The Nomadic Alternative – Page 247

'happy' with a substitute thing, such as a rattle, to bang and bump up and down to compensate for the lost bumps of its mother's daily walk; why nightmares of hellish beasts torment a lonely child (I still record the horror of fanged tractors coming through the ceiling); why it craves for a comforting warm presence at night and refuses to sleep without a teddy bear; why children are devilish adventurers by day, but rush back for shelter at night; why a baby fears strangers, even if they are not actively hostile (the baby assumes the stranger to be a dangerous animal); and lastly why a baby screams with frustrated rage when the mother leaves. The signals are screams for help. The child is quite right to yell. Each time a mother leaves it alone, she is in fact committing a murder.

The Beast that bars the path also dictates the nature of the bond between the woman and her man - and in turn the cohesion of society. The woman protects her child and the man protects them both. Normally placid in her daily activities, the woman erupts in wild fury at a threat to her child, and her distress signals work her men up into militant attitudes. When women call for the defence of the society, the men honour their biological pledge. Similarly, a son shields his mother and defends his mother country. Women, it is said, like war and fighting men. This is only half-true. Women relish the defence of their main interest, the continuity of life. If this continuity is assured - in other words, once the struggle moves from a defensive to an offensive plane, the women hate it, and the male fighters find it impossible to continue once female support withers at home. (Hence the importance of sweetheart mail to keep up morale.) The women holler for the boys to come home and the most desperate female defender becomes the most ardent pacifist.

But the men - poor things - are in an invidious position, for the issues are less clear cut. We have said that the division of labour is absolute to human society. And if the basic female adaptation is to gather inert vegetable food, the hunting males must actively spill blood. Men are killers of other animals. Simultaneously