Peter Espeut

Animals work on the pleasure-pain principle: if it feels good, do it; and if it hurts, then avoid it. And we use it to train dogs. If you say "Sit!", and they sit, you pet them or give food. If they pooh-pooh on the carpet, then you put their nose in it and, whack! Pretty soon they learn not to do that. This only works if the connection between the act and the pleasure/pain is immediate, such that the animal interprets it as 'cause' and 'effect'. Dispensing food or whacks with no direct connection to anything else is not educational for dogs.

Humans operate on a higher level than dogs, or rather we are supposed to. From the dawn of consciousness there has been a search for 'cause' and 'effect' over distance in time and space, and humanity has developed 'systems' which explain reality to our satisfaction. Some of these systems are old and informal, and have tremendous power over people's minds. If you dream a fish, then someone around you is going to get pregnant; and usually someone does. If you have high blood pressure, drink bush tea made with trumpet leaf. To know what sort of partner best suits you, you must compare your astrological sign with theirs. In this system, there are laws which govern the natural and the supernatural, and many of these are to be found in our heritage and our traditions if only we would look and learn.

For many, knowledge is to be found only in religion, which explains 'cause' and 'effect' and the relationship between the natural and the supernatural, and gives the key to manipulating them to one's advantage.

Over the last 400 years, something called 'Science' has emerged, with very strict rules of logic which must be followed before one can say with confidence that anything is so. Science only accepts data from the natural world, and is sceptical about anything else.

Sources of knowledge

And so we have three sources of knowledge in Jamaica: superstition, religion and science. And of course, they don't all agree. Some religion have no use for science (since science has no use for religion), and indeed, some religion have come to conflicting conclusions from some scientists. Both science and religion have no use for superstitions, but then, those who are superstitious have no use for either scientists nor churchmen.

My first challenge as a teacher of chemistry and biology in rural Jamaica (in a church high school) was to convince students that science was not anti-God. I soon realised that the reason some students came to school out of uniform (with hats and jewelry) was that these were 'guards' obtained for them by their parents from local and distant obeahmen, to protect them from bad-minded teachers and jealous students.

And virginity and continence would lead to sickness, and insanity; and sex with a virgin will cure venereal disease; and women must have out their lot; but never mind, the inequalities and injustices of this world will be evened out in the next. Later as a SCUBA-diving instructor I would marvel at how untrained Jamaican divers could so easily dismiss the rules to prevent 'the bends' as 'only for white man' while so many of their diving brethren every year became crippled for life.

It bothers me that there is so much that we do not know, because the average Jamaican is not offered much by way of education. It bothers me that there is much that we hold to be true that is false, because of the superstitions and old-wives' tales that govern so much of our behaviour. It bothers me that we know so much that is true, but ignore it.

Would you do something if you knew it would kill you? Well a lot of people do. So many people smoke tobacco, despite knowing that it is slow death, and despite the health warning on the package. So many people have unprotected sexual intercourse with people they hardly know, not knowing who was there before.

With 45 years of Independence under our belts, teachers still walk around with rulers in their hands, teaching students by the pleasure-pain principle. Will we ever do away with the superstitions?