A World of Ideas 10th Edition Ebook PDF
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of the piece and to model for students a critical reading process that they
can adapt to other essays in the book. The introduction encourages
students to mark what they think are the most interesting and important
ideas in an essay and highlight or underline all sentences that they might
want to quote in an essay of their own.
“Writing about Ideas: An Introduction to Rhetoric.” In the tenth
edition, this section, which now immediately follows “Evaluating Ideas:
An Introduction to Critical Reading,” has been much expanded, with an
emphasis on developing thesis statements, using rhetorical methods of
development, and thinking critically to construct a strong argument. Many
new examples based on current selections in the tenth edition help students
find fruitful approaches to the material. This section explains how a reader
can make annotations while reading critically and then use those
annotations to write effectively in response to the ideas presented in any
selection in the book. “Writing about Ideas” draws on the annotations of
the Machiavelli selection illustrated in “Evaluating Ideas: An Introduction
to Critical Reading.” A sample student essay on Machiavelli, using the
techniques taught in the context of reading and writing, gives students a
model for moving from a critical response to a selection to writing their
own material. In addition, this section helps students understand how they
can apply some of the basic rhetorical principles discussed throughout the
book.
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discussion questions designed for use inside or outside the classroom.
Questions for Critical Reading focus on key issues and ideas and can be
used to stimulate general class discussion and critical thinking.
Suggestions for Critical Writing help students practice some of the
rhetorical strategies employed by the author of a given selection. These
suggestions ask for personal responses, as well as complete essays that
involve research. A number of these assignments, labeled “Connections,”
promote critical reading by requiring students to connect particular
passages in a selection with a selection by another writer, either in the
same part of the book or in another part. The variety of connections is
intriguing — Lao-tzu with Machiavelli, Aristotle with Andrew Carnegie,
Adam Smith with Thomas Jefferson, F. A. Hayek with John Maynard
Keynes, Francis Bacon with Howard Gardner, Kwame Anthony Appiah
with Iris Murdoch and Michael Gazzaniga, Judith Butler with Margaret
Mead, Gilbert Ryle with Eric Kandel, Hsün Tzu with Aristotle, and many
more.
In this edition, I ask a number of questions in each of the six sections
of the book before the student reads any of the essays. This helps give
them a baseline for their own thoughts about government, culture, wealth,
mind, science, and ethics before they begin examining those ideas. Then, I
provide a number of follow-up questions at the end of each section to help
students see how much they have absorbed from the authors they have
studied.
9
New in the Tenth Edition
The tenth edition offers a number of new features to help students engage
and interact with the texts as they learn to analyze ideas and develop their
own thoughts in writing.
10
It is important to see how these six great themes intersect in everyone’s
life. The new “Considerations” and “Reflections” questions I have
provided at the beginning and end of each of these sections are designed to
provide a way of reflecting on the great ideas that are explored in detail,
but they also are designed to help students understand how much they have
learned from the ideas in each section.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to a number of people who made important suggestions for
earlier editions, among them Shoshana Milgram Knapp of Virginia
Polytechnic and State University and Michael Hennessy of Texas State
University–San Marcos. I want to thank Michelle McSweeney for her
work on the sentence outlines for this edition’s instructor’s manual, and I
again thank Jon Marc Smith of Texas State University–San Marcos and
Chiara Sulprizio of the Loyola Marymount University for assisting with
the manuals for previous editions. I also remain grateful to Michael Bybee,
formerly of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, for suggesting many
fascinating pieces by Eastern thinkers, all of which he has taught to his
own students. Thanks to him, this edition includes Lao-tzu.
Like its predecessors, the tenth edition is indebted to a great many
creative people at Bedford/St. Martin’s, whose support is invaluable. I
11
want to thank Charles Christensen, former president, whose concern for
the excellence of this book and whose close attention to detail were truly
admirable. I continue to appreciate the advice of Joan E. Feinberg, former
copresident of Macmillan Higher Education, and Denise Wydra, former
president of Bedford/St. Martin’s, whose suggestions over the years were
always timely and excellent. Edwin Hill, vice president of editorial for the
humanities; Karen Henry, editorial director for English; and Steve
Scipione, senior executive editor, offered many useful ideas and
suggestions as well, especially in the early stages of development, and kept
their sharp eyes on the project throughout. My editor for the eighth edition,
Maura Shea, is the professional’s professional. My editor for the ninth and
tenth editions, Alicia Young, has been a steady guiding hand, discussing
material with me and helping me make wise choices. She has been an
inspiration in dealing with sometimes intractable problems and responding
with encouragement and the kind of help only the very best editors can
provide.
