[11] Ibid. iii. pp. cix., cxi., 349, 351.
However, the degree of the offence depends not only on the suffering inflicted, but on the station of the parties concerned; and in some cases the infliction of pain is held allowable or even a duty.
By using violence against their parents, children grossly offend against the duty of filial regard and submissiveness. It is said in the Laws of Ḫammurabi, that a man who has struck his father shall lose his hands.[12] According to Exodus, “he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death.”[13] In Corea the man who strikes his father is beheaded.[14] On the other hand, parents are allowed to inflict corporal punishment on their children; but this is not the case everywhere—indeed, among many of the lower races children are never, or hardly ever, subject to such punishment.[15] Among the Australian Dieyerie the children are never beaten, and should any woman violate this law, she is in turn beaten by her husband.[16] The Efatese, says Mr. Macdonald, “are shocked to see Europeans correcting their children; I never saw an Efatese beating a child.”[17] The Eskimo visited by Mr. Hall never inflict physical chastisement upon the children; “if a child does wrong—for instance, if it becomes enraged, the mother says nothing to it till it becomes calm. Then she talks to it, and with good effect.”[18] Among the Tehuelches of Patagonia “the children are indulged in every way, ride the best horses, and are not corrected for any misbehaviour.”[19] Among the Gaika tribe of the Kafirs, again, parents may inflict corporal punishment on their children, but are fined for causing permanent injuries to their persons, such as the loss of an eye or a tooth.[20]
[12] Laws of Ḫammurabi, 195.
[13] Exodus, xxi. 15.
[14] Griffis, Corea, p. 236.
[15] Curr, Recollections of Squatting in Victoria, p. 252 (Bangerang tribe). Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia, i. 94 (tribes of the Lower Murray). Calvert, Aborigines of Western Australia, p. 30 sq. Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 192 sq. (Northern Queensland aborigines). Kubary, ‘Die Palau-Inseln in der Südsee,’ in Journal des Museum Godeffroy, iv. 56 (Pelew Islanders). Man, Sonthalia and the Sonthals, p. 78. von Siebold, Die Aino auf der Insel Yesso, p. 11. Murdoch, ‘Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 417 (Point Barrow Eskimo). Boas, ‘Central Eskimo,’ ibid. vi. 566. Richardson, in Franklin, Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, p. 68 (Crees). Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, p. 274 (Tarahumares). Rautanen, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse, p. 329 (Ondonga). See also Steinmetz, Ethnologische Studien zur ersten Entwicklung der Strafe, ii. ch. vi. § 2, especially p. 203; Idem, ‘Das Verhältnis zwischen Eltern und Kindern bei den Naturvölkern,’ in Zeitschrift für Socialwissenschaft, i. 610 sqq.
[16] Gason, ‘Manners and Customs of the Dieyerie Tribe,’ in Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 258.
[17] Macdonald, Oceania, p. 195.
[18] Hall, Arctic Researches, p. 568.