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| be very ancient, of the fur hunters of the extreme north of the Tschuktsche. All these things presuppose the development of pacific forms of intercourse between neighboring groups. These forms are to be found almost universally. They could very easily be developed at this period, since the discovery had not yet been made that men can be utilized as labor motors. At this stage, the stranger is treated as an enemy only in doubtful cases. If he comes with apparently peaceable intent, he is treated as a friend. Therefore, a whole code of public law ceremonies grew up, intended to demonstrate the pacific intent of the newcomer.* One puts aside one's arms and shows one's unarmed hand, or one sends heralds in advance, who are always inviolable. It is clearthat these forms represent some kind of claim to hospitality, andin fact it is by this guest-right that peaceful trade is first [129]made possible. The exchange of guest-gifts precedes, and appears to introduce, barter proper. It becomes, therefore, important to investigate the source of hospitality. Westermarck, in his recent monumental work (1907), Origin and Development of Moral Concepts,68 states that the custom of hospitality results from two causes, curiosity for news from the stranger from afar, and still more from the fear that the stranger may be endowed with powers of sorcery, imputed to him just because he is a stranger.* In the Bible, hospitality is recommended for the reason that one can not know that the stranger may not be an angel. The superstitious race fears his curse (the Erinys of the Greeks) and hastens to propitiate the stranger. Having been accepted as a guest he is inviolableand enjoys the sacred right of the blood-related group, andis regarded as belonging to [130]it during his stay. Therefore he partakes of the benefits of the aboriginal communism reigning in the group, and shares its property. The host demands and receives whatever he claims, the stranger obtains in turn what he asks for. When the peaceable intercourse becomes more frequent, the mutual giving of guest-presents may develop into a trading arrangement, because the trader gladly returns to the spot where he found good entertainment and a profitable exchange and where he is protected by the laws of hospitality, instead of seeking new places, where, often with danger to his life, he would first have to acquire the right to hospitality. The existence of an "international" division of labor is, of course, presupposed before the development of a regular trade relation can begin. Such a division of labor exists much earlier and to a greater extent than is generally believed. "It is quite erroneous to suppose that the division of labor takes place only on a high scale of economic development. There are in the interior of Africa villages of [131]iron-smiths, nay, of such as only turn out dartknives; New Guinea has its villages of potters, North America its arrow-head makers."69 From such specialties there develops trade, whether through roving merchants, or by gifts to one's hosts, or by peace-gifts from tribe to tribe. In North America, the Kaddu trade in bows. "Obsidian was universally employed for arrow heads and knives; on the Yellow-stone, on the Snake River, in New Mexico, but especially in Mexico. Thence the precious article was distributed all over the entire country as far as Ohio and Tennessee, a distance of nearly two thousand miles."70 According to Vierkandt: "From the purely home-made products of primitive peoples, there results a system of trade totally distinct from that . |
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