Assisting her were a number of hardworking individuals, including
Jennifer Prince. Pamela Lawson, production editor, also helped with
innumerable important details and suggestions. Caroline Define, copy
editor, improved the prose and watched out for inconsistencies. Thanks
also to several staff members and researchers: Jenn Kennett cleared text
permissions, William Boardman found the cover artwork and designed the
marvelous cover, and Susan Barlow secured permission for all the new
images. In earlier editions, I had help from Diane Kraut, Maura Shea,
Sarah Cornog, Rosemary Winfield, Michelle Clark, Professor Mary W.
Cornog, Ellen Kuhl, Mark Reimold, Andrea Goldman, Beth Castrodale,
Jonathan Burns, Mary Beth McNulty, Beth Chapman, Mika De Roo, and
Greg Johnson. I feel I had a personal relationship with each of them. I also
want to thank the students — quite a few of them — who wrote me
directly about their experiences reading the first nine editions. I have
attended carefully to what they told me, and I am warmed by their high
regard for the material in this book.
Earlier editions named hundreds of users of this book who sent their
comments and encouragement. I would like to take this opportunity to
thank them again. In addition, the following professors were generous with
criticism, praise, and detailed recommendations for the tenth edition:
Caroline Alphin, Radford University; Deborah Barrett, Rice University;
Jon Brammer, Three Rivers Community College; David Calonne, Eastern
Michigan University; Jason Casem, Long Beach City College; Jane
Cleland, Lehman College; Laurie Lopez Coleman, San Antonio College;
Jeanie Crain, Missouri Western State University; Brian Curtis, Nashville
12
State Community College; Kathryn Denton, Ohio State University; Ajit
Dhillon, University of South Carolina; Heide Estes, Monmouth University;
Allison Fraiberg, University of Redlands; John Gist, Western New Mexico
University; Bruce Glenn, Arizona State University; Auston Habershaw,
MCPHS University; Deana Holifield, Pearl River Community College;
Pam Mathis, North Arkansas College; Lois McDonald, Pearl River
Community College; John Metoyer, City Colleges of Chicago–Wright &
Washington; Margaret Morlier, Reinhardt University; Garry Partridge, San
Antonio College; Ayaz Pirani, Hartnell College; Donna Pittman, Nashville
State Community College; Phil Poulos, California State University Los
Angeles; Lillian Ruiz, Greenfield Community College; Provvidenza
Scaduto, MiraCosta College; Suocai Su, Harold Washington College;
Lantz Simpson, Santa Monica College; Greg Underwood, Pearl River
Community College; and Stephen Wells, Community College of
Allegheny County.
I want to mention particularly the past experiences I had visiting
Professor Elizabeth Deis and the faculty and students of Hampden-Sydney
College in connection with their writing and humanities programs.
Professors James Kenkel and Charlie Sweet were gracious in welcoming
me to Eastern Kentucky University for workshops and classes using A
World of Ideas. These were delightful and fruitful experiences that helped
me shape the book. I am grateful to all who took part in these workshops.
—LEE JACOBUS
13
power of Macmillan Learning. To learn more about or to order any of the
following products, contact your Bedford/St. Martin’s sales representative
or visit the Web site at macmillanlearning.com.
14
Pre-built units that support a learning arc
Each easy-to-assign unit is comprised of a pretest check, multimedia instruction
and assessment, and a posttest that assesses what students have learned about
critical reading, writing process, using sources, grammar, style, mechanics, and
help for multilingual writers.
15
To the Student
When the first edition of A World of Ideas was published, the notion that
students in first-year composition courses should be able to read and write
about challenging works by great thinkers was a radical one. In fact, no
other composition reader at the time included selections from such
important thinkers as Hannah Arendt, Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl
Marx, Plato, Charles Darwin, or Mary Wollstonecraft. I had expected a
moderate response from a small number of people. Instead, teachers and
students alike sent me a swarm of mail commending the book for the
challenge it provided and the insights they gained.
