[52] Turner, ‘Ethnology of the Ungava District,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 186.
Among various savage peoples expulsion from the tribe is the punishment of persons whose conduct excites great public indignation, and among others such persons are outlawed.
The Chippewyans, among whom “order is maintained in the tribe solely by public opinion,” the chief having no power to punish crimes, occasionally expel from the society individuals whose conduct is exceptionally bad and threatens the general peace.[53] The Salish, or flathead Indians, sometimes punished notorious criminals by expulsion from the tribe or band to which they belonged.[54] Sir E. F. Im Thurn, whilst praising the Indians of Guiana for their admirable morality as long as they remain in a state of nature, adds that there are exceptions to the rule, and that such individuals “are soon killed or driven out from their tribe.”[55] Among the Bedouins of the Euphrates, “in extreme cases, and as the utmost penalty of the law, the offender is turned out of the tribe”;[56] and the same is the case among the Beni Mzab.[57] In the Scotch Highlands, even to this day, instances are common of public opinion operating as a punishment, to the extent of forcing individuals into exile.[58] There are cases reported from various parts of the savage world of banishment being inflicted as a punishment for sexual offences;[59] and other instances of expulsion are mentioned by Dr. Steinmetz.[60] In some cases, however, expulsion is to be regarded rather as a means of ridding the community from a pollution, than as a punishment in the proper sense of the term.[61]
[53] Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, ii. 26 sq.
[54] Hale, op. cit. p. 208.
[55] Im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, p. 213.
[56] Blunt, Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, ii. 206.
[57] Chavanne, Sahara, p. 315. Tristram, Great Sahara, p. 207.
[58] Stewart, Highlanders of Scotland, p. 380.
[59] Westermarck, History of Human Marriage, p. 61 sqq.