Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

HABITUAL AVOIDANCE OF ENVY 69
no one would be envious, self-deprecation (as in mutual forms of
address) was taken to what Westerners regarded as absurd extremes.
Habitual avoidance of envy and the inhibition of development
Reichel-Dolmatoff described a common method of avoiding envy in the
village of Aritama:
In this suspicion-ridden atmosphere any calamity is immediately attributed
to the magic of an enemy who, through ill will and envy, caused the
trouble. The best prophylactic measure an individual can take, in all cases,
therefore, consists in not appearing enviable in the first place and in
pretending to be poor, ill, and already in trouble. 16
In his study of the Dobuans, one of the most envy-ridden of cultures,
Fortune raises the question, difficult but justified, as to whether such a
community is poor because inhibited by mutual envy, or whether envy is
a consequence of the general frugality of their existence. Fortune generally
uses 'jealousy' but quite evidently means 'envy.'
In this society it is not possible to say that the attitudes of the social
organization are created by the attitudes of the magical outlook, or that the
attitudes of the magical outlook are created by the attitudes of the social
organization. It is, however, possible to show a unity of feeling throughout.
Jealousy of possession is the keynote to the culture.
In social organization this jealousy is found in a conflict between the kin
and the marital groupings. In gardening this jealousy obtains between
gardeners. All illness and disease and death are attributed to jealousy, and
provoke recrimination. It is also possible to show that poverty and a great
pressure of population upon land accords well with the prevalent tone of
jealousy of possession. But here again it is not possible to say whether
poverty has created the jealousy or vice versa. Either point of view could be
put forward. Accordance is all that can be demonstrated, and in truth it is
probable that the more accordance there is in the elements of a culture the
stronger an intensification of the mutually agreeable elements will result.
They will react upon one another. 17
16 Reichel-Dolmatoff,op. cit., p. 403.
17 R. R Fortune, Sorcerers of Dobu. The Social Anthropology of the Dobu Islanders of
the Western Pacific. New York, 1932, p. 135.