Volume 1

Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars.

Date:
1908-1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Encyclopædia of religion and ethics / edited by James Hastings ; with the assistance of John A. Selbie ... and other scholars. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    posed in a ravine called Apothetse near Mt. Taygetus after they had been examined and rejected by the elders of the tribe {(pvX-fi) (Plu- tarch, Lycurgus, c. 16). A similar procedure is recommended by Plato in the Republic (461 C and elsewhere; see Appendix IV. to hk. v. in Adam’s edition). In a State like Sparta, where, as Aristotle remarks, all its neighbours were enemies (Aristotle, Politics, ii. 9. 3), and where the Spartans proper were only a small governing caste amid a hostile population, the need for such a regulation is obvious. But in a less stringent measure the regulation no doubt existed in other States. At Athens, if the father did not celebrate the amphidromia for his child, it was not reared. No State save Thebes, and this apparently only at a late date, forbade exposure (Aelian, VariaHistoria, ii. 7). _ The child was to be taken to the authorities, who disposed of it to a person willing to undertake to bring it up as a slave, and recoup himself for his outlay by the child’s services when it grew up. (6) Luxury and selfishness. Although luxury is supposed to characterize only States which are highly civilized, selfishness can be found in all lands. Among the native Australians, where the children are often nursed for several years, it is inconvenient for the mother to have a yormger child on her hands. Such a child is either killed immediately after birth or left behind when the camp is changed (Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 1899, p. 51 ; Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, 1904, p. 750). In many countries, ancient and modern, an im- provement in the standard of living is accompanied by a disinclination to rear children. From the 4th cent. B.C. onwards, this was conspicuous in Greece, and in Rome it formed a theme of discus- sion for philosophers and satirists. How common the practice of exposure was, may be gathered from the frequency with which the heroines of the New Comedy, who come before us in the Latin versions of Plautus and Terence, are represented as having been exposed. They are, of course, recognized at the critical moment by the trinkets (crepundia) which were attached to the exposed infant. Under the Roman Empire, Musonius Rufus (p. 77, Hense) discusses whether aU the children born should be reared; and Pliny x. 74 f.) consults the emperor Trajan as to the legal position of the exposed children reared by others (dpeirroL) in his province of Bithynia. As the Roman comedy shows, the persons who thus reared expo'sed child- ren were not moved by philanthropy; their aim was to make them slaves or courtezans (cf. e.g. Terence, Jleautontimorumenos, 640 ; Plautus, Cis- tellaria, ii. 3. 543-630). Only when a child was exposed for superstitious reasons which made its death desirable, was it exposed where it was not likely to be found. As the Athenians exposed children in a pot {xvrpl^eiv, tyxvrpl^eiv), and as first-fruits were offered to the household gods in pots, it has been suggested that putting a child in a pot was a way of entrusting it to the gods. This is possible, but there is at present no sufficient evidence to prove it. Besides these categories, exposure may be due, in isolated cases, to other causes, e.g. domestic persecution. This led to the expulsion of Hagar and her child from the family of Abraham, and her temporary abandonment of Ishmael (Gn 21i^®-). Temporary national persecution also may lead to exposure, as in the case of Moses (Ex 2®®-). But neither is an example of a practice pursued by a nation in ordinary circumstances. Loterature.—Besides the works referred to in the text, there is an article upon exposure amongst the Indo-Gerraanic peoples in Schraders Beallexicon der idg. Altertumskunde (s.v. ‘ Aussetzung ’), and a very full article in Daremberg-Saglio’s land, Hist, des enfants KiruP (188i), vol. ii. pp. 243-275. 2. Abandonment.—Abandonment of the aged seems to arise simply from dread of the food supply running short, or the difficulty amongst nomad peoples of carrying about with them those who are no longer able to share in the work of the tribe or to shift for themselves. The practice, however, does not prevail amongst all wandering tribes. Among the native Australians the aged and infirm are treated wdth special kindness and provided -with a share of the food (Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 1899, p. 51). On the other hand, the natives of South Africa in their primitive state abandoned the old. ‘ I have seen,’ says Moffat (Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa, 1842, p. 132), ‘a small circle of stakes fastened in the ground, -within which were still lying the bones of a parent bleached in the sun, who had been thus aban- doned.’ Amongst the American Indians of the Pacific coast the old are generally neglected, and when helpless are abandoned (Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States of America, i. pp. 120, 131, 205, 390, and elsewhere). Among many tribes the duty of looking after the old belongs only to their o-wn descendants. Hence the members of such tribes pray for large families, in order that when old they may have some one to support them (H. Ling Roth, Benin, p. 47). In the Qur’an, Muhammad combines the injunction to be kind to parents with a warning not to kill the children (Sur. vi. 150). Amongst the Indo - Germanic pecmles, abandonment of the old is mentioned in the Vedas (Rig Veda, viii. 51. 52 [1020]; Atharva Veda, x-viii. 2. 34; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, p. 327 fl'.). In ancient Persia and Armenia, crip^es were left to shift for themselves; and Strabo, -w'ho is sup- ported by other authorities, tells us that the Bactrians left the old and infirm to be eaten by dogs ; and the Avesta itself recognizes the practice of setting a portion of food by such persons and leaving them to die (Strabo, x'i. 11. 3 ; Vendidad, iii. 18 [in this case a person ceremonially impure is thus shut up for life] ; Spiegel, Eranische Alter- tumskunde, iii. p. 682). The Caspians allo-wed those over seventy to die of hunger, and exposed their bodies in the desert to wild animals (Strabo, xi. 11. 3). Still more gruesome stories are told by Herodotus (i. 216, iii. 99, iv. 26) of the Massa- getse, of the Padsei (an Indian tribe), and of the Issedones. Even among the Greeks the removal of the old was not unknown. Most remarkable was the law of Ceos, which prevented ‘him wdio was unable to live well from living ill.’ By it all over sixty years of age were poisoned with hem- lock (Strabo, x. 5-6). Amongst the Romans, sexa- genarians are supposed to have been in early days cast over a bridge (the pons sublicius) into the Tiber (‘Sexagenarii de ponte,’ cf. Cicero, pro Roscio Amerino, § 100). The northern nations were equally cruel (Gummere, Germanic Origins, p. 203). When, however, such a custom prevails in a nation from time immemorial, its action is looked upon as natural, and is borne with resignation. And even in Britain, till recent times, seventy was regarded as extreme old age, and few reached it. In the New Hebrides, Turner found that the aged were buried alive at their ovm request (Samoa, p. 335), and it was considered a disgrace to their family if they were not. Not infrequently persons in delirium or very ill are abandoned by their relatives (H. Ling Roth, Sarawak, i. p. 311), no doubt because they are supposed to be under