Re:Ubuntu: The Indigenous Ethos of Restorative Justice
by jdietrich on Thursday September 25, 2025 @12:41PM
(#45375148)
>An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves the whole world blind and toothless.
The entire point of reciprocal justice was to prevent tit-for-tat blood feuds; "an eye for an eye" set an upper limit on vengeance, precisely to prevent the whole world from going blind.
The available evidence suggests that modern western societies have vastly lower rates of violent deaths than any indigenous pre-state societies, even factoring in deaths due to war.
The myth of the noble savage is precisely that - a myth.
The entire point of reciprocal justice was to prevent tit-for-tat blood feuds; "an eye for an eye" set an upper limit on vengeance, precisely to prevent the whole world from going blind.
The available evidence suggests that modern western societies have vastly lower rates of violent deaths than any indigenous pre-state societies, even factoring in deaths due to war.
The myth of the noble savage is precisely that - a myth.
https://ourworldindata.org/ethnographic-and-archaeological-e...