follow the evolution of the cranial capacity and the shape of the brain
of the ancestors of Upper Palaeolithic man. But all we have in the
Middle Palaeolithic are representatives of the peculiar Neanderthal
type, which apparently died out. Judging from the cranial capacity, the
intellectual development of Neanderthal man must have been considerable
and probably not inferior to that of the Australians. If Eoanthropus is
to be assigned to the Lower Palaeolithic, it is the only skull of that
period that we have. Judging not so much from the cranial capacity as
from the formation of the brain, the intellectual capacity of
Eoanthropus was clearly much less than that of Neanderthal man and of
any other type of man now living. Pithecanthropus was certainly anterior
to the Palaeolithic. He may, it is true, have used and even fashioned
implements of a very primitive type. It is noteworthy that, so far as
can be judged, in cranial capacity he stands about half-way between
modern man and the hypothetical ancestor, and if we are going to make
any deductions at all regarding so difficult a point, it is reasonable
to assume that in general his intellectual capacity was about half-way
between that of modern man and the pre-human ancestor.
On the basis of this evidence the broad outlines of the picture are as
follows. At the very least the intellectual development of Early
Palaeolithic man had reached a point half-way between that of the
pre-human ancestor and that of modern European races. Almost certainly
it had gone farther, perhaps considerably further. As regards man in the
Middle Palaeolithic, we have details only regarding an aberrant type
whose intellectual capacity, though considerable, probably did not reach
that of the contemporary ancestors of the Upper Palaeolithic types of
whom as yet we know nothing. The cranial capacity and other features of
the Upper Palaeolithic types show no essential differences from modern
man. though it has to be remembered that, as cranial capacity is but a
rough guide, differences in mental capacity may have existed.
3. In order to gain a more exact idea of the stage of mental evolution
reached in the first and second periods, we are obliged to turn to the
evidence supplied by primitive races, just as we turned to them to fill
in the gaps in our knowledge of the social habits of Palaeolithic man.
There are at least three methods whereby an attempt may be made to
arrive at some idea of the intellectual development of primitive races
as compared with modern European man. There is to begin with a very
large number of observations and impressions recorded by men who in many
cases have lived a long time among primitive races and have had unusual
opportunities for judging them. Then attempts have been made to measure
the intelligence of these races by the use of the Binet-Simon methods,
and we may notice the results of some of these attempts. Lastly, in
certain parts of the world for some generations white and coloured races
have been living side by side under almost identical conditions and now
compete together almost on an equality, and we may note the current
opinion in those regions with regard to their respective intellectual
capacities.
All the evidence regarding the Australians agrees in attributing to
them a relatively high level of intellect. ‘Most observers’, says
Thomas, ‘agree that up to the age of puberty, possibly longer, they
have an extraordinary facility in the acquisition of knowledge.’[1621]
Speaking of the aborigines of Victoria, Smyth records that ‘black
children brought up in the schools learn very quickly, and in
perception, memory, and power to discriminate, they are, to say the
least, equal to European children. A missionary, the Rev. F. A.
Hagenauer, a gentleman of great ability, who has control of the
aboriginal station at Lake Wellington, reports that the examination
made by the Government School Inspectors shows that the aboriginal
pupils taught by him are quite equal to the Whites. In his last report
he states that the whole of the fifth class in his school has passed
the standard examination (that appointed for children in State
schools) and that they had received certificates.’[1622] Spiller has
collected a large number of such opinions,[1623] and Semon says that
‘on examining the accounts of missionaries who have had occasion to
instruct children of Australian natives, it will be found that nearly
all of them come to the conclusion that at the onset of instruction
hardly any difference between faculties of black and white children in
grasping the elements is to be remarked. There is such a capability of
memory and sharpness of the senses that in reading, writing, drawing,
topography, and geography they at first even excel the whites.’[1624]
Nearly all observers agree that there comes a point when the faculties
of aboriginal children cease to develop. Thus Smyth says that ‘With
keen senses, quick perceptions, and a precocity that is surprising, he
stops just short of the point where an advance would lead to a
complete change in the characters of his mind’,[1625] and Mathew who
remarks that ‘in schools it has been observed that aboriginal children
learn quite as easily and rapidly as children of European parents’,
goes on to say that ‘while among Europeans the range of mental
development seems almost unbounded, with the blacks its limit is soon
attained’.[1626]
Among the Andaman Islanders there is, according to Man, up to the age of
12 or 14 ‘as much intelligence as [among] ordinary middle class children
of civilized races’; he goes on to quote another observer who found
these people ‘not deficient in brain power; it rather lies dormant and
unused in their savage state’, and gives the example ‘of an aboriginal
patient of 12 years of age, who had been entered in the Ross Orphanage
School, and who, in his tender years, could yet read English and Ordu
fluently, as well as speak and write in both these languages, retaining
also a knowledge of his native tongue. He had besides a fair knowledge
of arithmetic. I may add that this is not an exceptional case, for I
would instance others, and one lad in particular who was his
superior.’[1627] These opinions could be paralleled many times over. The
Jesuit missionary Baegert, for example, had a high opinion of the
intellectual abilities of the Californian Indians. ‘Like other people,
they are possessed of reason and understanding, and their stupidity is
not inborn with them, but the result of habit; and I am of opinion that,
if their sons were sent to European seminaries and colleges, and their
girls to convents where young females are instructed, they would prove
equal in all respects to Europeans in the acquirement of morals and of
useful sciences and arts.’[1628]
The opinions of observers of races which fall within the second group
are all very similar. Some typical opinions may be given. Speaking of
Bantu races south of the Zambezi Theal says that ‘in Mission Schools
children of early age are found to keep pace with those of white
parents. In some respects, indeed, they are the higher of the two ...
but while the European youth is still developing his powers the Bantu
youth in many instances is found unable to make further progress. His
intellect has become sluggish and frequently he exhibits a decided
repugnance, if not an incapacity, to learn anything more. The growth
of his mind, which at first promised so much, has ceased just at that
stage where the mind of the European begins to display the greatest
vigour.’[1629] Later he says that ‘the strong desire of the greater
number is to live as closely like their ancestors as the altered
circumstances of their country will permit, to make use of a few of
the white man’s simplest conveniences and of his protection against
their enemies, but to avoid his habits and to shut out his ideas.
Compared with Europeans their adults are frequently children in
imagination and in simplicity of belief, though not infrequently one
may have the mental faculties of a full-grown man.’[1630] Of the
Bangala of the Upper Congo Weeks says that ‘up to the age of 14 and
15, the boys and girls, especially the boys, are very receptive and
easily taught; but after that age comparatively few make real advance
in learning’.[1631] This is attributed partly to the fact that at this
age other matters occupy their attention—working on their own account,
looking round for a wife, and so on, but more especially to the fact
that by this age they have learnt all that their fathers have to teach
them and thenceforth settle down into a routine. Of the men of the
races of Central Africa Johnston speaks as follows: ‘his mental powers
are not much developed by native training, but I am certain that he
has in him possibilities in the present generation as great of those
of the average Indian; and there is really no saying what he may come
to after several generations of education. I think it is truly
remarkable the way in which a little savage boy can be put to school
and taught to read in a few months and subsequently become a skilful
printer or telegraph clerk or even book keeper. The little boys are
much sharper and shrewder than the grown-up male. When the youth
arrives at puberty there is undoubtedly a tendency towards an arrested
development of the mind.’[1632] This latter tendency is attributed to
the attention paid to sexual matters. This arrest of development is a
feature in all descriptions of the mental characters of these races.
Junod is inclined, however, to think that these descriptions are on
the whole exaggerated.[1633] In order to enable us to form such
judgement on this point a few further quotations may be given. Ellis,
describing the Ewe-speaking peoples of Togoland, mentions the
precocity of the children when compared with Europeans, and says that,
‘at puberty the physical nature masters the intellect and frequently
completely deadens it’.[1634] The Bambala children ‘are very
precocious, and up to the age of puberty are often astonishingly
intelligent; after puberty, however, they become exceedingly
apathetic; sexual excess and continual intoxication with palm wine
contribute largely to this result’.[1635] Speaking of the natives of
Portuguese East Africa, Maugham refers to the great brightness and
promise early displayed; as regards the later stages says that he has
‘over and over again been the witness of the sudden and astounding
change which takes place among the young male house servants as youth
approaches manhood. Brightness and initiative disappear; they go about
their duties in a most casual manner; they are unable to remember the
clearest and simplest instructions, and are constantly away without
permission.’[1636] Referring to this subject so far as the natives of
the Congo are concerned, Weeks states that ‘for generations boys on
arriving at the age of 14 or 15 had learnt all their father had to
teach respecting fishing, hunting, woodcraft, building, paddling,
&c.... Thus their intelligence had attained for generations the
fullest development by the above age; now we have to help them over
that crucial stage; in some cases it is very difficult; but in other
cases we can do so; and in such there is no limit to the intellectual
progress they can make. In many cases they have mastered a good
working knowledge of French, Portuguese or English, both spoken and
written, and as larger opportunities are given, a larger number of
youths will make such mental progress as will encourage their friends
and teachers.’[1637] Bryant, who has had a wide experience of South
African natives, sums up his impressions by confirming the common
opinion that the native boy is, at an early age, if anything, superior
to the European boy of the same age, and that at puberty his mental
development is arrested. He thinks that Boer boys living in the
backwoods and receiving practically no training are, if anything,
inferior to the African boys. He adds—what is of particular
interest—the fact that the African boys, whose education begins early,
do not show the same arrest of development as those whose education
begins later. Nevertheless the African boy educated from an early age
is surpassed by the European boy later on. We find also, he says, that
‘in practically every case where a South African native has had the
opportunity of receiving an education in one of the universities of
Europe or America, that that native has invariably been able to hold
his own against all white rivals and to pass as successfully as they
the same examinations in Law, Medicine, or Arts.’ Such men, however,
he adds, may have been selected as particularly fitted to profit by
further education.[1638] Summing up his opinion upon this subject,
Olivier says that it is not possible to ‘justify a generalization that
there is any particular human function for which coloured persons are
by their African blood disqualified. In various categories of human
activity we may maintain that, as a rule, black and coloured folk are
not up to the normal standard of the white, and are difficult and
disheartening to deal with. But in other categories they are more
liberally endowed than the average white man, not only with
sympathetic and valuable human qualities, but with talent and
executive ability for their expression.’[1639]
The evidence has been taken from the accounts of African races; very
similar evidence could be presented for all races in the second group.
No purpose would be served by so doing, however, because such evidence
amounts merely to a repetition of opinion similar to those given above.
Before attempting to analyse this evidence, we may glance at the
evidence obtained on other lines.
4. Many investigations have been recently carried out to test the
relative intelligence of children of modern Europeans and of primitive
races. The method used is known as the Binet-Simon method and consists
essentially in subjecting children to a large number of carefully
prepared tests upon the total result of which an estimate is made of the
intelligence of each child. Some of the most instructive of these
observations have been made in America, where white and coloured
children receive a very similar education; the result of an
investigation carried out by Miss Strong in that country may be
described. She tested 225 white children belonging to two schools and
125 coloured children belonging to one school. There is a standard
degree of intelligence for each year of age, and thus every child can be
graded according as to whether it reaches the standard degree of
intelligence, or is above or below it. The results of this particular
investigation are summed up in the following table:[1640]
_Coloured Children._ _White Children._
More than one year backward 29·4 10·2
Satisfactory 69·8 84·4
More than one year advanced 0·8 5·3
That the inferiority of the coloured children is exhibited at all ages
is shown by the following table:[1641]
_Below Age._ _At Age._ _Above Age._
_White._ _Coloured._ _White._ _Coloured._ _White._ _Coloured._
6 years 19·4 40·0 30·6 33·3 50·0 26·7
7 „ 13·9 39·4 61·1 58·8 25·0 11·8
8 „ 18·5 23·0 55·5 38·5 26·0 38·5
9 „ 32·2 71·4 41·9 21·4 25·9 7·2
10 „ 55·1 75·0 27·6 12·5 17·3 12·5
11 „ 34·6 43·7 42·2 50·0 23·1 6·3
12 „ 67·5 77·0 32·5 23·0
34·5 51·4 41·2 33·9 24·3 14·7
With regard to these results Miss Strong writes as follows: ‘This seems
to lead to the conclusion that the coloured children are mentally
younger than the white. There is a difference of nearly 15 per cent. in
the satisfactory group, nearly three times as many are more than a year
backward, and less than 1 per cent. are more than a year advanced. A
course of study in the coloured school is practically the same as that
in the white schools. To what extent the difference is due to racial
inferiority, to what extent differences in the home environment, cannot
be said. It is certainly not due to difference in school
training.’[1642]
There are certain criticisms of weight to be made regarding the
importance to be attached to estimates of intelligence due to this
method. These need not detain us beyond noting that, although in
general, inasmuch as the children use the same language, the mental
equipment is similar, nevertheless there may be considerable differences
in acquired habit as between white and coloured children which affect
their responses to the test. There is a further criticism of some
importance to be made regarding this particular investigation. It was
entirely carried out by white examiners, and it may very well be that
the coloured children did not respond as readily and acquit themselves
as favourably as if they had been examined by members of their own race.
