Wynn Cameron
Social Studies 11
Ms. Kenfield — 4th Period
PURITY ISLAND
I. THE SETTLING OF PURITY ISLAND
Over a century ago, at the height of the Prey Species Rights Movement, there was widespread resistance to the movement's goals among some predators. There were major protests by predators at the time of the repeal of the Species Identification Law, which had required all job seekers to prove that they were predators and were therefore legally entitled to seek gainful employment, and the simultaneous passage of legislation making it legal for prey anthros to work for pay. These actions by the government had resulted from pressure by large corporations wishing to hire prey species for their lowest-paying jobs: They had determined it was more efficient to pay wages than to buy prey as slaves. The leaders of the Prey Species Rights Movement had reassured the predator-voters that the conversion of prey anthros to fur was not an issue, and would continue as always. Based on that assurance, a narrow majority of predators had approved the new law. But a sizeable minority of predator anthros were opposed to the new laws, for two reasons:
(1) Many predator anthros were afraid that they no longer could count on job security, and that a prey anthro would replace them.
(2) A somewhat larger number of predators were philosophically opposed to any change in the relationship between predators and prey.
Over the next few years, predator anthros in the first group saw that prey were being hired for the type of menial tasks that predators mostly didn't want. It took several decades for prey anthros in the work force to start looking for higher-paying jobs. By that time the predators had come to accept prey anthros as natural co-workers rather than competitors.
The predators in the second group, however, remained adamant that it was morally and ethically wrong for a prey anthro to be treated as equal to a predator. They believed that the ancients had always understood that prey exist to serve predators, both as food and as fur. That distinction was sacred to them; erasing it was an affront to the ancients and showed callous disregard for many centuries of inherited wisdom. Variations on this theme became slogans, even though it had been centuries since predators had actually eaten anthros of any sort. The most vocal members of this category formed a counter-movement of their own, calling it the Prey Purity Movement (PPM). They held that the highest purposes of prey existence were being tainted by being mixed with predator values.
There is evidence that many of the leaders of the PPM had allowed their slaves to wear clothes up until this time. But their resistance to a changing world led them to believe that letting prey wear clothes had led directly to prey males masquerading as females to gain access to privileges legally denied them. They decided that his was the reason for the passage of the Species Identification Law at the outset of the Prey Rights Movement. The PPM consequently declared that the wearing of clothes by prey was an unmitigated evil, a primary reason for the disruption of traditional values, a disruption that they deplored. Setting prey anthros free of slavery, to pursue goals of their own in life, was an even greater evil, to be fought with all of the energy the PPM possessed.
Members of the PPM staged a number of demonstrations in the decade following the new laws governing prey rights. Generally these remained peaceful, though their leaders were occasionally arrested when the demonstrations went beyond the accepted boundaries of orderly assembly.
At last the highest ranking members of the PPM saw that the battle to maintain their values in a changing world was being lost. They decided that an exodus was in order. One hundred fifteen years ago, eight hundred PPM members (now calling themselves the "Purists"), and their slaves, established a permanent settlement on Parmola Island, renaming it Purity Island.
Those remaining were less committed. The remains of the PPM on the mainland gradually withered away. It ceased to operate as an identifiable organization less than ten years after its leaders left.
II. GEOGRAPHY OF PURITY ISLAND
Purity Island, about two hundred miles southwest of the continental coast, was created by earthquake activity many thousands of years ago. It is oval in shape, measuring about fifteen miles west to east, and forty miles north to south. A ridge of rocky hills runs along its center, north to south, reaching altitudes up to about five hundred feet. Lower lands on either side slope gently toward the eastern and western shores.
The island is located just south of the Tropic of Cancer, so it is quite warm and very humid. It has measureable rainfall nearly every day, heaviest from early spring through late summer. There is an abundance of fruit trees, particularly those bearing what are now called "Purity peaches" — a variety that grows only on that one island.
Before being settled by the Purists, Parmola Island was known to be the home of a small native population. Little is known about how they lived, except that they were not far removed from a stone-age society. The island didn't have much in the way of natural resources, so its inhabitants were left alone by our ancestors.
The coming of the Purists was a disaster for the native population. The natives outnumbered the Purists at first, but didn't have modern weapons. There are no reliable records of the battle for control of the island, but evidence today suggests that very few of the natives are left. It is possible that they have been absorbed by, and interbred with, the Purists.
As is often the case with reactionary movements, the Purists were mostly not well off economically. Few owned more than one slave, and almost none had female slaves. The purists' solution was simple: they killed off nearly all the native predator anthros, and enslaved the prey species. The Purists had brought with them the technology for in-vitro fertilization and implantation, and soon had an adequate supply of slaves and fur.
III. INTERACTIONS OF PURITY ISLAND WITH THE MAINLAND
Early expeditions to meet with the settlers on Purity Island were turned away, usually with heavy casualties, until the settlers' supply of ammunition ran low. At that point, it became possible to talk to the Purists and reassure them that no one on the mainland had any intention of evicting them from the island, challenging them for its control, nor in any way interfering with their way of life — the mainlanders simply wanted to see whether trade relations could be established. In time, negotiations succeeded in inaugurating a regular trade.
