The Nomadic Alternative – Page 126

the same time his incorrect assumption that some living men had
advanced further along this road than others - and that the Fuegians
might provide clues to the missing link.

Fitzroy's subsequent fame rests on his having been the 'vehicle'
of Darwin, but his ill-articulated sense of the unity of man was
not simple pig-headedness. For, however much he might have regretted
its subsequent course, Darwin's views led to that great intellectual
fantasy known as Social Darwinism, from which he cannot be wholly
absolved and which is regrettably far from dead. Of the Fuegians
he wrote:

They were the most abject and miserable savages I anywhere
beheld ... A woman, who was suckling a recently born child, came
one day alongside the vessel and remained there whilst the sleet
fell and thawed on her naked bosom ...
Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe that
they are fellow creatures and inhabitants of the same world. It
is a common subject of conjecture what pleasure in life some of
the less gifted animals can enjoy: how much more reasonably the
same question may be asked with respect to these barbarians ...
The habitable land is reduced to the stones from the beach;
in search of food they are compelled to wander from spot to spot,
and so steep is the coast, that they can only move about in
their wretched canoes. They cannot know the feeling of having
a home, and still less that of domestic affection; unless indeed
the treatment of a master to a laborious slave can be considered
as such. How little can the powers of the mind be brought into
play: What is there for imagination to picture, for reason to
compare, for judgment to decide upon. To knock a limpet from
a rock does not even require cunning, that lowest power of the
mind. Their skill in some respects may be compared to the instinct
of animals; for it is not improved by experience; their canoe,
their most ingenious work, poor as it is, has remained the same
for the last two hundred and fifty years.

But he adds,

The perfect equality among the individuals composing these
tribes, must for a long time retard their civilization. As we
see in those animals whose instinct compels them to live in
society and obey a chief, are most capable of improvement, so
it is with the races of mankind. Whether we look at it as a
cause or a consequence the more civilized always have the most
artificial governments
In Tierra del Fuego until some chief shall arise with power
sufficient to secure any acquired advantages, such as domestic
animals or other valuable presents, it seems scarcely possible
that the political state of the country can be improved. At
present, even a piece of cloth is torn in shreds and distributed
and no individual becomes richer than another. On the other hand,
it is difficult to understand how a chief can arise till there is
property of some sort by which he might manifest his authority.*

The Fuegians are in no position to say what they thought of

Darwin. Had they been able to understand his terms of reference,

*Charles Darwin, Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M. Ships
Adventure and Beagle, Vol. III, pp. 229-242.