There is reason to suspect therefore that the coloured children may not
show up in as favourable a light as the white children quite apart from
any colour bias that may possibly affect the results in the same way. In
any case it seems certain that the results are not unduly favourable to
the coloured children.
The results of several similar inquiries have been summarized by Popenoe
and Johnson. ‘The most careful study yet made’, they write, ‘of the
relative intelligence of negroes and whites,’ is that of G. O. Ferguson,
junior, on 486 white and 421 coloured pupils in the schools of Richmond,
Fredericksburg, and Newport News, Va. Tests were employed which required
the use of the higher ‘functions’ and as far as possible (mainly on the
basis of skin colour) the amount of white blood in the coloured pupils
was determined. Four classes were made: full-blood negro, ¾ negro, ½
negro (mulatto), and ¼ negro (quadroon). It was found that ‘the pure
negroes scored 69·2 per cent. as high as the whites; that the ¾ negroes
scored 73 per cent. as high as the whites; that the mulattoes scored
81·2 per cent. as high as the whites; and that the quadroons obtained
91·8 per cent. of the white score.’ This confirms the belief of many
observers that the ability of a coloured man is proportionate to the
amount of white blood he has.[1643]
Summing up a review of this subject Huntingdon writes as follows: ‘So
far as I am aware, every exact test which has been made on a large scale
indicates mental superiority on the part of the white race, even when
the two races have equal opportunities. For example, in Washington the
coloured children remain in school quite as long as the white; they do
not accomplish so much in the way of study and do not reach so high a
grade. In the cities of the south, Mayo and Leram find that where the
races are given essentially the same instruction, the proportion of
whites who are promoted is greater than than of negroes. Moreover, the
differences seem to increase with years, which suggests that the average
coloured child not only stands below the average white child in mental
development at all ages, but ceases to develop at an earlier age. In the
High Schools of New York, superiority of the white race is shown by
Mayo’s examination of the average marks. By the time the children reach
the High School, the processes of promotion have weeded out a much
larger proportion of coloured children than of white. Hence, the negroes
form a specially selected group whose superiority to the average of
their race is more marked than the superiority of the white High School
children when compared with the rest of the race. Nevertheless, the
average marks of the white children are distinctly higher than those of
the coloured.’[1644] Here again, as in the case of Miss Strong’s
investigation, it is not improbable that the conditions are to some
extent weighted against the coloured race.
5. A third method of arriving at some indication of the relative degree
of mental capacity is to notice what has happened where for some
generations the two races have lived under more or less similar
conditions. ‘One of the best places for comparing the two races is in
the Bahama Islands’, writes Huntington. For reasons which I shall
present later, the process of making ‘poor whites’ has probably gone
farther in the Bahamas than in almost any other Anglo-Saxon community.
Part of the white population are like their race in other regions, but a
large portion have unmistakably degenerated. Witness their intense and
bigoted speech, their sunken cheeks and eyes, their sallow complexion,
and their inert way of working. In spite of racial prejudice, there is
no real colour line in the Bahamas. Persons with more or less negro
blood are worthy occupants of the highest positions, and are universally
accepted in the most exclusive social circles. The British Government
gives the negro every possible opportunity. The state of affairs may be
judged from the remarks of a ‘poor white’ sailor, who said to me: ‘You
want to know why I like the Southern States better than the North. It is
because they hate a nigger and I hates him too. What kind of a place is
this where they do everything for the nigger and nothing for the white
man? It is bad enough to have to go to jail, but it’s pretty hard for a
white man to be taken there by a nigger constable.’ In one Bahaman
village I saw negro girls teaching white children in the public school.
In that same village a number of the leading white men cannot read or
write.
‘When they were children, their parents would not send them to school
with negroes. The despised negroes learnt to read and write but have now
largely forgotten these accomplishments. The proud whites grow up in
abject ignorance. To-day the same thing is going on. I visited two
villages where the white children are staying away from school because
they will not go to negro teachers. The homes of such whites are
scarcely better than those of their coloured neighbours, and their
fathers are called “Jim” and “Jack” by the black men with whom they
work. Racial prejudice apparently works more harm to the whites than to
the blacks. So far as occupations go there is no difference, for all
alike till the soil, sail boats, and gather sponges.
‘When the lumber industry was introduced into the islands, whites and
blacks were equally ignorant of the various kinds of work involved in
cutting trees and converting them into lumber. The managers did not care
who did the work so long as it was done. They wanted three things:
strength, docility or faithfulness, and brains. They soon found that in
the first two the negroes were superior. Time and again persons in
authority, chiefly American but also some of the more capable native
whites, told me that if they wanted a crew of men to load a boat or some
such thing, they would prefer negroes every time. The poor white shirks
more than the coloured man. He is not so strong, he is proud and touchy.
Other things being equal, the negro receives the preference, but other
things are not equal. The very man who praised the negroes generally
added: “But you can’t use a negro for everything. They can’t seem to
learn some things, and they don’t know how to boss a job.” The pay roll
reflects this. Even though the negroes receive the preference the 400
who are employed earn on an average only about 60 per cent. as much as
the 57 white men. If we take only the 57 most competent negroes their
average daily wages are still only 88 per cent. as great as those of the
native whites. The difference is purely a matter of brains. Although the
white man may be ignorant and inefficient, with no more training than
the negro, and although his father and grandfather were scarcely better,
he possesses an inheritance of mental quickness and initiative which
comes into evidence at the first opportunity.’[1645]
6. What conclusions are we to draw from this varied evidence? Let us
first ask how we should view the differences between the negro and the
modern European. There seems to be no marked difference in innate
intellectual power; the differences are rather differences in
disposition and temperament. The white man has initiative,
inventiveness, versatility, and power of leadership; the black man has
humility, patience, loyalty, and self-sacrifice. It is remarkable with
what unanimity observers of the negro race in its own country speak of
the high degree of intellectual development. Certain points are
noteworthy. The apparent arrest of development is associated with an
absorption at a certain age in practical matters, in tribal habits and
customs, in sex and in settling down to a normal married existence as
much on the lines of their ancestors as is possible under the altered
conditions. Several passages quoted above strongly suggest that what we
are here witnessing is a turning away from the training felt to be
strange and foreign, owing to the strength of the native tradition which
claims all the affection and interest of the young man. In other words
this arrest may not be so much an inevitable result of the kind of
mental faculties which are inherited as a result of the coming into play
of a peculiar tradition. This conclusion is supported by the fact that,
when in Africa education begins earlier, when, that is to say, there is
more of a break with native tradition, the arrest is less well marked.
Further, in America, it is still less marked though it can be detected.
The conclusion would thus seem to be that, though there may be some
tendency for intellectual development to stop at a rather lower stage
than among European races, it is nothing like so well marked as the
observations of residents in South Africa would seem at first sight to
show.
The evidence quoted has chiefly been drawn from observations upon the
negro races. It must suffice here to say that what is known regarding
the intellectual development of other races included in the first and
second groups leads to the conclusion that, although there are signs of
differences as between these races, yet these differences are not
remarkable, and further that the degree to which so apparently low a
race as the Australians differs from Europeans is not in any case much
greater than the degree in which negroes differ from Europeans.
It remains to ask how far this evidence supplements that derived from a
study of fossil remains. Judging from the fact that the general level of
the development of the mental faculties of any primitive race is not
separated markedly farther from that of modern European man than are the
negro races in this respect from modern European man, it seems that we
must allow to Upper Palaeolithic man on the average a degree of mental
development at least equivalent to that of the negro. It is further only
reasonable to suppose that the ancestors of Upper Palaeolithic man in
the Middle Palaeolithic were little inferior in mental capacity,
inasmuch as to Neanderthal man, to whom they were superior and whom they
apparently exterminated, we must attribute a degree of intelligence
little, if at all, inferior to that of the Australians. Of Lower
Palaeolithic man we know much less. We do not know, for example, whether
he buried his dead. But if we consider the variety of instruments
fashioned and used by him, it is not unreasonable to attribute to him,
in view of the nature of the general conclusions to which we are being
led, a degree of intelligence again but little inferior to that of
Middle Palaeolithic man.
Our conclusions can only be tentative; nevertheless such indications as
we have all point the same way. It would seem that the major part of the
progress in the evolution of the intellectual faculties had been
accomplished far back in Palaeolithic times. Those living races which,
with all due reservations and qualifications, may be held to represent
in mental and bodily characters Palaeolithic races, differ from modern
European man rather in disposition than in intellect. And it is
important to note that it is in the growth of the intellect rather than
in the growth of the other mental faculties that modern man is
distinguished from his pre-human ancestor.
7. We may again follow the same procedure as in the last chapter. We may
recall the general conditions to which man was subject in the
intermediate and early periods and ask how the evolution of mental
characters was influenced by them. We may further ask to what degree and
in what direction the conditions of life among primitive races influence
the selection of mental characters since in general we may assume the
same influences to have been at work among prehistoric races. With
regard to the intermediate period we have to remember that it was far
longer than, perhaps many times as long as, the period which has elapsed
since the rise of Palaeolithic industry. Within this period man
descended to the ground, spread, if not into every continent, at least
far over the surface of the world and came to dominate all other living
organisms as no species had ever done before. Clearly he was enabled to
achieve this result by his intellectual powers and by them alone. He did
not develop any other means of attack or means of defence: he conquered
by his intellect.
In a general way it is possible to understand how this came about. To
begin with, the pre-human ancestor was favourably situated for such a
development because he was a generalized and not a specialized type.
Once specialization of form has set in, as it has among the anthropoid
apes, there are two bars to such a development as occurred in man. The
specialization of bodily form in order to cope with a peculiar
environment renders the body less adaptable to any changes in the
environment which may take place. Further, unless the body is of the
nature of an instrument capable of being readily employed to perform
various functions, the intellect is unable to manifest itself. We have
only to think of the specialized fore and hind limbs of most mammalian
types to see how poor an instrument the body would in those cases make
in the service of the intellect.
Under these favourable circumstances, evolution took this momentous
turn. We can understand how, since the pre-human ancestor depended for
his survival almost solely upon his intellect, there would be a high
premium upon intellectual development. It is reasonable to suppose that
he lived in groups of polygamous families and that differential
fertility thus intensified selection. There is, of course, never at any
time only a single factor governing selection, and though undoubtedly
intellect was the chief factor in selection, climatic and other factors
were, as we have noticed, also in operation, bringing about those
changes in bodily form that we have observed.
The instincts of the pre-human ancestor were doubtless, in common with
those of other mammals, of a generalized type compared with what we find
among some lower groups of animals. The tendency has been for them to
become even more generalized, though not on the whole any less powerful.
It seems likely, for instance, that the instinct of flight was
definitely associated with the snakes among other objects from the
attacks of which presumably the ancestor was at one time in danger. We
assume this because we occasionally meet with cases in which this
specialization of the instinct of flight still obtains. The instinct of
flight has now become wholly generalized, being aroused by general
conditions and not by specialized occurrences. If it is correct to think
of the ancestor as living in groups of families, for the leadership of
which there must have been continual struggles, we may conclude that the
instincts of pugnacity and of self-assertion were favoured, and we may
make other similar deductions in estimating the value of which, however,
it must be remembered that we are very largely in the region of
hypothesis and speculation. The one thing to which we may with certainty
hold fast is the premium upon intellect.
8. At length the intermediate period gave place to the period marked by
the origin of society of the primitive type, defined by the fact that
men are bound together by rigid custom. Obedience to custom involves a
considerable measure of control of the impulses. Before society of this
kind could have arisen, mental evolution must have reached a still
higher level.
Let us consider what is implied. To begin with, the dependence of man
upon his intellect for his position in the world accounts, as we have
seen, for the evolution of his mental faculties up to a relatively high
level in the intermediate period. When this level had been reached, the
next step was rendered possible. What was now required was that man
should be able to enjoy the advantages of social co-operation. To this
end law was necessary. McDougall quotes Bagehot as saying that ‘law,
rigid, definite, concise law, was a primary want of early mankind; that
which they needed above everything else, that which was requisite before
they could gain anything else’, and that: ‘in early times the quantity
of government is much more important than its quality. What is wanted is
a comprehensive rule binding men together, making them do the same
things, telling them what to expect of each other, fashioning them
alike, and keeping them so. What this rule is, does not matter so much.
A good rule is better than a bad one, but a bad one is better than
none.’[1646] That man should acquiesce in the restrictions imposed by
society involves prudence, which inhibits those impulses which would
lead to a contravention of custom. Now; fear is a simple emotion, but
prudence implies something more. It involves ‘a capacity for
deliberation and the weighing of motives in the light of
self-consciousness.’[1647] In order that society might become
established, there was thus required a further evolution of the
intellect, and, since the advantages to be gained by the establishment
of society were so great, there must have been a heavy premium upon
evolution in this direction.
The beginning of the first period in history thus marks the successful
completion of a step in mental evolution raising man above the stage
reached in the intermediate period. It is important to observe that all
primitive races known to us are representatives of man after he had
completed this step. So far, therefore, as their mental faculties throw
light upon the mental evolution of man, it is the level of evolution
reached after and not before the evolution of social organization that
is illustrated.