Although the Purists' weapons were no longer useable, they never expressed interest in restocking their supply of ammunition. They had already hunted all large animals and exterminated or enslaved their native competition. As a result, the Purists no longer felt any need for guns.
Eventually a cycle of trade was established; the mainland provided metalware for slaves (chains, collars, etc.) and other metal tools, spices, and alcoholic beverages — especially wine. The settlers had a taste for fruity beverages that would not make them drunk too quickly. In return, the Purists could offer two things to the mainland: (1) Purity peaches, and (2) the herb that provides fertility drugs used in many breeding farms.
These fertility drugs are far superior to those used use before Purity Island was settled. They drugs come from an herb that grows only on Purity Island. When the Purists settled, they found that the natives had been using the drugs for centuries, and promptly turned it into a cash crop. Attempts to grow the herbs on the mainland have failed. Scientists have speculated some burrowing insect native to the island is needed for the herb to grow properly.
The island will probably be the sole source of modern fertility drugs for the foreseeable future. The Onderman Corporation(s), using its early huge profits from the sale of the drugs to line the pockets of legislators, was able to obtain a government-licensed monopoly on trade with Purity Island. Onderman has subcontracted out the wine, spice, peach, and metalware trade, but handles the drug trade itself. Because of the monopoly, nobody can legally trade with Purity Island, except by arrangement with Onderman or a special license from the government. It's cheaper for Onderman to manufacture the drug using better-educated workers on the mainland; they simply import the herb from the island.
Aside from trade, the island's only other contact with the mainland consists of occasional visits by teams of mainland anthropologists. They are tolerated as long as they come in small numbers, conduct their studies unobtrusively, and make no attempt to force their values on the settlers. While on the island, members of a study team are targets of suspicion and constant vigilance, but not, in recent years, violence.
The very first such expedition was some fifty years ago. It was funded by three universities, and made the serious error of including among its members a prey anthro undergraduate: Sean Parton, the student of one of the anthropology professors leading the expedition. The Purists did not realize Mr. Parton was a prey anthro: he was of an unfamiliar species, a bat, and it never occurred to the Purists that a prey might be clothed, or act as an equal with predators. When, at last, Mr. Parton was identified as prey, the Purists became immediately upset and charged that he was "pretending to be a predator." They separated him from the rest of the university team as he cried out for help, and took him away, detailing a rear guard to fight off the rest of the party when they attempted to follow. The rest of the team did eventually manage to advance far enough in pursuit to find the shredded remains of Mr. Parton's clothes discarded in a clearing nearby, but were soon forced to leave the island by angry settlers.
Since that first team had made very little progress, at that point, in its study of Purity Island settlers and their traditions, their original mistake in including Mr. Parton as part of the team was compounded by their assumption that any prey "criminal" would, as in mainland society, be quickly executed, and that Mr. Parton must therefore be dead. No further search was attempted. In light of current knowledge of Purity society, it is almost certain that Mr. Parton, 21 at the time of his capture, spent the next fifteen to twenty years on the island, either as a work slave or a sex slave (see below) before being skinned. It was twenty-five years before another team of anthropologists — all predators — was allowed on the island.
IV. PURITY ISLAND TODAY
The society of modern day Purity Island is based on the theories of the founding Purist settlers. With one exception, it is a purely agricultural economy, operating mainly through a barter system; they conduct limited trade with the mainland as detailed above. Most of the settlement has been on the eastern side of the central mountain ridge. There are small towns surrounding the handful of trading posts located at intervals along the eastern shore, which are the only parts of the island visited by mainland traders. Further inland there are small farming cooperatives, each forming a nearly self-sufficient enclave, producing food for itself and fruit and herbs to trade for its few remaining necessities. The western half of the island is rarely visited by anthropologists. Early expeditions learned that it has virtually the same culture as the eastern side, but even more xenophobic. It is sparsely populated, with a small number of farming cooperatives and no known towns or even villages.
All prey anthros on the island are slaves, some owned by individual farmers, some collectively owned by a farm coop. Prey are not allowed to wear clothing of any sort. They are kept in chains that limit their mobility. Most male prey are used for labor, although a few farmers are rich enough to keep one or two "favorites" just for sex. Females are used for breeding. The one piece of technology that the settlers brought with them is modern medicine. They have excellent health care, and specialized clinics for sex-reassignment surgery. This solves the problem of a shortage of females: a farmer will simply choose a slave or two and have him converted to a functional female for breeding. There is also a special category of slaves (iii) called dogboys. Except for dogboys, all slaves are either hobbled by a short chain running between their ankle cuffs, or chained to an immovable object. In either case, escape is all but impossible.
(i) Work slaves lead a very strenuous life, most of them involved in farm work, using either bare hands or the most rudimentary of farm implements — none of them motorized, of course. At night, the work slaves sleep outdoors, usually in groups with chains connecting their collars, the chains circling a tree or similar fixed object.
