the ethnological notebooks of karl marx - Marxists Internet Archive

Among the North American Indians, if a man was murdered, “the familyof the deceased only have the right of taking satisfaction; they collect,consult and decree. The rulers of a town or of the nation have nothing todo or say in the business.” (Trans. Americ. Antiq. Society) Indeed, itwould seem that the object of legal regulations was at first not so muchto punish the offender, as to restrain and mitigate the vengeance inflictedby the aggrieved party. (317)The amount of legal revenge often strictly regulated. Z.B. in Australia: “crimesmay be compounded for by the criminal appearing and submitting himselfto the ordeal of having spears thrown at him by all such persons as perceivethemselves to have been aggrieved, or by permitting spears to be thrustthrough certain parts of his body; such as through the thigh, or the calf ofthe leg, or under the arm. The part which is to be pierced by a spear, is fixedfor all common crimes, and a native who has incurred this penalty sometimesquietly holds out his leg for the injured party to thrust his spearthrough.” So strictly is the amount of punishment limitedthat if in inflictingsuch spear wounds, a man, either through carelessness or from any other cause,exceeded the recognised limits - if, for instance,18 he wounded the femoralartery - he would in his turn become liable for punishment.[Shylock Affaire!] {G. Grey,16 Australia, v. II, p. 243).35i