We may now glance at the conditions characteristic of primitive races
and ask how they bear upon the selection of mental characters. Primitive
society we found to be characterized by hard and fast rules which must
be implicitly obeyed if social organization is to be maintained.
Obedience to these conventions is of the utmost importance; we may
remember incidentally that, unless the conventions are observed, an
approximation to the optimum population will not be made. There is in
consequence a tendency towards the elimination of those exhibiting
characteristics incompatible with due subservience to the prevailing
tradition. Such characteristics are any marked developments of intellect
or of disposition away from the average. The man who will not conform is
not tolerated. However advantageous to the individual certain
developments might be, such developments are not favoured because the
importance of maintaining intact the group to which he belongs is of
greater moment. Thus, as in the case of physical characters, the general
tendency is on the whole against further evolution and towards the
preservation of those types which have reached the position
characteristic of any primitive race. And it is to be noted that,
whereas bodily form is on the whole adapted to the physical environment,
mental characters are adapted on the whole to the traditional
environment. Men come to be selected in accordance with the needs of
social organization, and as tradition grows in amount also in accordance
with their capability of absorbing tradition.
It is difficult to point to any factors which markedly favour further
evolution of mental characters. On reading the admirable accounts of the
daily life and customs of the Australians as given by Messrs. Spencer
and Gillen, or of a much more advanced people—the tribes of Borneo, as
described by Messrs. Hose and McDougall—we observe, it is true, the
respect paid to men of experience and of rather more than average
intelligence. We can understand how men not up to the average level of
intelligence would not in all respects fare as well as others, but we do
not find that there are factors distinctly favouring unusual
intelligence. Some progress there probably was. On the whole those men
who attained the leadership were probably rather more intelligent than
the average, though among the qualities which assisted such men to gain
the leadership many other mental qualities played a more prominent part
than intellect; thus, by practising polygamy, or practising it to a
greater extent than the rest, they left more than the average number of
descendants—and, while perhaps raising the intellectual level of the
race, more certainly altering the average mental endowment in respect of
these other qualities.
Such an examination also shows that a somewhat different disposition is
favoured in different cases. Thus a warlike type is favoured among the
American Indians, for, though possibly the most warlike may be killed
off the most quickly, this is more than counterbalanced by the ease
which with such men get numerous wives. But such differences in no way
conflict with the fact that the tendency is towards the preservation of
a mean, which though it may vary somewhat, is in general outline the
same among all these races.
There still remains to be noticed the result of conflict between groups,
other than normal warfare, which at times led to the substitution, whole
or partial, of a less intelligent by a more intelligent race, or at
least of a less skilled by a more skilled race; for by this time the
outward manifestation of intellect was to a considerable extent overlaid
by tradition. But such substitution, though it changes the average
germinal constitution of the species as a whole, scarcely accounts in
any noteworthy degree for the evolution of a higher level of
intellectual capacity. The conditions which did favour further evolution
within these two periods are the same as those which, when present to a
more marked degree and acting over a longer period of time, finally gave
rise to the races of the third period, and to these conditions we may
now turn.
9. There are certain regions of the world’s surface which contain within
them areas abutting one upon the other and differing sharply one from
the other. Such a region is found in that part of Western Asia which
embraces Asia Minor, Armenia, Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Western
Iran. In such areas races live in close contact with other races of very
different habits, customs, and modes of life; hunting and fishing races,
pastoral races, agricultural races, races predominately sea-faring, all
come into contact and conflict. Under conditions of these kinds there is
more tendency for advantage to accrue to intellect not only as between
members of different races but as between members of the same race than
in conflicts between races of similar culture. Where these conditions
have ruled, therefore, there has been a tendency, though perhaps not a
very marked tendency, for a premium to have been set upon intellect. It
so happens, however, that this region of Western Asia is endowed above
all other regions with plants and animals that can be domesticated and
with other features offering rewards to skill. In this region there was
thus an additional premium upon intellect, and it was apparently in this
region that the races who initiated the third period made their
appearance. To the favouring of intellect under these conditions we may
thus attribute what superiority of intellect the races of this group
exhibit over the races of other groups. But it is rather in disposition
and temperament that the predominant races of this group differ from
those of the preceding groups. In them we meet with a power of
leadership, a resourcefulness, a versatility, that marks them off from
the primitive races, and it is precisely these qualities which would be
chiefly favoured in conflict and competition of the kind described. The
outward manifestation of these qualities may indeed be largely a matter
of tradition, but that they are also in part innate in the modern
European we have seen to be the case, and the explanation of this
further evolution is clearly to be found in the conditions to which they
have long been subject.
Turning to the conditions within the races of the third period and
neglecting the Asiatic races, those races which in fact have been left
in a backwater out of the main stream of progress, we find ourselves
faced with the difficulty that tradition has so far come to overlay the
innate qualities of intellect and disposition, that we are only with
great difficulty at present able to estimate the result of any factors
which we may see at work favouring or otherwise particular types. We may
note, however, that success both between and within races has fallen
rather to character than to skill. There is, in other words, little
reason for thinking that intellect, so far as it is measured by skill,
has been markedly favoured. On the other hand, character as outwardly
manifested has been clearly favoured. But how far we should see in this
process a favouring of certain innate types of disposition and of
temperament must be left for consideration until later. These
reservations regarding the passing at present of any judgement apply
with the greatest force to the results of the differential fertility
between the social classes in many countries at the present day. But we
may say that, as in the case of physical characters, there has now
ceased to be any strong tendency towards the preservation of a mean
type. Conditions allow of the existence of variations away from the
mean—but, as regards intellect, unfavourable equally with favourable
variations.
10. We have seen that the evidence derived both from a study of fossil
remains and from a study of primitive races leads to the conclusion that
the evolution of human intellectual capacity early reached a relatively
advanced stage. An inquiry into the forces which we must assume to have
been at work shows that intellectual capacity was more favoured in the
intermediate stage than after primitive society had come into being. It
was favoured at first as the character which enabled man to obtain his
dominating position in the world and afterwards again as the necessary
trait which enabled him to enjoy the benefits of co-operation. When
dwelling on the fact that the advance since the setting up of primitive
society has been relatively small, it must not be forgotten that the
latter period has been far shorter than the former. The period of time
which has elapsed since the ancestors of man set out, so to speak, to
conquer the world, must at a minimum estimate be five to ten times as
long as the period since the establishment of primitive society to the
present day.
The general conclusion to which we are led is that of the whole degree
of mental evolution which has taken place by far the greater part was
achieved at a time when only a beginning had been made with progress in
skill. To the question whether the historical process outlined in the
fifth chapter is comparable with progress among wild species—is based,
in other words, upon changes in the germinal constitution—these
conclusions suggest the answer that the happenings in the intermediate
period are very largely in any case to be accounted for in this manner.
There can be little doubt that the increasing domination of man was
largely proportional to the growth of his innate intellectual capacity.
But to the question as to how far the happenings within the period since
the origin of primitive society are connected with the further evolution
of innate capacity we can at present return no answer. We may note the
striking fact that within this period progress in skill has been immense
and has latterly gone on at a greatly increased speed, whereas changes
in the germinal constitution have been relatively small. This clearly
suggests that there has been but little connexion between the course of
history as usually understood and changes in the germinal constitution.
But before we can pass any judgement, we must gain some idea as to the
manner in which tradition contributes to the shaping of history. Only
then shall we be in a position to estimate the part played by such
changes in innate characters as have occurred, and to this task we may
now turn.
XIX
THE NATURE OF TRADITION
1. So far as bodily characters are concerned, we have seen that we have
to look for the explanation of human history primarily in changes in the
germinal constitution. With regard to mental characters the position is
different. It is evident that, at least in the later stages of history,
the outstanding features are not correlated strictly with changes in the
germinal constitution underlying mental faculties. To some extent,
possibly to a large extent, they are independent of such changes. The
influence of the environment in the second sense has to be considered,
and until it has been considered we cannot arrive at any conclusion as
to the importance to be attributed to the former factor in bringing
these events about. What is now required, therefore, is a study of the
influence of the environment in the second sense. It will be very
briefly undertaken in this and the following chapter. In this chapter we
are concerned with the nature of tradition, and the manner in which it
is passed on, stored up, and retained. In the next chapter we have to
examine the influence of the various factors in building up tradition.
In Chapter II we saw that, as far as mental development is concerned,
the distinguishing characteristic of man is the conceptual process of
thought. Man is, of course, also possessed of all the simpler mental
processes there described. We have here in particular to study the
consequences which follow the attainment to this higher level of mental
process. It has already been observed that the circumstances were
favourable to the evolution of this faculty. They also enabled the
fullest use to be made of it.[1648] In the first place the human
instincts are very generalized. They provide a basis for all kinds of
vaguely directed activities in response to vaguely discriminated
impressions from a large class of objects. Since it is only through the
instinctive faculties that the intellect gets to work, the generalized
nature of the instincts is a great advantage. Secondly the immature
period is prolonged. In comparison with the higher animals the immature
period occupies a far longer proportion of the normal term of life and
thus there is provided a far longer period in which learning can
proceed. Lastly there is the power of speech.
The question has been much debated as to whether there can be thought on
the conceptual level without language. It would seem that conceptual
thought can only exist without language when of a very rudimentary kind.
‘Language is not merely an accompaniment of conceptual activity; it is
an instrument essential to its development. It is an appropriate means
of fixing attention upon ideally represented objects as distinguished
from percepts.’[1649] Language, on the other hand, so far as it is a
means of communication concerning objects outside the actual range of
perception, can only arise between persons capable of conceptual
thought. And this is essentially the function of language. It reflects
the conceptions by which empirical data are brought into relation.
‘Resemblances of quality are expressed by general terms, continuity of
existence by individual names, the relation of ideas and the order of
connexion in thought by the arrangement of words in a sentence.’[1650]
Language expresses that breaking up and re-combination of the elements
of experience which we have seen to be the essential features of
conceptual thought.
Language makes possible the influence of mind upon mind, and is the
basis of all human social development. It fixes the mind of a thinker
upon his own ideas, and, when in communication with another person, it
fixes the mind of the hearer upon the ideally represented objects
present in the mind of the speaker. Into its origin it is not necessary
to go. But it may be observed that, just as the generalized nature of
the instincts and the prolonged immature period enabled the fullest use
to be made of the power of conceptual thinking, so the fact that the
mouth and the throat, usually otherwise unoccupied, were ready at hand
as convenient instruments of communication enabled speech to be
developed without occupying other organs, such as the hands, which could
be profitably employed at the same time for other purposes.
2. Before we go on to consider how tradition—the product of conceptual
thought—is passed on and stored up, it should be noticed that we have
not to regard the process of conceptual thought as one which sprang into
being in its present form and continued as such ever since. There has
been a movement of thought up from dim and rudimentary beginnings to its
present stage. This movement may be considered as consisting essentially
in the clarification of concepts. It is possible to examine the nature
of this movement without reference to the question as to how far the
later stages are dependent upon the evolution of innate mental
characters. It may be that the higher stages of conceptual thought are
possible only when the evolution of the intellect has proceeded beyond
the point where lower stages of thought alone are manifested. This
question may be neglected for the present and we may consider very
briefly the nature of this movement, which is best illustrated if we
contrast in a few words the stage which conceptual thought has reached
among primitive peoples as a whole with the stage it has reached in the
everyday life of the so-called civilized races of the present time, and
in so doing we may follow Professor Hobhouse’s recent exposition.[1651]
With the origin of language arises the first sign of the power to grasp
the data of experience in accordance with their affinities and so to
build up conceptions of individuals, groups, and classes as the subject
of rough-and-ready generalizations. ‘With regard to matters standing out
very plainly in experience or very close to practical interests there is
not room for much divergence in method.... But outside the limited area
of readily tested belief lies a mass of more doubtful ideas of great
significance in human life. In this region we find in the first stage
that the movements of fancy under the sway of feeling take the lead in
forming belief, and that the ideas formed are so obscure and
inconsistent as to blur the deepest lines of distinction drawn for more
developed thought in the logical categories. We may then consider the
first stage in human thought to be one of which the process of
organizing experience into common categories is incomplete, and the
evidence for the truth of an idea is not yet separate from the quality
which renders it pleasant.’[1652] This is the stage characteristic of
the most primitive peoples. The categories—particularly the category of
substance—are not clearly defined. Thus vital functions may be confused
with material substance, men and animals may be identified with their
shadow, and a pain may be confused with a stone that can be extracted.
So, too, it is thought that a man’s qualities can be obtained by eating
him. Relations and qualities tend to become substances, substances
deliquesce into a series of changes, and the general is confused with
the particular. These tendencies of early thought underlie animism and
magic, which are characteristic of all primitive races. Mr. Frazer, for
instance, has distinguished two forms of sympathetic magic which he
calls homoeopathic and contagious magic. Dancing and leaping to make the
crops grow high is an example of the former; ‘the sympathy that is
supposed to exist between a man and any severed portion of his person,
as his hair or nails, so that whoever gets possession of human hair or
nails may work his will at any distance upon the person from whom they
were cut’,[1653] is an example of the latter. ‘Homoeopathic magic is
founded on the association of ideas by similarity: contagious magic is
founded on the association of ideas by contiguity. Homoeopathic magic
commits the mistake of assuming that things which resemble each other
are the same; contagious magic commits the mistake of assuming that
things which have once been in contact with each other are always in
contact.’[1654]
There follows a second stage which Professor Hobhouse calls the stage of
‘common sense’. It is characterized by the organization of ideas in
accordance with the categories and by the differentiation of feeling
from belief. At this stage the categories are no longer ordinarily
confused and the difficulty of affirming what a man does not like to
believe is no longer so strongly felt as in the previous stage.