One of the first letters I received was from a young woman who had
read the book after she graduated from college. She said she had heard of
the thinkers included in A World of Ideas but in her college career had
never read any of their works. Reading them now, she said, was long
overdue. Another student wrote me an elaborate letter in which he
demonstrated that every one of the selections in the book had been used as
the basis of a Star Trek episode. He sagely connected every selection to a
specific episode and convinced me that whoever was writing Star Trek had
read some of the world’s most important thinkers. Other students have
written to tell me that they found themselves using the material in this
book in other courses, such as psychology, philosophy, literature, and
history, among others. In many cases, these students were the only ones
among their peers who had read the key authors in their discipline.
Sometimes, you will have to read the selections in A World of Ideas
more than once. Works by influential thinkers, such as Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, John Rawls, Judith Butler, Adam Smith, Sigmund Freud,
Francis Bacon, Iris Murdoch, and Howard Gardner, can be very
challenging. But do not let the challenge discourage you. In “Evaluating
Ideas: An Introduction to Critical Reading,” I suggest methods for
annotating and questioning texts that are designed to help you keep track
of what you read and to help you master the material. In addition, each
selection is accompanied by a headnote on the author’s life and work,
comments about the primary ideas presented in the selection, and a host of
questions to help you overcome minor difficulties in understanding the
16
author’s meaning. Some students have written to tell me that their first
reading of the book was off-putting, but most of them have written later to
tell me how they eventually overcame their initial fear that the selections
would be too difficult for them. Ultimately, these students agreed with me
that this material is important enough to merit their absolute attention.
The purpose of A World of Ideas is to help you learn to write better by
giving you something really significant to think and write about. The
selections not only are avenues into some of the most serious thought on
their subjects but also are stimulating enough to sustain close analysis and
to produce many good ideas for writing. For example, when you think
about democracy, it helps to know what Aristotle said about it while
Athens enjoyed it, just as it is important to understand the ideals Thomas
Jefferson was championing when he penned the Declaration of
Independence. Mary Wollstonecraft was also a radical political thinker of
her time, advocating for greater respect and better opportunities for women
in a society that did not value their gifts and talents. Indeed, social justice
is integral to thinking about culture; John Rawls, the most important
modern philosopher of justice, measures justice always by its effect on the
neediest and least powerful segment of any society. Frederick Douglass
speaks from the perspective of a former slave when he cries out against the
injustice of an institution that existed in the Americas for hundreds of
years. And a hundred years after Douglass, the Reverend Martin Luther
King Jr. sent his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” still demanding justice
for African Americans and freedom seekers everywhere. The questions of
ethics that still haunt us are treated by Iris Murdoch in relation to religion
and by Kwame Anthony Appiah in relation to situational and virtue ethics,
each of which concentrates on the relation of ones’ character to one’s
ethical behavior. All these writers place their views in the larger context of
a universal dialogue on the subject of justice. When you write, you add
your own voice to the conversation. By commenting on the selections,
expressing and arguing a position, and pointing out contradictions or
contrasts among texts, you are participating in the world of ideas.
Keep in mind that I prepared A World of Ideas for my own students,
most of whom work their way through college and do not take the idea of
earning an education lightly. For that reason, I felt I owed them the
opportunity to encounter the very best minds I could put them in touch
with. Anything less seemed to me a missed opportunity. I hope you, like so
many other writing students, find this book both educational and inspiring.
17
Contents
PART ONE
GOVERNMENT 49
Some Considerations about the Nature of Government 54
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good of all and stresses a revolutionary view — equality before the
law.
PART TWO
CULTURE 189
Some Considerations about the Nature of Culture 194
19
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise
from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society 195
In this excerpt from one of the first great works of feminism,
Wollstonecraft argues that the laws, property rights, and class
distinctions of her day are mechanisms of control that deny women
their liberty and demean their lives.
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Postman demonstrates how language shapes our understanding of
our culture. He demonstrates how metaphor controls meaning and
convinces the reader, explaining how our use of language essentially
controls our understanding of our world.
PART THREE
WEALTH 319
Some Considerations about the Nature of Wealth 324
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to satisfy nationalist interests and our social conscience.
ROBERT B. REICH Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor,
Poorer 422
The former secretary of labor talks about the different categories of
workers in the United States and the inevitable changes occurring as
the U.S. economy is altered by economic inequality at home and
globalization abroad.
PART FOUR
MIND 453
Some Considerations about the Nature of Mind 458
22
SIGMUND FREUD The Oedipus Complex 477
After Freud posited the existence and functioning of the unconscious
mind, one of his most important — and controversial — theories was
the assertion that infants went through a stage in which they
unconsciously wished to possess their opposite-sex parent all for
themselves.
