J. A. Lopatin asserts that the Goldi in their present condition are in a
state of extinction and he shows that since 1897 to 1915 they lost twenty five
per cent, of population. According to him, causes of this state of things are
numerous: (1) under-nourishment; (2) anti-hygienic conditions (especially
fleas!); (3) imperfectness of the marriage system (early mating) and «low
ideas» as to woman; (4) Goldi character, especially an aversion to work.
He considers, however, these causes as a constant «unsatisfactory
environment» and finds a direct cause of extinction in the influence of
Russians and Chinese colonizers who are pushing the Goldi from the best
territories, introducing infectious maladies, narcotics, and a system of exploitation,
a kind of economic slavery, also destroying the original social organization of
the Goldi.
I shall dwell a little longer upon this problem owing to its general
importance and the methods used by J. A. Lopatin. First of all, the idea of
under-nourishment is a mere misunderstanding, quite common in the works of
those authors who do not conceive the idea that under- and over-nourishment can
be established but after a special investigation of metabolism and other
physiological conditions and never from the point of view of the investigator's
tastes for food and its quantity, as to the great regret many investigators do
up to the present time. Second, by the antihygienic conditions (including fleas
which impetuously attacked J. A. Lopatin as well as other investigators) also
are a relative notion depending upon the habits and ideas, but objectively
speaking we do not know which degree of self-adaptation and final result may
occur in an ideal (i.e., according to the investigator's ideas) hygienic
conditions. Thus, this assertion is based on an arbitrary solution of an
unknown quantity in an equation with several unknown quantities.
The idea as to
the marriage, that must not be, according to J. A. Lopatin, as it now is, but
must evidently approach some other form to which this author has some
preference, from an ethnographical point of view is a mere lapsus in the style
of those which are common among unexperienced observers of an alien milieu and
who look at the phenomena from the standpoint of their own (i.e., of
their ethnographical environment) ideas. «High» and «low»
ideas as to woman, indeed, are purely and simply ethnographical phenomena to be
investigated and as such they cannot be put at the basis of a scientific
analysis.
It is also evident that the aversion to work, observed by this
investigator, is a new misunderstanding, because the Goldi according to him are
able to develop an enormous energy, for instance during the fishing and hunting
seasons. Yet it also is beyond any doubt that some other superficial observer
of Russians (including Russian ethnographers!) may also suppose that Russians
have an aversion to work in seeing their inclination to social life. Moreover,
the idea of an eight and six hours working day, nowadays fashionable among low
classes throughout the world, may also give some right for supposition that an
aversion to work is characteristic of the so-called civilized mankind.
However, J. A. Lopatin is partly right. In his causes of extinction he merely gives a description of the Goldi ethnographical complex with which this investigator from his standpoint (Russian intellectual middle class complex) is evidently dissatisfied. Let us now suppose that everything is perfect, as for instance J. A. Lopatin wants it to be, and the child mortality among Goldi is as low as among, say, Russian intellectuals in pre-war time, then the present Goldi average family producing about eight children may produce during nine generations (ie., about three centuries) a population of about one billion, which practically speaking is nonsense. By this calculation I want to emphasize that the Goldi ethnography, being a resultant of their biology, in a wide sense of this word, regulates the increase of population by its own ways, different from that to which J. A. Lopatin is accustomed (for instance, international war, extermination of population by means of civil war, epidemics, etc., limitation of population by neo-malthusianism, limitation of marriage, etc.). That is all. He also shows very essential cause due to the interethnical pressure of Russians and Chinese. It was and is observed that for an ethnical unit a contact with new and powerful units is sometimes so difficult that some groups being unable to adapt themselves to a new environment, perish altogether. However, in many instances ethnical units adapt themselves to a new environment and after a temporary decrease of population show a marked increase. Very numerous facts concerning the movement of population among various groups of «natives» being in contact with Europeans have lately been published in America also with reference to some Negro groups in Africa. We are in possession of some statistical data concerning the groups of Pacific Philippine Islands (cf. for instance, Professor H. O. Beyer, Population of the Philippine Islands in 1916 Manila, 1917, Dr. A. Matsumura, Contributions to the Ethnography of Micronesia, in Journ. of the Coll. of Science, Imp. Univ. of Tokyo, Vol. XL, Art. 7, Tokyo, 1918). Yet with reference to Siberia S. K. Patkanov (On the Increase of non-Russian Population in Siberia, published by the Imp. Ac. of Sciences. St. Petersburg, 1911, in Russian) has shown that the groups that had adopted a higher system of economical organization (agriculture, cattle-breeding, etc.) show a marked increase of population. To that I may add some new data. Such is, for instance, the case of some groups in Kamchatka where (according to a recent medico-statistical survey by Dr. Puxov, 1919-1920, who kindly put his material at my disposal), the population, after being adapted to syphilis, alcoholism, tuberculosis and other consequences of an alien (Russian) influence, shows marked increase tending to a former number, i.e., to a natural limit in the conditions of the given biological power, territory, culture, etc., characteristic of the given population. All that can be formulated with reference to the Goldi is that they are in a state of disequilibrium showing a marked decrease of population, but the same may be referred to the complex to which J. A. Lopatin himself belongs. Such fluctuations of population are a phenomenon, let us say, of a normal process of variations. Thus, it cannot be formulated that the Goldi are in a state of extinction if this unit shows no signs of a biological degeneration. The analysis expounded by studious J. A. Lopatin along several pages shows, thus, that his methods are not properly applied.