Experience is tested and good evidence is recognized as such. It is no
longer believed that an enemy can be harmed by maltreating a likeness of
him or that qualities like courage are substances that may be
transferred. This is the stage of conceptual thought reached by the
ordinary man in everyday life in a modern community when he is not
specifically engaged in work of a scientific nature or in problems of
religion or philosophy. Just as the simpler mental processes are present
among men who have reached the conceptual level, so the earliest stage
of conceptual thought can be recognized where later stages have been
reached, as, for instance, when grace is conferred by the laying on of
hands in a modern community.
The beginnings of the common-sense stage may perhaps be found in the
second period. Essentially it is characteristic of the third period, and
it was only within this period that this stage came to its full
development. When this stage is contrasted with that which preceded it,
it is seen that it is the clarification of concepts which is the
distinguishing feature of the movement of thought. In other words there
has been an improvement in the instrument whereby the intellect
works—comparable to any other process through which skill is increased.
Just as the bow and arrow and the plough have been improved by a series
of inventions, so has the instrument of thought been improved; and just
as further improvements in the plough and the bow and arrow after a
certain stage has been reached may possibly depend upon further
evolution of mental capacity, so possibly progress in the movement of
thought may depend upon further evolution of the intellect. Again it
should be observed that just as tools such as the plough are handed down
as part of the tradition, so, too, the instrument of thought is handed
down as part of the tradition and that, therefore, in studying in what
follows the manner in which tradition is passed on and stored up, we are
studying the methods whereby the instrument of thought as much as any
other skilled process is transmitted.
Further stages in the movement of thought maybe distinguished. It is not
necessary to go into them here. They arise within the third period, and
relatively late within that period. They are characterized by the rise
and development of science, philosophy, and religion—religion, that is
to say, which has passed beyond the stage of folk-religion.
3. Let us now consider the passing on and storing up of the products of
conceptual thinking. We may take the latter point first. Ideas may be
stored up in language, customs, folk-lore, institutions, tools, and so
on, using tools in the narrower sense of material implements. In one
sense language is in itself a great storehouse of ideas quite apart from
its function as a means of transmitting ideas regarding specific customs
and rights. Slowly and painfully concepts have been elaborated,
distinguished, clarified; and as a child learns his native language, in
a few years he acquires the products of the thinking of untold
generations from whom he is descended. It is difficult to exaggerate the
immense importance of this method of storing ideas. Very largely through
language alone, though not without the acquirement of ideas otherwise
stored, a man passes, by the time he has reached maturity, through a
stage of thought corresponding to the primitive stage, to the
common-sense stage, and even to the higher stages.
It is obvious enough that at the present day ideas are largely stored in
books and the vast importance of writing and printing—inventions of the
third period[1655]—is a commonplace. Similarly, ideas are stored in
customs, institutions, rites, folk-lore, and so on. Behind all
institutions, ceremonies for example, we must seek ideas. The original
ideas which gave birth to customs have often been lost, but whether this
is so or not, where an institution exists and is passed on there we are
witnessing the perpetuation of an idea, if it is merely an idea that it
is the correct thing to perform some simple action on certain occasions.
Many valuable ideas are stored up in the making and use of tools and in
the practice of skilled processes, especially those which are concerned
with the provision of food. We can understand how by the exercise of
thought improvements in some tool or in some method are now and again
made, and, once made, how they are stored up. What is less easy is to
understand precisely how the passing on of ideas so stored is brought
about.
4. Something has already been said as to the manner in which by means of
language ideas present in the mind of the speaker are transmitted to the
hearer; and it has been pointed out that apart from this the learning of
any language is in itself a process by which the ideas elaborated by
former generations are acquired. Bearing in mind the manner in which
ideas are transmitted by language, it is clear how, after the invention
of writing and more especially after the invention of printing, ideas
thus stored up are transmitted. But before these inventions, and indeed
to a large extent after them also, ideas committed to memory by each
generation are passed on by language. Among primitive people there is a
vast store of ideas affecting conduct, belief, and every side of life
which is so passed on. But the storing up of ideas is not merely a
matter of memory and the passing on is not merely a matter of language.
Rites, ceremonies, implements, and so on, are themselves storehouses of
ideas, and the transmission of the ideas therein contained, as well
indeed as the ideas solely retained in the memory of past generations,
is accomplished in large part by a process of absorption.
This process of absorption is due to the presence of certain innate
tendencies. These tendencies have sometimes been grouped under one head
and called imitation—as, for instance, by Tarde and others who have
studied the process and emphasized its great importance in social life.
Following McDougall we may distinguish three innate tendencies. By
sympathy is meant that the exhibition of emotional excitement on the
part of the agent may induce a similar emotional excitement on the part
of the patient. By imitation is meant that there may be a tendency for
the patient to assimilate his bodily movements to those of the agent.
Important as are these innate tendencies in facilitating the
transmission of customs and so on—themselves ultimately the product of
conceptual thought—suggestion assumes a far more prominent place.
McDougall’s definition of suggestion has already been quoted. According
to his view it is essentially the acceptance with conviction of a
proposition in the absence of logically adequate grounds for its
acceptance. He points out that a proposition is not necessarily
communicated in formal language, and further distinguishes certain
conditions which are favourable for the communication of propositions by
suggestion. Chief among these are deficiency of knowledge relating to
the topic in regard to which the suggestion is made, imperfect
organization of knowledge, and the impressive character of the source
from which the suggested proposition is communicated. These conditions
are very prominent among children and in all primitive society. There is
no doubt that it is largely by virtue of suggestion that children absorb
the tradition of their race and time. Children have little knowledge and
what they have is imperfectly organized; further propositions come to
them from a source which is impressive and has prestige whether it is
from parents or grown-up people or from the conventions ruling in
society. Just as children in modern society absorb tradition by
suggestion, so do men among primitive races where the conditions are
even more favourable for transmission by this means. Thus, in order that
the products of conceptual thinking of former generations should be
transmitted, it is not necessary that there should be convictions based
on logical grounds or that formal language should be employed. Tradition
can be, and is to a large extent, ‘absorbed’.
5. Tradition, having thus passed on, is retained, and in the process of
retention habit plays an important part. Habit applies to all forms of
mental process and to all forms of action. Once something has been
performed in one way, it is easier to do it again in that way than in
any other. ‘This is the great principle’, says McDougall, ‘by which all
acquisitions of the individual mind are preserved’,[1656] whatever the
mode of acquisition may be.
6. The products of the thinking of past generations are thus stored up,
transmitted, and retained. Additions are made to the store, and
improvements are made in the method of storing. Tradition, by which is
meant this store, is thus cumulative. The acquirements of past
generations are passed on to the present generation and, modified in
some degree, are transmitted to future generations. New generations,
therefore, so far as acquired knowledge is concerned, begin at the point
where the former generation left off. It does not, of course, follow
that additions are always being made to tradition; it may be for all
practical purposes stagnant or much that has been acquired may be
lost.[1657] It does, however, permit of accumulation, and this fact
introduces an element of vast importance into the life of man as
compared with his pre-human ancestors.
It is not, however, correct to say that this is a wholly new element.
Tradition may be and is present before the level of conceptual thinking
has been reached. Many animals, for example, live in herds and
instinctively take shelter when one member of a herd utters a warning
cry. If at some past time a new enemy has appeared, they will have
learnt by experience to take shelter. Subsequent generations will raise
the warning cry on the appearance of the enemy, because what we may
think of as a tradition has grown up concerning the hostile nature of
the species with which past generations were brought into contact. Thus
we may think of a tradition among horses that motorcars are not
dangerous. When cars were first introduced horses tended instinctively
to avoid them. Many horses learnt from experience that cars were
harmless, and young horses, seeing motorcars for the first time in the
presence of older horses, which have learnt the lesson, absorb the
tradition that they are not dangerous. Tradition among animals can go
even farther than this. To some degree it seems that the manner of nest
building among birds is traditional and not instinctive.[1658] But
compared with the vast importance of tradition among men, tradition
among animals is an almost negligible feature in their lives, and for
all practical purposes we can think of tradition as a peculiar
characteristic of man due to the higher mental process to which he has
attained.
7. In any race at any given time there is thus a vast body of tradition.
These traditions govern both the degree and the direction in which the
various mental processes function. What is meant will be clearer if we
think of the influence of the mass of traditions upon physical
characters. At any given time there are a number of tools and skilled
processes known and employed and, in the first place, the degree in
which the body is exercised will depend upon their nature. It may be
that hunting with bow and arrow, or fishing in canoes, is the chief
occupation of the men. The degree of physical exercise will be
conditioned by these traditions and so too will, in the second place,
the nature and direction of physical exercise. Similarly with regard to
the intellectual faculties, the degree to which they are used will be
conditioned by the form of language, by the necessity of learning what
custom lays down as the acquirement of an average member of society, and
by the opportunities and inducements generally to the employment of
reasoning. The direction in which the intellectual faculties work will
also be closely conditioned by tradition. Having absorbed the traditions
of the race and time, the direction which reasoning follows will always
be very largely governed by what has been acquired. Few men strike out
new paths, and, when they do, the direction of the path is seen to be
greatly influenced by the previous trend of thought. Tradition, as it
advances, thus tends to proceed in grooves.
The manner in which tradition conditions the degree and nature of the
manifestation of the instinctive tendencies is equally well marked.
Among some races, such as the Eskimos, fighting is almost unknown.
Though among such races the instinct of pugnacity is probably less
strongly given in the germinal constitution than among other races, to a
large extent the relative absence of fighting is certainly due to
tradition. Among the Eskimos we find a great body of custom and ideas
all of which tend to impress upon them that fighting is wrong. An
emotion again may be greatly developed by some racial tradition.
Self-assertion is much more developed among the members of the larger
and more prosperous European races than among the smaller and weaker
races. The attitude of the Englishman is very different from that of the
Dane, who will tell you that Denmark is only a little country that wants
to be let alone. Latterly the attention of the world has been drawn to
the peculiar manner in which the teaching of various historians,
moralists, philosophers and others has moulded the outlook of the
Germans and come to direct the expression of their emotions. Thus in a
most striking manner it has been made obvious how a peculiar body of
tradition, ultimately the product of conceptual thinking, has directed
the emotions and sentiments of a whole people into certain channels with
such disastrous results. The direction of an instinct is often changed;
the tender emotion may be diverted among the childless to charitable
works, and the instincts of celibates obviously become much changed. Any
instinct indeed is capable of manifesting itself in very different forms
according to the outlet which it finds, and the nature of the outlet is
determined chiefly by tradition. ‘On a, aujourd’hui’, says Joubert, ‘non
seulement la cupidité mais l’ambition du gain.’[1659] The simpler
emotion has, that is to say, become more complex under the influence of
the traditional environment.
8. Lastly we may note that the tradition acquired and present at any one
time may form the basis for the selection of men and of groups of men.
There are often, especially among the higher races, differences in
tradition as between the groups and classes in the same race. The
differences are usually much greater between different races. The
tradition present in a race, whether because it includes a higher degree
of skill, enables a greater degree of coherence to be realized, is the
foundation of more vigorous endeavour, or because it is a combination of
these and other elements, may enable one race, when in conflict with
other races, to overcome those other races, should the latter be
possessed of a tradition, which, taken as a whole, is, relatively to the
conditions of the contest, less valuable. There is thus a process of
natural selection based upon differences in tradition, just as there is
a natural selection based upon differences due to modifications and also
upon differences due to mutations. Selection of modifications, as we
have seen, produces no permanent results. But selection of tradition,
like selection of mutations, has results which may be permanent. In
primitive society, where tradition within a race tends to be uniform,
this selection of tradition chiefly comes into play in the conflict
between races. In more advanced societies where there are considerable
differences in tradition between the classes, it also comes into play
within races.
The conflict between races is always in large measure a conflict between
traditions whether or not the differences in tradition are a measure of
more fundamental differences. In these conflicts a mass of tradition may
be wiped out and lost for good or any degree of amalgamation of
tradition may take place.
At length within modern races there arises a competition of ideas of a
rather different nature. Within civilized races there is no longer a
mass of tradition which has to be accepted as a whole; there are
different ideas which may be said to compete. One idea may get the
better of another within the minds of the majority without involving any
elimination of men who hold any other idea, because men can now change
their outlook—not, of course, in the case of the great majority by any
logical process. Thus a struggle comes into being between ideas,
customs, and institutions in modern communities which leads to change
without involving human selection.
These considerations pave the way to an examination of the influence of
the actual conditions under which tradition has been elaborated. We have
seen that conceptual thinking develops with, and is furthered by, the
use of speech. It does not develop merely to a particular level and
there stop. There is a movement of thought which at least in its earlier
stages takes the form of a clarification of concepts. The products of
conceptual thinking are stored up and handed on in the form of
tradition. This tradition is cumulative. Not only are additions made to
it but the methods of storing are improved. Elements may also be lost.
