A4   Life in the reservations and security in BNW

by Anna

a) Life in the reservations:

1. General information about reservations in BNW: 

Ø    a frontier separates civilization from savagery (p. 94, ll. 18 – 19)

Ø    560,000 km² divided into four distinct Sub- Reservations (p. 90 - 91, ll. 34 -1)

     --> each surrounded by a high- tension wire fence (p. 91, ll. 1- 2)

     --> 5000 km of fencing at 60,000 volts (p. 91, ll. 12 – 13)

     --> instant death if you touch the fence (p. 91, l. 22)

     --> no escape out of the reservations (p. 91, ll. 23 – 24)

Ø    about 60,000 Indians and half breeds live in the reservations (p. 92, l. 19)

      Ø    no communication with the civilized world (p. 92, ll. 21 – 22)

2. Housing

Ø    the people live in pueblos ( Spanish for “town”) (p. 96, l. 7)

Ø    the rooms in the houses are rather dark, smelling of smoke and cooked grease and       long- worn, long- unwashed clothes (due to the small windows) (p. 100, ll. 32 – 34)

Ø    no electricity® no television, no scent, etc. (p. 90, ll. 8 – 10)

Ø    dirt, piles of rubbish, dust and flies everywhere (p. 98, ll. 13 – 14)

3. Food – hygiene – health

Ø    tortillas and sweet corn (p. 111, l. 18)

Ø    there is no soma, only mescal or peyote ( hallucinogenic drinks) ® they make you feel bad afterwards, you are sick and they make the feeling of being ashamed much worse the next day (p. 107 – 108, ll. 33 – 5)

Ø    dead dogs are lying on rubbish heaps (p. 100, ll. 26 – 27)

Ø    no hot water ® it is not possible to keep yourself and your living areas clean (p. 109 ll. 1 –2)  ® people smell, illnesses and infectious diseases are spread easily (p. 107, ll. 14 – 15)

Ø    nothing is aseptic (free from harmful bacteria) ® if somebody is wounded they put just a piece of dirty cloth over it (p. 108, ll. 28 – 31)

Ø    there is no medicine and there are no other chemical substances     

Ø    lots of diseases, i.e. goitre (a swelling of the throat caused by a disease) (p. 100, ll. 27 – 28)

      Ø    they have no contraceptives

      Ø    they have a lot of children (p. 109 - 110, ll. 34 – 1) 

Ø   people are really old and have an outer appearance according to their age 

Ø    teeth are missing; they have sagging cheeks with purplish blotches, grey hair, bloodshot eyes and red veins on their nose; they are stout and can move only slowly (p. 98 - 99, ll. 30 – 6) (p. 106 – 107, ll. 34 – 5)

Ø    people have lice in the hair (p. 100, ll. 27 – 28)

4. Habits and customs

Ø    they preserve their repulsive habits and customs (p.92, l. 22)

Ø    totemism (the act of choosing an animal or other natural object and respecting it as a special symbol of a tribe or family) (p.92, l. 25)

Ø    ancestor worship (p. 92, ll. 25 – 26)

Ø    they speak the extinct languages (Zuni, Spanish and Athapascan) (p.92, ll. 26 – 27)

Ø    marriage and families (p. 122, l. 32)® they are faithful to their partners and start families (p. 109, ll. 24 – 25) ® children are born in the reservations and the women give breast to them (p. 100, ll. 4 – 6)

Ø    Christianity, superstitions and worship of gods (Pookong and Jesus) (p. 92, ll. 24 – 25)

Ø    traditional ceremonies, i.e. the summer festival, where young boys are hit with a whip ® the young men have to show that they can bear pain without crying out and that they are real men ® their blood is an offering to the gods, so that they make the rain come and the corn grow (p. 105, ll. 15 – 16)

Ø    when the boys are fifteen, they are taught to work the clay (Lehm) (p. 121, ll. 17 – 18)

Ø    if a man wants to get married to a woman, he has to bring her the skin of a mountain lion ® he wants to show that he is worthy of her (p. 172, ll. 14 – 17, ll. 26 – 28)

Ø    there is real love ® they care for family members (p. 145, ll. 5 – 6)

Ø    clothes are out of wool and if they get torn you are supposed to mend them (p. 109, 3 – 5)

5. Landscape and wildlife:

Ø    deserts of salt or sand (p. 94, l. 20)

Ø    canyons ( deep valleys with steep sides of rock) (p. 94, l. 21)

Ø    table- topped mesa ( hills with a flat top and steep sides) (p. 94, ll 21 – 22)

Ø    some forests (p. 94, l. 20)

Ø    deer, steer, pumas, porcupines (Stachelschweine), coyotes, venomous lizards  (giftige Eidechsen) and snakes, turkey buzzards, eagles and other ferocious animals (p. 94, ll. 26 – 27)

b) Security in BNW:

Ø    abnormalities in the behaviour of children, i.e. to hesitate to join the ordinary erotic play (p. 27, ll. 20 – 23) --> they are taken to see the Assistant Superintendent of Psychology (p. 27, ll. 20 – 29)

Ø    savages can’t escape from the reservations (see 1.)

Ø    if somebody has heretical (ketzerisch) views on sport and soma, a scandalous unorthodoxy of his sex- life, refuses to obey the teachings of Our Ford and behaves badly out of office hours ® he is an enemy of society ® he is dismissed from the post he has had in  a Centre, transferred to a Sub – Centre of the lowest order and as far as possible removed from any important centre of population, i.e. Iceland (p. 134 – 135, ll. 18 – 5)

Ø   the police sees to it to restore the order if there are any disturbances (p.195, ll. 20 – 21) ®they have no guns and they do not use violence against the people

Ø    they use spraying machines and pump soma vapour with these in the air (p.195, ll. 27 –29)

Ø    they utilize water pistols charged with a powerful anaesthetic (Betäubungs-mittel) (p. 195, ll. 30 – 31)

Ø    by means of a Synthetic Anti – Riot Speech Number Two and the soma  vapour people start kissing and hugging each other (p. 196, ll. 12 – 27)  

Ø    the World Controllers limit the scope of science’s researches and allow it to   deal with any but the most immediate problems of the moment because science is a  public danger (p. 207, ll. 30 – 31), (p. 208, ll. 2 – 3)