The Nomadic Alternative – Page 235

221

The hunters worship their young children, play with them, fondle them and till the age of three or even four carry them everywhere they go - all the time. And the result? The children rarely if ever cry, even though they are subjected to the full fury of the elements.

In old and faded photographs one notices the calm relaxed eyelids of their babies as they swing from their mothers' sides. Infantile traumas are minimized - if not totally avoided - among them.

How different is their situation to that of their settled civilized cousins! Child psychologists have told us that the kicks and howls of frustrated rage are integral to the process of growing up. They have presumed the existence of dark destructive fantasies present in the smallest infant. Freud's Death Wish, subsequent theories of aggression and a lot of other unnecessary silliness have been erected on evidence taken from settled societies. But if the mobile hunters are happy with their lot, how do they do it?

III

In any human life the mother stands as a lighthouse or beacon.

In some cultures men and women slip in and out of love (if such it can be called) as easily as they change their clothes. But once a mother and a child have formed bonds of attachment, neither can break away. They are stuck with each other for life. And if they fail to make these bonds, both wear the scars of separation for life. The future of a child's character depends on the nature of this first instinctive attachment, and the mother has within her the power to engrave future loves and hatreds, to write almost endless variations on an unchanging theme.

A new born child clings to anyone or any thing warm that offers nourishment. Similarly, monkeys will snuggle up to an artificial 'mother' of fluff and plastic providing it is heated to the normal body temperature of a real mother. For in her generosity Nature reprieves an orphaned infant and gives it a brief span of time to