Finally, forming, as it does, a very important element in the
manifestation of human mental character, men, and more particularly
races of men, may be selected in accordance with the degree and quality
of tradition acquired by them.
XX
THE ORIGIN OF TRADITION
1. The study of the formation of tradition is a matter of great
complexity. Many important aspects of the problem await elucidation. It
is proposed here to reduce the discussion to the barest outline, and to
confine it to the origin of skilled processes and in particular to the
origin of skill in the provision of the essential requirements of daily
life. We further take into account only the most important aspects of
the environment—namely, the influence of fertility and the influence of
contact of man with man and of race with race. All questions connected
with innate differences in mental and physical characters will be for
the present disregarded. We want to know—other things being equal—how
skill will originate and grow, given such differences in the environment
as regards fertility and contact as exist.
2. The first problem which confronts us is concerned with the
differences in the environment arising from differences in fertility. To
this term a special meaning is attached. Fertility as here employed
corresponds to what is usually spoken of as the wealth of any country or
district. The nature and abundance of the fauna and flora, the surface
features of the land, the composition of the upper layers of the ground,
the minerals and to some degree the climate, as well as other factors,
all go to make up the fertility or wealth of any area. The differences
in the factors which go to make up fertility as between different
portions of the world’s surface are well known; they are very
great—areas closely approximated being at times sharply differentiated
one from another whereas in other places conditions remain very similar
over large areas.
The most important fact to be observed in this connexion is that there
is no absolute standard of fertility. ‘The term fertility’, says
Marshall, ‘has no meaning except with reference to the special
circumstances of a particular time and place.’[1660] Fertility is in
fact purely a relative term, and, now that we have for the moment put
aside differences in mental and physical characters, fertility is
relative for our purpose only to the amount of skill and such other
elements of tradition as may be in existence. An area, which is very
fertile for a race with some agricultural skill, may be far from fertile
for a race with a knowledge only of hunting and fishing, and the
presence of minerals obviously adds nothing to the fertility of an area
to a race lacking knowledge of their use. The country inhabited by the
Eskimos, who maintain a standard of living that, relative to the
standard achieved by many races, is far from low, would be wholly
infertile to a race not possessed of the peculiar skill distinctive of
Eskimo culture.
It should be noticed that, so far as fertility is dependent upon animal
and plant life, the fertility of different regions of the world’s
surface has varied in the period covered by the emergence of man, not
merely relatively but absolutely. There have been climatic changes of
which the glacial periods were the most remarkable. There have been
changes in the boundaries of seas, such as the Mediterranean, which have
profoundly affected the fertility of the neighbouring regions. The
Sahara at one time was certainly not as barren as it is now. In any
survey, such as that we are going to make, which was at all detailed,
such changes would have to be taken into account. But in what follows
they may be disregarded.
It may be observed here that in certain areas there is a destructive
element in the total make-up of the surroundings. The variable climatic
conditions of Australia and India which have been noticed in another
connexion are of importance also in this respect. The hurricanes of New
Caledonia are another example. So too are all those features in the
Central African environment which destroy the products of man’s
handiwork.[1661] This destructive element is only an exaggeration of
certain features which characterize all areas; nevertheless where these
features are exaggerated important results follow. There may be, for
instance, two areas, otherwise equally fertile; but if the destructive
element is important in one area, it is probable that so high an
economic stage will not be reached or maintained there as in the other,
and further, for the same reason, there will be less tendency for any
advance in tradition to be made. The reason for this will be clear when
we have examined the influence which fertility has upon skill. For this
destructive element is a kind of negative fertility, and just as
fertility is on the whole favourable to progress in skill, so what is
equivalent to its absence is a hindrance to progress in skill.
3. Fertility is thus relative to the tradition prevalent at any one
time. Let us suppose that man has spread over the surface of the world
and that the tradition present is everywhere very similar, being of a
simple form so far as skill is concerned, and consisting in a
rudimentary knowledge of hunting and fishing. It is clear that certain
areas—the great deserts, the frozen wastes of the north—will be
absolutely infertile; with this degree of skill only, life cannot be
maintained there. The remaining areas will vary from those which are
just sufficiently fertile to permit of life being maintained to those
which are the most fertile relative to this particular degree of skill.
Supposing for the moment that the degree of skill remains everywhere
similar, it follows, from what has been said earlier, that population
will be most dense and the return per head highest where the fertility
is greatest. Other things being equal, differences in fertility are thus
responsible for important differences in social life.
From these differences in fertility therefore consequences of the
greatest importance follow. In the first place, where population is most
dense, there, other things being equal, will be the greatest amount of
contact between men. With the results that flow from contact we shall
deal later, but it may be mentioned here that contact is in itself a
stimulus leading to the origin of, additions to, and modifications of,
tradition, and that the greater the amount of contact the more quickly
and the more thoroughly is tradition transmitted. Therefore, in the
first place, where the fertility is greatest, there will be the greatest
opportunity for existing tradition to be quickly absorbed. In the second
place, quite apart from the question of contact, where fertility is
greatest there is also for other reasons the greatest stimulus to
increase in skill. To illustrate this point let us remember in what
fertility consists. The existence of areas of greater fertility implies
that there are in such areas either a greater abundance of animals,
plants, minerals, and so on which can be of use, or a greater variety,
or both together. Let us further remember how inventions come about. For
thousands of years in a variety of ways the fact that the seed if sown
would produce its like in twenty-, fifty-, or a hundred-fold measure
must have been pressing itself upon the attention of man when supporting
himself by hunting and fishing only. How often the metal softened in the
camp fire before the method of fashioning a far more effective tool than
stone was adopted, we cannot guess. Eventually the facts were observed,
the practical applications to the needs of life undertaken, and valuable
additions made to skill and embodied in tradition. Man in fact
throughout the greater part of his history has not gone about
consciously trying to better his lot. Rude and poor as life was, his
necessity was not the mother of his inventions. Once, however, an
invention was made it became a necessity, and it is more in accordance
with the facts to invert the proverb and to regard invention as the
mother of necessity. But where should we expect the facts to be noticed
and the improvements to be made in skill? Obviously where they most
often happened, where, in other words, fertility was greatest. For it is
in those regions where there is the greatest abundance in quality and
quantity of useful objects that there will be the greatest chance of
their usefulness being observed, and that there will be derived the
highest return per head from any improvements in skill.
The greater the fertility, therefore, the greater the incentive to
progress in skill. This conclusion may seem to be in contradiction with
the commonly accepted idea that, when a living is easily obtained, there
is a tendency to stagnation.[1662] This notion is derived from
observations and descriptions of countries where, so it is said, such is
the bounty of nature that the hand has, so to speak, only to be
stretched out in order to gather in the fruits of the earth. This idea
is largely founded upon an under-estimate of the labour undergone,
especially on the part of the women, and upon an exaggeration of the
returns per head, and, as far as it is so derived, it is incorrect. But
it is true that often in such regions there is a tendency to stagnation;
such tendency, however, is in no way derived from the fertility; it
arises because to the tradition there is added for quite other reasons a
spirit of apathy and of listlessness. How this comes about may be
discussed later but it may be mentioned here that a destructive element
in the natural endowment of any area, such as not infrequently exists in
tropical regions, is one cause of the existence of this spirit.
4. Fertility then is relative, but, other things being equal, where
fertility is greatest there we find the greatest incentive to increase
in skill. From this follow certain important consequences. So long as
progress in skill keeps along any one line, so long as it takes the
form, for instance, of improvement in methods of hunting, so long, as a
general rule, will the same areas remain the more fertile areas. But
this does not always follow. It may be that some remarkable invention,
that of the bow and arrow perhaps, renders areas, previously not the
most fertile, the most remunerative. Hitherto it may have been that in
such areas the hunting of game was for various reasons difficult until a
higher degree of skill was reached, but this higher degree having been
reached, these areas became more remunerative than those previously the
most fertile. With the progress of skill there is thus a shifting of the
centres of the highest fertility.
This shifting of centres becomes more marked where progress takes a
different turn, where, for instance, agriculture arises. For this there
are two main reasons. First, it generally happens that an area which is
very fertile to a high degree of development of one kind of skill, as
the north-west coast of America is fertile to hunting and fishing, is
relatively infertile to another type of skill, as, for instance,
agriculture, in any case in its lower forms. It is rare that any area is
so highly endowed that at one and the same time it offers a large return
to the development of a particular form of skill and is also relatively
fertile to the first beginnings of another and ultimately far more
remunerative type of skill. Secondly, it is not as a rule where skill is
specialized that we find the beginnings of a new form of skill.
Tradition tends to move in grooves and where attention is with success
concentrated upon one type of skilled process, it is not there that we
should expect to find the origin of quite another type of skilled
process. This is only an application of a principle noted in another
connexion, namely that evolution proceeds from the generalized and not
from the specialized type.
In this manner the differences in natural endowment which distinguish
one part of the world from another bring about a shifting of the centres
of progress. There are other factors still to be considered which work
in the same direction; but apart from them this shifting comes about.
Though this shifting has been a feature of every stage of human history,
it must have been most noticeable where the great steps in skill were
made—when agriculture superseded hunting, when animals were first
domesticated, and when metals came into use.
5. To differences in fertility we have to add differences in contact as
affecting progress in skill. Contact may be considered as varying in
quality and quantity and may be thought of as influenced chiefly by two
groups of factors which we may call geographical and economic. We may
first ask how it is that differences in contact bring about differences
in skill.
From contact two results follow. The spread of tradition is in varying
degrees encouraged and progress in tradition is more or less stimulated.
For the most part differences in the spreading of tradition are to be
traced to differences in the quantity of contact, though differences in
quality also play a considerable part, while differences in the manner
in which progress is stimulated arise chiefly from differences in the
quality of contact.
It is obvious that tradition can only be transmitted by means of
contact. Later developments such as writing and printing allow of
contact at a distance; but for the most part it is personal contact with
which we are concerned. It is on the whole true that, other things being
equal, the more contact, the more swiftly and easily is the existing
mass of tradition disseminated throughout any society, and that
therefore the more fertile an area, the greater the chance of the
spreading of tradition. But other things are by no means equal
throughout history. At a certain stage, owing to the working of what we
may sum up as economic factors, there comes about a profound change in
the organization of society, the nature of which is described below.
This change markedly favours the transmission of tradition and therefore
we have to remember that the amount of contact ascertained by the
density of population is by no means a fair measure of the degree in
which the passing on of tradition is facilitated. Further consideration
of this point may be left until we come to deal with the changes
referred to. Geographical factors also have a bearing upon the
transmission of tradition, but since their influence is chiefly
pronounced in the stimulus to skill arising from the conflict of
traditions of different quality we may leave them to be dealt with later
as a whole.
Of more importance than the bearing of contact upon the transmission of
tradition is the part it plays as a stimulus to tradition. The
remarkable change which at a certain period supervenes in the
organization of society and to which reference has been made above, has
as far-reaching effects in affecting stimulus to skill as it has in
facilitating the transmission of tradition. Again we may leave the
consideration of this point until we have described the nature of this
change. It is clear, however, that the presence of other men is on the
whole a stimulus, though not in itself an important stimulus, so long as
tradition is fairly uniform. Nevertheless the more contact there is, on
the whole the more stimulus there is. ‘There be thoughts’, wrote
Maitland, ‘which only come to men when they be tightly packed.’[1663]
But it is when traditions of different quality come into contact that
the stimulus becomes important. Where this happens, we have to
distinguish two things. There is the passing over of the elements
peculiar to each tradition to the other tradition and there is the
stimulus which the mere contact affords.
The passing over of elements of one tradition to another and the
stimulus afforded go more or less together. Under certain circumstances
there is no passing over and there is no stimulus, or at least they are
reduced to a minimum. This sometimes happens when two cultures varying
very markedly one from the other come into contact—one being
distinguished by the possession of a far higher degree of skill than the
other. The less skilled race is driven from its territory, and if it
survives it is because certain areas of its territory are relatively
infertile to the higher skill of the conquering race. A remnant of the
less skilled race survives in some corner of its former territory and
reaches a _modus vivendi_ with the dominant race. This _modus vivendi_
may take the form of an almost complete disregard of one race for the
other; no influence is exerted by one on the other; little, if anything,
is absorbed from the other tradition. Some such condition was reached as
between the Veddahs, the Todas, the Central African pygmies, and the
races respectively surrounding them.
In order that the contact should be effective it is necessary that the
differences between the cultures should not be too great. It is most
effective in such a region as Western Asia where in close proximity
there are several areas varying markedly one from another. In such a
region there will grow up, owing to the variations in fertility,
somewhat different traditions. These traditions coming into contact will
rarely wholly overwhelm one another; there will be a perpetual taking
over by one tradition of some elements from the other so that each
tradition will be enriched as it could not have been enriched had it
depended entirely upon the environment which gave birth to it. Further,
the fact that implements, skilled processes, customs, and institutions
of a strange nature are now and again coming under the notice of each
race acts as a stimulus to thought and invention quite apart from the
advantage that may be gained by the absorption of what is valuable into
its tradition. It is probable that in this stimulus to thought we have
to recognize one of the most important factors making towards progress.
