From: Michael LaTorra (mike99@lascruces.com)
Date: Wed Jun 28 2000 - 14:57:19 MDT
Bonnie ("altamira") noted in passing that Jared Diamond said:
"... murder is a far more common cause of death among tribal people
than among civilized people."
Other anthropologists have remarked on this also. I recall reading somewhere
about one scientist who was interviewing members of a remote tribe
concerning the frequency of homicide. He mentioned that in his country (the
USA) criminals sometimes killed people while robbing them or for other
reasons. The tribal members were horrified; they said that such a thing
never happened in their group.
But when the anthropologist asked them about witchcraft, the tribal folks
said that witchcraft was a major problem. They had had to kill several
witches in just the past year or so. When he asked them for precise names
and numbers, and then calculated the "witchcraft execution rate," he found
it to be far higher than the murder rate in the most violent US inner city
neighborhoods.
Regards,
Michael LaTorra
mike99@lascruces.com
mlatorra@excite.com
3229 Risner Street
Las Cruces, NM 88011-4823
USA
505.522.5121
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