親子の間の道徳観の違い
また,アメリカの若者は,産児制限の方法に関する十分な知識(a sound knowledge of birth-control)を身につけることがほとんどできないので,望まない妊娠がめずらしくない。これは通常,中絶を斡旋(procure あっせん)することで処理されているが,中絶は危険で,苦痛を伴い,違法であり,しかも,隠してておくことは決して容易ではない。 若者の道徳と年寄りの道徳との間の完全な隔たりが,現代のアメリカではごく普通に存在しており,それがもう一つの不幸な結果,即ち,しばしば,親子の間に心からの親しみや友好関係も存在しなくなっているので,両親は助言や同情心(共感)によって自分の子供を助けることができなくなっている(のである)。若者が困難に陥った時,そのことを両親に話すと,必ず,(親の)爆発を引き起こす。多分,激しい憤りを,少なくとも確実にヒステリックな騒ぎを,引き起こす(であろう)。こうして,親子関係は,子供が思春期に達したあとは,有益な機能を果たす関係ではなくなってしまっている。トロブリアンド島民のほうが,どれほどか文明的であることか。トロブリアンド島では,父親は,娘の恋人にこう言うであろう。 「君は私の娘と寝るのか。それはよい。娘と結婚したまえ」 |
Chapter XII: Trial Marriage, n.3A graver matter, while official morality remains what it is, is the risk of occasional disaster. By ill luck it may happen that some one young person's doings come to the ears of some guardian of morality, who will proceed with a good conscience to a sadistic orgy of scandal. And since it is almost impossible for young people in America to acquire a sound knowledge of birth-control methods, unintended pregnancies are not infrequent. These are generally dealt with by procuring abortion, which is dangerous, painful, illegal, and by no means easy to keep secret. The complete gulf between the morals of the young and the morals of the old, which exists very commonly in present-day America, has another unfortunate result, namely that often there can be no real intimacy or friendship between parents and children, and that the parents are incapable of helping their children with advice or sympathy. When young people get into a difficulty, they cannot speak of it to their parents without producing an explosion - possibly scandal, certainly a hysterical upheaval. The relation of parent and child has thus ceased to be one performing any useful function after the child has reached adolescence. How much more civilized are the Trobriand Islanders, where a father will say to his daughter's lover:"You sleep with my child: very well, marry her." |