There is no space to pursue this subject here. It may perhaps be noticed
that, when two cultures come into contact, all the elements do not
spread with equal rapidity. It has been observed, for instance, that,
when a tradition comprising greater skill comes into contact with a less
full tradition, ‘it is the recognition of the superiority of the natural
objects and arts which prevails and makes possible the acceptance of
other elements of an introduced culture.’[1664] Certain general
principles can be made out but there is much that requires elucidation.
There is a considerable body of evidence in favour of the view that
megalithic buildings have been derived from one centre. If this is so,
it is a remarkable example of the fact that an art of an obviously
impressive though not useful nature can pass from one race to another
without any noticeable assimilation of other elements of the culture
where the art was first practised. Again, if this is so, it is not
improbable that useful arts which in their way are equally impressive
may have similarly proceeded from one centre. It is remarkable also that
mythology can apparently spread from one culture to another. To whatever
source we may attribute their origin there seems little doubt that in
North America, for instance, tales and legends have spread from one side
of the continent to the other after very different economic systems had
been evolved and without any marked spreading of other elements in the
traditions at the same time.[1665]
6. Having thus indicated the manner in which contact influences the
origin, growth, and transmission of tradition we may turn to consider
what bearing geographical and economic factors have upon contact. The
former problem may be passed over with a few words; the latter will
require a rather longer discussion. The former has been the subject of
much attention and the main facts, which are all that concern us, are
familiar; the latter has not received so much attention though it is of
great importance.
Not only the spread of elements of culture but also the movement of
peoples are governed by geographical factors. An isolated area is
isolated from the slow permeation of elements of tradition, as well as
from migratory races. To the degree, therefore, to which any area is
isolated, it is removed both from those influences which favour the
passing on of elements of tradition as well as those which form an
incentive to skill. Isolation is never complete. The more isolated an
area is, the less often have migratory races reached it, with the result
that when they have done so, there has usually been a conflict between a
culture so dissimilar in skill that the migratory race has often wiped
out the original race. Apart from the visits of migratory races the
beneficial results of contact are reduced to a minimum within an
isolated area. The differences in traditions are small, and both the
elements of culture which can be acquired and the stimulus which can be
derived from contact are of little importance. What these geographical
features are is fairly well known.
The first factor is isolation by sea. America was apparently peopled
some time in the first period. Subsequently to the date of its original
peopling it may be regarded as having been for all practical purposes
isolated from the other continents and thus its inhabitants had been
long cut off from contact with the rest of the human race when it was
‘discovered’ by Columbus. America was probably visited, perhaps more
than once, by parties reaching the Pacific Coast and was certainly
visited by the Norsemen, but this small amount of contact has exerted no
influence upon the evolution of skill. America is the most remarkable
instance of isolation by sea. Isolation by sea has exerted a profound
influence upon Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania; and important also
has been the semi-isolation of Africa, which continent, until great
progress had been made in navigation, was only in contact with Asia by a
narrow neck. Among primitive races deserts and mountains hinder contact
in almost equal degree, and, though in one sense not geographical
features, forests and vegetation, especially in tropical countries,
exert a profound influence upon contact.
Other features in the environment may be regarded rather as facilitating
contact. Rivers form great arteries of communication, and it is
remarkable how small a hindrance they are to contact. Thus ‘Christopher
Gist, exploring the Ohio in 1751, found a Shawnee village situated on
both sides of the river below the mouth of the Scioto, with about a
hundred houses on the north bank and forty on the south. The small and
unique nation of the Mandan Indians were found by Lewis and Clarke near
the northern bend of the Missouri in 1864 in two groups of villages on
opposite sides of the river. They had previously in 1772 occupied nine
villages lower down the stream, two on the east bank and seven on the
west.’[1666] Fresh-water lakes, though not salt lakes, have again been
centres in which contact has been favoured, as was the case in
Switzerland at one period and also in Mexico and Peru where the highest
level of progress was reached in America.
In considering any area there are certain general features of importance
quite apart from those which actually hinder or facilitate contact. In
the case of any area there is what we may call its location, that is to
say, its position relative to its surroundings. The position of any area
in Africa with regard to its distance from the north-eastern corner,
through which contact with inhabitants of other continents came about,
is obviously of great importance, and similarly is the distance of any
one area from the sea when navigation has been developed. To location we
may add diversity of features which brings about the contact between
different economic systems. This feature of diversity is chiefly
relevant when considering large areas; and in this respect Europe and
Asia are far more favoured than America.
Lastly, differences in language are a potent influence in hindering
contact though they are rather evidences than causes of isolation. When
once established differences in language intensify the isolation due to
other causes. It may be observed in passing that, contrary to what might
be expected, the degree to which among primitive races ‘foreign’
languages are understood is considerable.
Though in the first two periods the importance of the various factors in
hindering and facilitating contact has varied greatly, it is sufficient,
when taking a broad view, to bear the general nature of these influences
in mind. The tendency in the third period has been obviously to reduce
vastly the importance of all hindrances to contact arising from features
of the environment. Railways cross deserts and tunnels pierce mountains,
and that amount of contact, small though it may be, which owing to the
inventions of writing and printing now occurs between all parts of the
world, can transmit more tradition than wide avenues of contact between
neighbouring peoples previously made possible.
Here we can leave this matter. It has been worked out in much detail.
All that is necessary for our purpose is to bear in mind the fact, which
indeed is obvious, that contact is in various ways hindered and
facilitated by geographical causes.
7. We have now to consider what is less familiar—the bearing of what we
may call economic factors upon contact. These factors are themselves but
an expression of the working of the economic system, and the economic
system is correlated with fertility though modified by the degree and
kind of contact allowed by the geographical environment. Therefore in
considering the working of these economic factors, we are in fact
considering another aspect of the manner in which the environment bears
thus indirectly upon contact.
Progress in skill, as we have said, is correlated with increasing
density of population, and, other things being equal, the greater the
density of population, the more contact there is. But other things are
not equal; the chief disturbing factors are those connected with the
organization of society in their influence both upon the quality and
quantity of contact. The vast importance of the step which led to the
origin of primitive society has already been remarked upon. When we
observe primitive society in more detail, it is seen that, compared with
the type of organization which arose in the third period, this form of
society essentially consists of a repetition of similar elements.[1667]
A perfect type of this form of society would be one which consisted
merely of a collection of families, not differing essentially one from
another, each being a microcosm of the whole society. Actually we find
that primitive society is usually composed of the repetition of larger
elements than the family, which Durkheim calls ‘clans’. This term is
employed in order to mark the family and political features which
characterize these elements. The variations of the constitution of
primitive society are very numerous, but it has essentially this form
which Durkheim calls ‘segmentary’. The solidarity of such a society
rests solely upon the similarity between these clans; the binding
forces, that is to say, which keep the society together, do not take
their origin in the fact that these elements are complementary to each
other and in combination form one organic whole; such coherence as there
is arises solely from the fact that these elements, in so far as they
are similar, coalesce together. Typically, then, we find in this stage
of organization families living side by side very largely independent
one of another but combining to form clans. These clans have as a rule
no definite constitution; but at times, owing to internal dissensions or
warfare, a leader or leaders may arise who put themselves at the head of
these groups.
As has been said, variations in and developments of this type of
organization may arise and, though among primitive races some approach
to the higher type can be detected, the evolution of the higher type of
organization is essentially a development which took place in the third
period. This type of organization we call organic, as distinguished from
segmentary, because in the first place the elements which go to form the
whole do not simply cohere owing to their similarity; they are in the
nature of more or less specialized organs all of which are necessary in
order that the whole may exist. Each again has a particular rôle and
each organ is formed of differentiated parts. These organs are not
simply connected one with another like links in a chain; they are
co-ordinated one with another and subordinated one to another into an
organic system. The parts are dependent on the whole and the whole on
the parts.
In an organic society, in fact, men are grouped according to their
profession and not according to their descent. One of the marks of the
segmentary type of society is that men are grouped according to their
descent, real or fictitious, and it is this relationship which
determines their position in society. In the organic type of society,
that which determines a man’s position is the function which he fulfils.
In this form of society there are remnants of the older form of
organization, as is seen in the recognition of areas, smaller elements
such as parishes being united into larger areas such as boroughs, which
are united in turn into provinces of which the country is composed.
This, however, is not the form of organization which keeps the higher
type of society together. That which forms its essential difference from
the lower type is the organic nature of the relation of the parts—the
complementary co-ordination of the various professions one with the
other. It is this interlocking of complementary parts and not the
coherence of similar segments which cement the form of society typical
of the third stage.
8. The evolution from the segmentary to the organic form of social
organization was relatively speaking a rapid process. The approach that
can be made to the organic type within the segmentary type is only
slight. Doubtless the new type developed within the old forms. Thus we
see among the Hebrews the assumption of priestly functions by a single
tribe—that of the Levites. But the development of the organic type
cannot go far without breaking up the segmentary form of organization;
the number and importance of functions does not correspond with the
existing forms of organization and cannot long develop within them.
We have now to ask what brings about the evolution of the organic type
of society and then what bearing these forms of organization have upon
the growth and transmission of tradition. It is rather that the
crumbling away of this segmentary organization of society brings to
birth the organic type than that the growth of the latter is the cause
of the disappearance of the former. This must be so because, as we have
seen, the existence of the segmentary type is a barrier to the
development of the organic type. This crumbling away is brought about by
what Durkheim calls the growth of moral density. Growth in moral density
comes about through the pressure of the increasing contact between men
performing the same functions, and this causes the decay of the
segmentary type of organization and brings about an organization resting
upon function. The effect acts upon the cause and accelerates the
process. The growth in moral density is connected with the growth in
volume of society which is measured solely by the increase in
population. But growth in moral density, though only made possible by
growth in volume, does not of necessity go hand in hand with it. Growth
of moral coalescence is not correlated absolutely with the increase in
volume. The density of population can become very considerable, while
the moral density remains relatively undeveloped. This result is
sometimes attributable to the survival of certain elements of segmentary
organization to which religious feelings have become attached and which
have, therefore, resisted the forces which make for their dissolution.
This is the case, for example, with regard to the maintenance of the
family system in China, which is the great barrier to a development of
moral coalescence. The most powerful motive in Chinese life is the
devotion to the family system, and this motive prevents the progress of
division of labour. Among the Hindus the caste system has the same
effect. But it is not merely a survival from a former segmentary
organization to which religious motives have become attached; it has
actually undergone a development for the most part in opposition to the
organic organization of society. ‘The divisions’, says Sherring, ‘among
the Hindus involving complete separation in respect of marriage and
social intercourse, number not hundreds but thousands. In other words
the Hindu brotherhood is split up into innumerable clans, holding not
the smallest connexion with one another, acknowledging no common bond
save that of idolatry.... Caste dissolves the social compact found in
other countries, infuses the poison of deadly strife into the small
village communities scattered in tens of thousands over the land,
induces enmity between neighbours on the most trivial grounds, carries
out its own childish rites and laws with Draconian severity, exercises
the strongest power of disintegration the human race has ever been
subject to, and only displays a spirit of binding and uniting in
relation to those selfish creatures who belong to one and the same
caste, and who are thereby kept apart from all the rest of mankind by an
unnatural divorce.’[1668]
Thus primarily it is the breaking down of the segmentary type of
organization and the condensation of society which permits the division
of labour. In the end the advance to the higher type of organization is
attributable to the growth of population. It is first necessary that a
relatively high degree of skill should be attained involving a certain
density of population. Then there arises a tendency for the segmentary
organization to break down and give way to the organic type. The
breaking down may be more or less imperfect and there may be factors
which work against the full development of the organic type.
9. The degree to which the higher type of organization favours the
increase of skill cannot be overestimated. So long as all men are more
or less self-supporting and perform all the functions necessary to
maintain existence, the securing of food, the building of shelters, the
fashioning of weapons, the making of clothes, their skill in any one
direction must remain small. But as soon as certain men begin to
concentrate upon certain functions the whole position changes. It then
becomes possible for skill to reach a far higher level, and with the
further division of functions there is practically no limit to the
degree of skill which may be obtained. A concentration upon one function
and the association of men so employed are themselves powerful stimuli
to further progress. The facts are familiar and there is no need to
elaborate the position. At length classification by function tends to
override classification by any other standard, and all those engaged in
any country in any one function become associated in such a manner that
the stimulus is further emphasized and the possibility of any favourable
new departure being lost is reduced to a minimum.
The importance of the organic type of organization in favouring the
transmission and storing of tradition is equally well marked when
compared with the segmentary type. The more society is divided into
self-contained and self-sufficient segments, the less likelihood is
there that any development in one segment will spread to the other
segments. All events tend to be localized, and any promising departure
in a new direction is unlikely to penetrate far and become embodied in
tradition. New departures are more likely to be lost altogether than to
be preserved. The more society is organized on the organic type, on the
other hand, the more facilities there are for the transmission and
storing of tradition. As the segmentary system breaks down, the
transmission and storing of tradition themselves become special
functions. Various means of communication are elaborated, the spreading
of news becomes a function in itself, teaching becomes a profession, and
libraries are established.