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interpersonal, and intrapersonal.
PART FIVE
SCIENCE 575
Some Considerations about the Nature of Science 579
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discusses the superstring theory of particle physics as well as the
complexities of ten-dimensional hyperspace. He discusses quantum
theory as well as Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity.
PART SIX
ETHICS 683
Some Considerations about the Nature of Ethics 687
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why it is not only reasonable but also sometimes essential to disobey
unjust laws imposed by the state.
Acknowledgments 818
Index of Rhetorical Terms 821
26
Evaluating Ideas
AN INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL READING
27
Forming your own ideas Reviewing what you have read, evaluating
the way that the writer presents the issues, and developing your own
views on the issues. This is the final step.
28
Machiavelli does not fret over the means used to achieve his ends and
sometimes advocates repression, imprisonment, and torture. (para.
3)
Machiavelli has been said to have a cynical view of human nature.
(para. 4)
His rhetorical method is to discuss both sides of an issue: cruelty and
mercy, liberality and stinginess. (para. 8)
He uses aphorisms to persuade the reader that he is saying something
wise and true. (para. 9)
With these observations in mind, the reader knows that the selection
that follows will be concerned with governance in Renaissance Italy. The
question of ends versus means is central to Machiavelli’s discussion, and
he does not idealize people and their general goodness. Yet because of
Machiavelli’s rhetorical methods, particularly his use of aphorism,1 the
reader can expect that Machiavelli’s argument will be exceptionally
persuasive.
Thus, as a critical reader, you will be well advised to keep track of
these basic statements from the headnote. You need not accept all of them,
but you should certainly be alert to the issues that will probably be central
to your experience of the essay. Remember: it is just as reasonable to
question the headnote as it is to question the essay itself.
Before reading the essay in detail, you might develop an overview of
its meaning by scanning it quickly. In the case of “The Qualities of the
Prince,” note the subheadings, such as “On Those Things for Which Men,
and Particularly Princes, Are Praised or Blamed.” Checking each of the
subheadings before you read the entire piece might provide you with a
map or guide to the essay.
Each passage is preceded by two or three prereading questions. These
are designed to help you keep two or three points in mind as you read.
Each of these questions focuses your attention on an important idea or
interpretation in the passage. For your reading of Machiavelli, the
questions are as follows:
1. Why does Machiavelli praise skill in warfare in his opening pages?
How does that skill aid a prince?
2. Is it better for a prince to be loved or to be feared?
In each case, a key element in Machiavelli’s argument is the center of
each question. By watching for the answer to these questions, you will find
yourself focusing on some of the most important aspects of the passage.
29
ANNOTATING AND QUESTIONING
As you read a text, your annotations establish a dialogue between you and
the author. You can underline or highlight important statements that you
feel help clarify the author’s position. They may be statements to which
you will want to refer later. Think of them as serving one overriding
purpose: to make it possible for you to review the piece and understand its
key points without having to reread it entirely.
Your dialogue with the author will be most visible in the margins of
the essay, which is one reason the margins in this book are so generous.
Take issue with key points or note your assent — the more you annotate,
the more you free your imagination to develop your own ideas. My own
methods involve notating both agreement and disagreement. I annotate
thoroughly, so that after a quick second glance I know what the author is
saying as well as what I thought of the essay when I read it closely. My
annotations help me keep the major points fresh in my mind.
Annotation keeps track both of what the author says and of what our
responses are. No one can reduce annotation to a formula — we all do it
differently — but it is not a passive act. Reading with a pencil or a pen in
hand should become second nature. Without annotations, you often have to
reread entire sections of an essay to remember an argument that once was
clear and understandable but after time has become part of the fabric of the
prose and thus “invisible.” Annotation is the conquest of the invisible; it
provides a quick view of the main points.
When you annotate,
Read with a pen or a pencil.
Underline key sentences — for example, definitions and statements of
purpose.
Underline key words that appear often.
Note the topic of paragraphs in the margins.
Ask questions in the margins.
Make notes in the margins to remind yourself to develop ideas later.
Mark passages you might want to quote later.
Keep track of points with which you disagree.
Some sample annotations follow, again from Niccolò Machiavelli’s
“The Qualities of the Prince.” A sixteenth-century text in translation, The
Prince is challenging to work with. My annotations appear in the form of
underlinings and marginal comments and questions. Only the first few
paragraphs appear here, but the entire essay is annotated in my copy of the
book.
