Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

56 ENVY AND BLACK MAGIC
puts in the way of the younger through envy of its renown. Similar
motives come into play when the innovation proposed by the younger
man (its discovery or merely its adoption) conceals an imagined reproach
to the older man for not having thought of it himself. We are,
however, penetrating into deeper layers of emotional life when we seek to
understand why the older generation, in keeping a Spartan hold on the
younger, tries to forbid or disparage those objects or institutions which
represent increased comfort.
Incidentally, the cruel initiation rites that are customary in a wide
number of primitive tribal societies, and which close the stage of adolescence,
might conceivably be understood as the expression of general
existential envy which members conscious of their age feel towards
those whose life still lies before them. 32
32 For instance, in the African tribe of the Masai several authors (Fox, Merker) have
noted that the members of one generation are extremely jealous of generations older or
younger than themselves. Specifically, as Ralph Linton once pointed out, the age group
just before the status of 'old men' is pushed over that threshold by the new crop of
adolescents. They are therefore extremely cruel to the youngsters during the initiation
rites.