10. Such very briefly are the nature, causes, and results of the change
in the organization of society so far as concerns our present purpose.
There are certain points in this connexion to which some allusion may be
made. We have already commented on the fact that the transformation to
the higher type does not go hand in hand with growth in numbers. The two
examples from India and China showed how little correspondence there may
be between density of population and division of labour. Again, in
modern communities there is an apparent anomaly. There are considerable
differences as regards the amount and kind of tradition present in the
different strata of society, and this may appear all the more anomalous
because in such societies the division of labour has been developed to
the greatest extent. Tradition, it would seem, should be very uniform.
Uniformity of tradition, on the other hand, is a mark of primitive
society. But this anomaly is only apparent. Among primitive races there
is infinitely less tradition than among civilized races. Among the
latter not only is the amount of tradition vast, but it is in the course
of rapid evolution, and there is therefore in the first place a far
greater possibility for differences in tradition to arise. Further, the
very fact of the division of labour means that different forms of skill
are cultivated deliberately by different elements of the community.
Thence arise the differences in social customs and conventions which are
apparent in the different strata of modern society. Where there is
division of labour, there must be, as we have seen, differences in the
acquirement of the tradition of skill, and we may think of the
differences in the social and conventional tradition as originating in
the differences in functions. Where there is ownership of property on a
large scale, ownership may be regarded as a function in society, and
clearly enough certain customs and conventions become connected with
this function and distinguish the so-called upper classes. Differences
in social tradition so arising do lead to some approach to a segmentary
division of society. Once classes are set up, there is a tendency for a
man to take his position rather according to his class than according to
his function. Actually what happens is that the upper classes adopt
certain functions, the sacerdotal or the military for example, and thus
the differences in custom and convention become somewhat artificially
perpetuated, perpetuated that is to say over and above the distinctions
which would be the inevitable accompaniment of different functions. In
this fashion class becomes of considerable importance in modern
communities as a barrier to the transmission of tradition, and there is
thus less coalescence between those performing different functions than
the mere division of labour brings about.
Interesting as are these modifications of the working of what we have
called economic factors, they do not seriously affect the conclusions to
be drawn in a broad survey. The transformation to the organic type of
society is a mark of the third period, and therefore within this period
the conditions became such as to stimulate the growth of skill and to
facilitate the transmission and storing of skill in a manner never
before approached.
11. Given, therefore, differences in fertility and in the geographical
configuration as between one part of the world’s surface and another,
and given migration, we can understand how skill arises, how it is
transmitted, and how it is stored. The factors considered are not the
only factors, but they are the chief factors, and a consideration of
them alone enables us to understand how in the main progress may be
achieved—how, that is to say, to some degree command over nature may be
attained. Further, in thus tracing the causes of progress in this narrow
sense we are tracing in some manner the origin and growth of other
elements in tradition, not directly concerned with command over nature.
This can be illustrated by a reference to the results obtained by
Messrs. Hobhouse, Wheeler, and Ginsberg. As we have seen, progress in
skill falls easily into a series of stages—hunting and fishing,
agricultural and metal-using. These authors further subdivided hunting
people into two stages, agricultural peoples into three, and pastoral
into two. They then investigated the correlation between these stages
and the conditions relative to justice, the family, warfare, and so on.
It was found that in the points indicative of the degree of social
organization there is a certain correspondence with economic advance.
‘This correspondence’, they say they have found, ‘in the development of
government and of justice alike, in the fact that as we mount the scale
there is more of government and more of the public administration of
justice within society, and in the fact that the unit for government and
for justice extends. Both intensively and extensively there is a growth
of order corresponding roughly to the industrial advance. On the other
hand economic development has no necessary connexion with improvement in
the relation between members of a society. It does not imply greater
considerateness or a keener sense of justice, and in some ways may be
held even adverse to them. Thus in relation to marriage and the position
of women, we find little change throughout the grades, and of those
which we do find the most marked are specifically connected with the
economic factor, viz. the extension of purchase and of general
polygamy.... Economic causes are again associated with the development
of organized warfare and the substitution of the enslavement of
prisoners for their slaughter, liberation, or adoption.’[1669]
In other words social institutions are correlated to a considerable
extent with economic systems, and in tracing economic systems to
differences in the ‘wealth’ of the environment and to differences in
contact, we are at the same time accounting to the extent of this
correlation for the existence of most social institutions. Those aspects
of tradition which are not correlated with the economic system are
obviously often explicable as due to the direct influence of the
environment; for differences in the environment which have little or no
bearing on the economic system may give rise to differences in these
aspects of tradition. It has often been pointed out, for example, that
the trend of legends is explicable as due to certain aspects of the
environment; thus in Assyria legends were largely connected with floods.
In large part, therefore, differences in fertility and differences in
degree and kind of contact account not merely for progress in skill but
also in large measure for many social institutions, and those aspects of
social institutions which are not so to be explained are in part due to
the influence of aspects of the environment which do not contribute
directly to fertility, and in part to a complicated interaction of
tradition. It was remarked that, so far as can be seen, the more
conscious methods of adjusting the level of population to the optimum
number are not correlated with the economic system. There is no evidence
of infanticide and abortion, for example, being so correlated. The
occurrence of these institutions among certain races irrespective of the
economic conditions may be accounted for by differences in the
environment which do not affect wealth. We have seen that certain
methods must of necessity be employed, and the adoption of one method in
one place and of another in some other place may be due, for example, to
the presence in one area of plants by the use of which abortion can be
brought about, or the presence in another area of an instrument designed
for some other purpose which can be employed for this object. In other
areas the practice of killing deformed children from superstitious
motives may have been developed into a regular custom of infanticide, or
the taboo upon intercourse for short periods may have become developed
into a practice of abstaining for prolonged periods.
XXI
THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF TRADITION AND HEREDITY
1. We are now in a position to attempt an estimate of the relative
importance of germinal change on the one hand and of the accumulation of
tradition on the other.[1670] The direct influence of the environment
cannot be left altogether out of account; it is, however, already
apparent from what has been said on the subject that, although the
direct influence of the environment may modify the course of history, it
is not an important factor in comparison with the other two. That which
renders the problem so difficult is the fact that the manifestations of
human characteristics are shaped both by traditional changes and by
germinal changes, and that each kind of change reacts on the other. Thus
if we observe increasing subservience in the characteristics of a race,
we must remember that previous elimination of the more self-assertive
may manifest itself in this manner by moulding tradition through a long
course of years, that the nature of the environment may set the current
of tradition flowing in this direction, or that both factors may be at
work; and that, so far as the second factor is at work, it may for
reasons to be explained below cause the elimination of the more
self-assertive and so accelerate the process. It is in fact very
difficult to arrive at any precise conclusions regarding particular
problems, but we shall, after considering certain problems, reach a
fairly definite conclusion regarding the relative importance of these
factors in general.
2. With these problems in view we may first consider the general
characteristics of the intermediate period and then those of the three
subsequent periods.
It is clear that at the beginning of the intermediate period the
ancestors of man were living under those conditions which we have seen
to be common to all species in a state of nature and that, therefore, if
we are to speak of history at all, history was at this time an
expression of germinal change alone. We know nothing directly as to what
happened within this period, but from such hints as we can get we must
apparently make certain deductions. We know that within this long
period—many times as long as the whole period which has succeeded
it—there was accomplished by far the greater part of the evolution of
the human intellect. This is the conclusion we draw from the fact that
the intellect of primitive races, which must be taken as representing
man in the first period, differs in a small degree from that of modern
man relative to the difference which we must suppose to have existed
between the intellect of man in the first period and that of the
pre-human ancestor. Again the picture we must draw of our ancestors in
the intermediate period is that of a species acquiring domination almost
solely by its intellect. Further we have seen that the advance to the
stage of primitive society was only made possible by an important step
in mental evolution—so important a step that none of our ancestors who
did not take it have survived. The deduction to be drawn is clearly that
in the intermediate period history was founded in the main on germinal
change. If we find reason to conclude that germinal change has ceased to
play so important a part in the following periods, it should be
remembered that the sum of all these latter periods represents but a
fraction of the length of the intermediate period. If we regard human
history as a whole and date the beginning at the time when our ancestors
began to move away from those conditions which govern the existence of
all species in a state of nature, then we must conclude that germinal
change has been the explanation of what has happened during far the
greater part of history as defined above.
3. The course of history from the beginning of the first period to the
present day presents certain remarkable features. It has to be
remembered that the course of events in the first and second periods has
been reconstructed from evidence gathered almost solely in Europe, and
even then in large part from one country, namely, France. Europe was not
the centre of progress, and it may be that the abrupt replacement of one
stage of culture by another, of which we find evidence, would not be
what we should find nearer the centre of progress. There the evolution
of culture may have been more continuous. From time to time waves of
migration swept westwards and a higher stage of culture overwhelmed the
lower. It may be that the culture systems on reaching Europe followed
lines of development of their own which, owing to circumstances being
relatively less favourable, did not carry them so far as nearer their
point of origin. Therefore the next wave as a rule brought a higher
degree of skill which replaced the then existing European system.
However this may be, what we do undoubtedly find is a relatively slow
rate of progress in the early part of the first period. Progress became
more rapid in the Upper Palaeolithic and in the Neolithic. Finally at
the opening of the third period progress was vastly accelerated and has
gone on with ever-increasing rapidity subject to certain checks at
various times and places. This speeding up of the evolution of skill is
the chief outstanding characteristic of history since the opening of the
first period, and with it we may associate the facts that progress has
not been uniform as between different countries, and has been subject to
set-backs within countries especially within the third period. Recalling
what was said in the last chapter as to the influence of fertility and
contact upon the growth of tradition, we may now note that the main
outline at least of these outstanding events is apparently explicable as
the result of the working of these factors. We may begin with a
consideration of the facts regarding America.
America was apparently peopled from Asia at an early date.[1671] Putting
aside the Eskimos, it is probable that the invaders possessed a simple
and fairly uniform type of culture and that the cultural differences
found at the time of the discovery as between races in different parts
of the continent were indigenous. In other words America is a country in
which a section of the human race was early cut off from contact with
the remainder—such contact as occurred with the Norsemen and may have
occurred with the Pacific Islanders having been without importance. For
many thousands of years cultural evolution had proceeded independently
in this isolated area. At the time of the discovery it had in Mexico and
Peru reached a fairly high level. A form of writing had even been
evolved, and in general the level of culture was such as we may compare
with that attained shortly before the opening of the third period in
Eur-Asia. It is possible that at this time the evolution of culture was
on the verge of making a great step forward similar to that made in
Eur-Asia in the third period. But in any case progress in America had
fallen behind progress in Eur-Asia by some thousands of years, and it is
thus interesting to compare the endowment of America with that of
Eur-Asia.
It may first be noticed that the area is a large one and that it is
diversified in that it contains within it many types of geographical and
climatic environment. Nevertheless the shape of the area as a whole, and
more especially perhaps the absence of relatively fertile areas in
proximity differing sharply from one another such as we find in
Eur-Asia, renders it less favourably disposed to facilitate contact than
are parts of Eur-Asia. In this connexion it may be observed that the
Isthmus of Panama is a barrier rather than a means of communication.
Apparently the civilizations of Mexico and Peru had no knowledge one of
the other.
The differences in respect of fertility are more remarkable. Generally
speaking America is not notably less fertile than Eur-Asia, relative to
skill in hunting and fishing. The north-west coast of North America is
possibly more fertile relative to this type of skill than is any other
area in the world. But when we come to examine the endowment of America
as a whole relative to skill in the lower forms of agriculture and in
the domestication of animals, we find that America is poorly endowed
compared with Eur-Asia. Maize and rice are the only important indigenous
cereals. All the other valuable cereals were absent from America. This
is a very important fact because cereal culture is in many ways a far
more profitable art than either root-culture or arboriculture. But
America is poor not only in cereals; many plants which play so important
a part elsewhere in primitive agriculture are absent—the plantain, yam,
banana, breadfruit, and date-palm, for instance. Among the important
plants we may note the potato, coco-nut palm, manioc, arrowroot, and the
cocoa plant. Brazilian arrowroot is, it may be observed, very easily
propagated. ‘Even if the plant is left in the ground when the root has
been taken, new tubers grow from its joints after the first shower of
rain.’[1672] Some such plant as this in America or as the yam elsewhere
must have presumably been that first cultivated.
The poverty of America in animals fit for domestication is even more
remarkable. If we except the reindeer, milch animals were entirely
absent—a fact of great significance. The Indians had made the fullest
possible use of such animals as there were. ‘Setting aside the reindeer,
an unprofitable animal on any soil which produces any better crop than
moss, the Indians had domesticated every animal in the continent which
was capable of domestication.’[1673] Among them was the llama, an animal
of restricted usefulness, as it cannot be used for draught and cannot be
milked. The fact that there are several varieties of llama would seem to
point to the fact that it had been brought under domestication many
centuries before the discovery of America. Turkeys, dogs, pheasants,
ducks, and geese were also domesticated as well as a few other animals
of little importance.
