.R. Wallace, Malay Archipelago, pp. 368, 380, 381. New York, 1869.
861.Richard Semon, In the Australian Bush, pp. 277-278. London,1899.
862.Strabo, Book VIII, chap. VI, 16.
863.Pliny, Naturalis Historia, Book IV, 12.
864.Ibid., Book VI, chap, 32.
865.Hereford George, Historical Geography of the British Empire, pp. 130-133. London, 1904.
866.Dietrich Schaefer, Die Hansestädte und König Waldemar von Dänemark, pp. 37-44. Jena, 1879.
867.Hereford George, Historical Geography of the British Empire, pp. 127-128. London, 1904.
868.The Danish West Indies, pp. 2767, 2769. Summary of Commerce and Finance for January, 1902. Washington.
869.E.A. Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe, pp. 22, 29, 37, 65, 77, 384, 412-415, 419, 426, 465. London, 1882.
870.Ibid., 35, 48, 49, 54-55, 80, 379, 382-385, 409, 411, 556, 557. E.A. Freeman, Sicily, chaps. I, II. New York and London, 1894.
871.W. Deecke, Italy, pp. 132, 445. London, 1904. W.Z. Ripley, Races of Europe, p. 271. New York, 1899.
872.Elisée Reclus, Europe, Vol. I, p. 320. New York, 1886.
873.W. Deecke, Italy, pp. 448, 453. London, 1904.
874.H.R. Mill, International Geography, p. 367. New York, 1902.
875.David Murray, Story of Japan, p. 156. New York, 1894.
876.Henry Dyer. Dai Nippon, p. 61. New York, 1904.
877.E.A. Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe, pp. 55, 245, 252, 257, 258, 264, 556. London, 1882.
878.Thucydides I, 114; IV, 57-59, 62.
879.Ibid., IV, 120-122.
880.Aristotle, Politics, Book XI, chaps. 7, 8.
881.J.T. Bent, The Bahrein Islands in the Persian Gulf, Proceedings of the Roy. Geog. Soc., Vol. XII, p. 1. London, 1890.
882.W.F. Walker, The Azores, p. 22. London, 1886.
883.A.B. Ellis, West African Islands, p. 203. London, 1885.
884.Strabo, Book III, chap. V, 1.
885.H.J. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas, pp. 10-12. London, 1904.
886.W.Z. Ripley, Races of Europe, pp. 301, 311. New York, 1899.
887.H.B. George, Historical Geography of the British Empire, pp. 100, 103, 104. London, 1904.
888.J.R. Green, The Making of England, Vol. II, pp. 30, 31, 35. London, 1904.
889.James Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, p. 185. London, 1890. George Webbe Dasent, The Story of Burnt Njal, or Life in Iceland at the End of the Tenth Century, Vol. I, pp. LII-LXVIII. Edinburgh, 1861.
890.Dahlmann, Geschichte van Dänemark, Vol. II, pp. 265-268. Hamburg, 1857. James Bryce, Introduction to Helmolt, History of the World, Vol. I, p. XXII. New York, 1902.
891.George T. Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church, pp. 206-230. London, 1886.
892.J.R. Green, History of the English People, Vol.
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