30
A Prince’s Duty Concerning Military Matters
A prince, therefore, must not have any other object nor any other
thought, nor must he take anything as his profession but war, its
institutions, and its discipline; because that is the only profession which
befits one who commands; and it is of such importance that not only does
it maintain those who were born princes, but many times it enables men of
private station to rise to that position; and, on the other hand, it is evident
that when princes have given more thought to personal luxuries than to
arms, they have lost their state. And the first way to lose it is to neglect this
art; and the way to acquire it is to be well versed in this art.
Examples
Training: action/mind
Knowledge of terrain
Two benefits
He must, therefore, never raise his thought from this exercise of war,
and in peacetime he must train himself more than in time of war; this can
31
be done in two ways: one by action, the other by the mind. And as far as
actions are concerned, besides keeping his soldiers well disciplined and
trained, he must always be out hunting, and must accustom his body to
hardships in this manner; and he must also learn the nature of the terrain,
and know how mountains slope, how valleys open, how plains lie, and
understand the nature of rivers and swamps; and he should devote much
attention to such activities. Such knowledge is useful in two ways: first,
one learns to know one’s own country and can better understand how to
defend it; second, with the knowledge and experience of the terrain, one
can easily comprehend the characteristics of any other terrain that it is
necessary to explore for the first time; for the hills, valleys, plains, rivers,
and swamps of Tuscany, for instance, have certain similarities to those of
other provinces; so that by knowing the lay of the land in one province one
can easily understand it in others. And a prince who lacks this ability lacks
the most important quality in a leader; because this skill teaches you to
find the enemy, choose a campsite, lead troops, organize them for battle,
and besiege towns to your own advantage.
[There follow the examples of Philopoemon, who was always
observing terrain for its military usefulness, and a recommendation that
princes read histories and learn from them. Three paragraphs are omitted.]
Those who are good at all times come to ruin among those who are not
good.
32
lives and how one ought to live that anyone who abandons what is done
for what ought to be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation: for a
man who wishes to make a vocation of being good at all times will come
to ruin among so many who are not good. Hence it is necessary for a
prince who wishes to maintain his position to learn how not to be good,
and to use this knowledge or not to use it according to necessity.
33
REVIEWING
The process of review, which takes place after a careful reading, is much
more useful if you have annotated and underlined the text well. To a large
extent, the review process can be devoted to accounting for the primary
ideas that have been uncovered by your annotations and underlinings. For
example, reviewing the Machiavelli annotations shows that the following
ideas are crucial to Machiavelli’s thinking:
The prince’s profession should be war, so the most successful princes
are probably experienced in the military.
If they do not pay attention to military matters, princes will lose their
power.
Being disarmed makes the prince despised.
The prince should be in constant training.
The prince needs a sound knowledge of terrain.
Machiavelli says he tells us what is true, not what ought to be true.
Those who are always good will come to ruin among those who are
not good.
To remain in power, the prince must learn how not to be good.
The prince should avoid the worst vices in order not to harm his
reputation.
To maintain power, some vices may be necessary.
Some virtues may end in destruction.
Putting Machiavelli’s ideas in this raw form does an injustice to his
skill as a writer, but annotation is designed to result in such summary
statements. We can see that there are some constant themes, such as the
insistence that the prince be a military person. As the headnote tells us, in
Machiavelli’s day Italy was a group of rival city-states, and France, a
larger, united nation, was invading these states one by one. Machiavelli
dreamed that one powerful prince, such as his favorite, Cesare Borgia,
could fight the French and save Italy. He emphasized the importance of the
military because he lived in an age in which war was a constant threat.
Machiavelli anticipates the complaints of pacifists — those who argue
against war — by telling us that those who remain unarmed are despised.
To demonstrate his point, he gives us examples of those who lost their
positions as princes because they avoided being armed. He clearly expects
these examples to be persuasive.
A second important theme pervading Machiavelli’s essay is his view
on moral behavior. For Machiavelli, being in power is much more
important than being virtuous. He is quick to admit that vice is not
34
desirable and that the worst vices will harm the prince’s reputation. But he
also says that the prince need not worry about the “less serious” vices.
Moreover, the prince need not worry about incurring a bad reputation by
practicing vices that are necessary if he wishes to hold his state. In the
same spirit, Machiavelli tells us that there are some virtues that might lead
to the destruction of the prince.
35
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no related content on Scribd:
DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.