(ii) The life of a breeding slave, or breeder as they are usually called, involves less work, but is appallingly empty in comparison with modern breeding farm practices on the mainland. Once a slave is selected for breeding duty (as virtually all female prey are) she is secured, stomach down, on a "breeding hill," constructed by burying a five-foot long, foot-thick log under a layer of dirt. The breeders' knees and wrists are held by chains at ground level on either side of the hill, and she is fed, and eliminates her wastes, without being freed from that position, until she is found to be pregnant. The design of the hill holds the breeder's legs spread, with her vagina at a convenient height for a male kneeling behind her. There she is subjected to several attempts at impregnation each day, by breeding farm staff and visiting farmers, until her pregnancy shows, usually within about two months. Following each insemination, a portion of the semen is collected from her vagina and distributed, via swabs, to the vaginas of several non-pregnant breeders who have previously conceived — the effectiveness of the fertility drugs makes this efficient use of semen practical. Once pregnant, the new breeder is released from the hill and moved to a pen, where she is secured at the collar and ankles by chains long enough for her to move around in the pen. Small cradles for the babies occupy most of the space in the pen.
After the breeder has served about fifteen years, giving birth to about 30 babies, the fertility drugs lose their effectiveness. The breeder is then snuffed and skinned. At no time does the breeder leave her pen. Work slaves bring her food to the pen, and clean up her wastes.
Once a breeder has her babies (usually twins), she keeps the babies with her in her pen for about the first two years of their lives — at most two different pairs at any one time. The fertility drugs, aided by her own frequent feeding, allow her breasts to keep up with the demands of nursing four babies, while another pair of twins begins growing within her womb. The breeder has no time for anything but eating and nursing, and in any case, there are no other activities available to her.
A number of organizations on the mainland have petitioned the government and the Onderman Corporation to help make the lives of breeders on Purity Island more tolerable. So far these organizations have met with complete indifference from the government. Purity Island is an independent country, and US government disclaims all control and responsibility. Onderman corporation is also uninterested. They reject any attempt to alter their profitable relationship with the island. At least one team of anthropologists tried suggesting some improvements to a group of settlers. Their efforts were met with such hostility that the team canceled its research program and left the island immediately.
At age two, the babies are weaned, and are removed to a pen with about half as many ten-year-old females. At that age, the femmes' maternal instincts kick in, and they will take care of the younger children, feeding them until they can feed themselves, teaching them games, nurturing them. None of the slaves are chained, but the pen's walls are too steep to climb. The babies and adolescents remain together in the pen for eight years, at which point the older slaves (now 18) are removed from the pen, collared, and chain-hobbled. Some are selected at random to stay on as breeders, and the rest are sold as work slaves.
The group of younger females in the pen, now ten, are given their own cohort of two-year-olds to care for. A set of traditions — knowledge of how to get along in their world — is passed down to younger femmes by the older ones. Anthropological teams have tried suggesting that the offspring of the breeders would benefit from a greater degree of contact with adults. This would not even approach the level of care given in mainland breeding farms, with their schools staffed by professional teachers and counselors, but it would still be an improvement. But all such suggestions have been rebuffed, rudely, and sometimes violently.
The newly chained slaves, at 18, have only a rudimentary idea of what will be demanded of them, either physically or sexually, but they quickly learn that unacceptable performance has severe consequences.
(iii) The remaining class of slaves, dogboys, are surgically modified. The term "dogboy" was coined by anthropologists (the island's inhabitants simply call them "dogs"), to distinguish them from the puppyboys familiar on the mainland. They are usually selected from the most aggressive babies at about twelve months in age. They are raised separately from the rest of the slave population, in kennels. A work slave feeds them for a short time until they can obtain their own food and drink from bowls. Dogboys have none of the sweet-tempered, eager submissiveness of puppyboys. They do, like puppyboys, have the standard shortened limbs (arms ending in mid-forearm, legs just above the knee). The original dogboys, raised on the mainland before the Purists left for the island, grew up living with real dogs. Modern-day dogboys learn their behavior from older dogboys they are raised with. They never learn to speak, and are not even aware of the possibility. Fully-grown dogboys patrol the periphery of the farm or establishment that owns them, growling and barking to warn back slaves who approach too near the boundaries. Usually the warning is enough, but dogboys will attack if necessary. They lack some of the abilities of real dogs (especially dogs' keen sense of smell), and they are completely loyal to their masters. Even on their shortened legs, they can outrun any full-bodied-but-chain-hobbled slave, and they are superior to real dogs: they can learn and follow complex commands. A small farm may have two or three dogboys, a larger one a half-dozen or more. Dogboys have leather slave collars, and may occasionally be secured by chains to their collars, or walked by a farmer using a leash. But they are generally free to move around as they please. They are psychologically attached to their masters, and there have been no reports of a dogboy running away.
V. THE FUTURE OF PURITY ISLAND
The inhabitants of Purity Island have clung to their core values for more than a century, but we hope that the lives of prey anthros on the island will someday more closely resemble our own here on the mainland. We often forget that things were not always the way they are now, and that the most long-standing traditions may sometimes give way to new values. We can hope that such a change lies in the future of Purity Island.