When compared with Western Asia, America is seen to be poorly endowed in
animals fit for domestication and plants suitable for agriculture. But
it must be remembered that Western Asia is far richer than any other
area. America is not poor compared with Africa or Australia. We may now
glance at the endowment of these other regions beginning with Asia.
4. It is often a matter of the greatest difficulty to trace the original
habitat of the species of animals and plants which after many centuries
of domestication have given rise to the varieties now in use; in some
cases it is impossible; the camel, for instance, has never been found
wild.[1674] In some cases the evidence is vague and merely points to the
original home as having been within some large and not very clearly
defined region. Nevertheless an inquiry into the original habitat of the
more important domesticated animals and plants leads to a very
remarkable conclusion. We find that with few exceptions Western Asia was
the home of the great majority of such species. The chief exceptions
among animals are the elephant, buffalo, reindeer, and llama. The llama
originated in South America, the reindeer is found in the circum-Polar
regions, the elephant and buffalo are Indian. It is probable that the
original home of the camel was somewhere in this Asiatic region, and, if
this is so, then all milch animals, with the exception of the reindeer,
whether belonging to the ovine, equine, bovine, or camel group, had
their original home in the Asiatic region—a very important fact when the
large part played by milch animals is borne in mind. It should be
perhaps mentioned that certain species had a wide range and extended
beyond this Asiatic region vaguely defined though it is. The wild
ancestors of the ox and the pig were indigenous in Europe as well as in
Asia.[1675] The richness of the Asiatic endowment as regards plants is
no less remarkable. Practically all cereals of importance with the
exception of maize and one or two others originated there. Wheat,
barley, oats, rye, millet, and others of much importance at a certain
stage of progress in skill are indigenous in that region.
5. Turning to Africa we find that the large majority of domesticated
animals and of cultivated plants are not indigenous; when not introduced
by Arabs or Europeans, they were derived from Egypt and into Egypt they
had probably been brought from Asia. Of those animals now domesticated
cattle, goats, sheep, and fowls were derived from Egypt, the dog from
Arabia, the cat was brought by the Arabs, while pigs, muscovy ducks,
turkeys, and pigeons were introduced by the Portuguese. Sorghum grain,
millet, eleusine, colocasia (arum), yam, and the banana were introduced
from Egypt; the sugar-cane, rice, wheat, oranges, limes, cucumbers,
melons, gourds, onions, and hemp were introduced by the Arabs, while the
coco-nut palm came from Asia and the date-palm from the Mediterranean
basin. ‘The only doubtful exceptions are ground-nuts ... which may be
indigenous, and certain semi-cultivated beans.’[1676] It may be observed
that, although Africa is poor as regards animals and plants fit for
domestication, the negro never domesticated with one or two exceptions
such species as were capable of domestication. Thus the guinea-fowl and
the coffee plant, both indigenous, were not domesticated by the negroes.
6. Of the natural endowment of other regions it is not necessary to
speak. The absence of all mammals, with the exception of marsupials,
from Australia is well known, and the handicap resulting therefrom is
obvious. There are, however, certain broad facts with regard to
fertility and geographical configuration to which attention may be drawn
here. With respect to the fertility of tropical regions in general there
are two facts of importance. For the most part cereals are absent, and
it is chiefly trees and roots among indigenous plants which lend
themselves to domestication. Arboriculture and root-culture, however, do
not in many respects give as good a return as does the culture of
cereals. Further, fruits and roots cannot be stored as a rule; their
food value is not high, and in many ways the problems presented by the
cultivation of roots and trees do not afford anything like the same
stimulus to skill or require anything like the same advance in social
organization and in settled and regulated conditions of life as does the
cultivation of cereals. Again, in the general make-up of tropical
conditions there is frequently an element of destructiveness. The
rapidity with which in tropical Africa products of human handiwork are
destroyed is well known, and to a greater or less degree something of
the kind is a feature of all tropical regions.
7. Turning to geographical conditions in general as favouring or
hindering contact we find America isolated and, as a land mass taken by
itself, practically divided into two parts in which the conditions do
not markedly favour contact—especially contact between different
economic systems in close proximity. The remaining land masses may be
thought of as radiating out from one centre. The central area is not
only in general favourably located, but is in itself so formed as to
favour contact. The diversity of its surface, the inland seas, the
steppes, plateaux, mountain uplands, plains, and river valleys render it
in this respect richly endowed. Forests were less of a barrier to
contact in this region than elsewhere, and in this respect Western Asia
was better situated than Europe. Tropical forests and jungles form far
more serious barriers than do forests in temperate regions, and the
discovery of the use of metals is of less effect in reducing the
hindrances due to this barrier in tropical than in temperate countries.
Looking at the tracts of land which radiate out from this centre we see
how isolated is the greater part of Africa. Egypt is indeed almost a
part of the Western Asiatic region, but it is nearly cut off from the
rest of Africa by desert, being connected with the remainder of the
continent only by the valley of the Nile which in its middle regions is
almost barren while its upper reaches pass through huge tracts of marsh
and swamp. As we approach the south of Africa we come to what in
primitive times was a blind alley. So, too, in whatever direction we
pass outwards from the heart of Eur-Asia, whether we cross the sea to
Australia or travel to the eastern or western boundaries of the
Eur-Asiatic land mass, we reach regions where, on account of what we may
call their location and of other factors such as the presence of forest
or jungle or on account of the configuration of their surfaces, contact
is not favoured. We must in addition bear in mind that it is the central
region which is the most richly endowed as far as fertility is
concerned.
We may remember that there was another factor to which as a stimulus to
the formation of skill and to the transmission and storing of tradition
we found reason to attach great importance—namely, the replacement of
the segmentary by the organic type of social organization. This great
change took place in the Eur-Asiatic region and must be traced
indirectly to the characteristics of that region as a whole. For we
found that, before such a change could come about, a growth in the
volume of population was necessary, and growth in volume is directly
dependent upon fertility and all other elements in the surroundings
which favour the increase of skill.
8. There is, therefore, at the least a very remarkable correspondence
between the outstanding events of history since the opening of the first
period and the distribution in space and time of the chief factors which
influence tradition. We may set events in America up to the time of the
discovery against events in the rest of the world. We do not know with
what degree of skill the original emigrants were armed; but since,
generally speaking, the fertility of America relative to skill in
hunting and fishing is not, if at all, inferior to fertility elsewhere,
we have no reason to imagine that progress in the first period would be
less rapid than elsewhere. Again the presence, though not in great
variety, of easily cultivatable plants would facilitate much as
elsewhere the transition to the most primitive form of agriculture. But
the poverty in cereals and animals fit for domestication and the absence
of milch animals indicate an environment which, relative to conditions
in Western Asia, offers far less stimulus to progress. Further the
general configuration of the land does not favour contact as in the
latter region. Nevertheless considerable progress in cereal culture and
in the domestication of animals had been made, and in Mexico and Peru,
where the presence of lakes, the absence of formidable barriers, and the
diversity of surroundings offered by the proximity of high and low land
rendered contact most effective, there had grown up societies with a
relatively high level of skill. But America had lagged behind Eur-Asia,
and the degree to which this was so is only what would be expected if we
suppose that the innate capacity of the inhabitants of both regions was
once approximately equal and that, while some had wandered into less
favourable surroundings, others had remained in or migrated to more
favourable surroundings. It is at least clear that if we do set the
general trend of events in America against events in Eur-Asia there is
nothing incompatible with the theory that the constitution of the
environment can account in the main for the differences in the growth
and accumulation of skill.
Putting America aside, the same may be said of events elsewhere. The
rich endowment of Western Asia has been emphasized, and this region
appears to have been the centre of progress in the first period and was
most certainly so in the second and during the earlier part of the third
period. Everything leads us to suppose that at any given time up to a
comparatively recent date the level of skill was higher in this region
than elsewhere. From time to time waves of migration spread
outwards—most often apparently into Europe and less often into Africa
and Oceania—carrying with them a degree of skill so much higher than
that existing in the outlying areas that an abrupt transition to another
culture took place accompanied by varying degrees of extermination of,
and mixture with, the races situated there. If we bear in mind the
endowment of, and general conditions in, Africa and Oceania, the trend
of events in these regions is again comprehensible on the same
principles as those indicated above. It may also be observed that the
principle of the shifting of the centre of progress owing to the change
in relative fertility may be seen at work in Western Asia. At a certain
period, for instance, after a particular degree of civilization had been
reached, the great river valleys of the Nile and of the Tigris and the
Euphrates, which formerly had been relatively less fertile, became the
most fertile regions. Later the progress connected with the industrial
revolution led to another remarkable shifting of the centre of
advance—into regions, that is to say, where coal is abundant and easily
worked. This shifting of the focus of progress is often overlooked by
those who seek an explanation of the fact that the site of the earlier
civilizations has not remained the site of the later civilizations. ‘The
contrasts’, says Professor Elliot Smith, ‘in the achievements of the
various peoples cannot be explained away by lack of opportunities, in
face of the patent fact that among the most backward races of the
present day are some that first came into contact with, or were even the
founders of, civilization, and were most favourably placed for acquiring
culture and material supremacy.’[1677] The shifting of the centre of
progress is at least in part an explanation.
Within the third period there took place that remarkable change in
social organization already described which so markedly stimulated the
growth of skill and facilitated its transmission. This change had the
most profound effects on events in Europe and Asia. With it we must
associate a remarkable speeding up of the progress in skill which has
been the chief feature of the last period of human history. The
explanation of the acceleration of progress is thus ultimately based on
the endowment of different regions in respect to fertility, location,
and the facilities offered to contact. It may also be noted that the
further trend of events in Europe and Asia is made comprehensible by
this principle of the shifting of the centre of greatest fertility on
the one hand and by the imperfect realization of the organic type of
society on the other. In India and in China there have been forces
working contrary to the full development of the organic type of
organization in the shape of devotion, largely on religious grounds, to
various forms of a segmentary division of society, and this may prove to
be one of the chief reasons why in Eastern Asia we seem to be faced with
a backwater out of the main stream of progress.
Further, as tradition became more complex, small differences in the
environment often gave a favourable or unfavourable turn to the
development of skill. Thus after the invention of writing countries were
greatly favoured that possessed suitable writing materials. In China
writing, owing to the cumbersome form which it has taken, has never been
of more than a very restricted usefulness. It has been suggested that
the differences between the clarity of Greek thought and the vagueness
of Indian speculation are in part due to the greater use made of writing
in the former country.[1678]
9. Thus in general if we survey the outstanding facts we find that
explanations based on the influence of the environment in stimulating
progress in skill suggest themselves. Racial differences do exist and
play a part. We may gain some idea what this part is if we now turn to
consider the nature of these differences, and we may first pay attention
to the larger differences such as those which distinguish the negro from
the European. These differences, it must be emphasized, are only large
relative to the differences which exist between European races. Relative
to the difference between the ancestor in the intermediate stage and
modern man they are almost negligible.
Some analysis has been made of the differences between negroes and white
men and with regard to these differences we may observe two things. In
the first place they can only in part account for the differences in
performance. Before coming into contact with Europeans, negroes had not
passed beyond the stage of primitive thought; but it is evident that
they are not innately incapable of so doing. The results of educating
the negro have been to narrow the conception of the gap which separates
him from the white man. Just as D’Alembert and Diderot would not believe
that the Russians could be civilized up to the European standard, so a
later generation believed that the negroes could not be so civilized;
but ‘negroes are now indisputably the equals of white men in categories
in which one hundred years ago their masters would have confidently
argued that they were naturally incapable of attaining equality’.[1679]
Nevertheless there are differences; the negro is intellectually on the
average somewhat inferior, and certainly possesses somewhat different
emotional and temperamental characteristics.
In the second place from the end of the first period to the present day
the evolution of mental characters shows little correspondence to the
evolution of skill. Whereas progress in skill has been vastly
accelerated, progress in the evolution of mental characters has slowed
down and may within the third period have almost ceased. Selection
within this last period has, it may be remembered, come largely to be on
account of disease.
The nature, therefore, of racial differences and the trend of evolution
of mental characters tend to confirm the conclusion derived from a study
of the influence of fertility and of contact—namely, that the
outstanding events are to be traced to environmental rather than to
germinal changes. But germinal changes are not negligible. We have seen
how these circumstances which favoured progress in skill in the earlier
part of the third period also favoured mental evolution in just those
directions in which the white race is superior. Germinal changes may
thus be regarded as contributing to the progress which occurred at this
time; evolution in the direction of self-assertion and other qualities,
which characterize the white races, must have accelerated the cultural
changes already in progress. When Mr. McDougall says that ‘in so far as
differences of cultural level are associated with differences of level
of innate intellectual and moral qualities, cultural superiority must be
regarded as the effect, rather than the cause, of innate mental
superiority’,[1680] the above considerations suggest another view. It
would appear more probable that cultural changes and germinal changes
went hand in hand, and that they were both products of the same
environment; no doubt one kind of change reacted on the other, but there
seems as little reason for holding that the former were the effect of
the latter as for holding that the opposite was the case. Mr.
McDougall’s view meets with considerable difficulties when we extend our
inquiry to the events within the third period. He attributes the
cultural level of the early civilizations to previous mental evolution,
but as he thinks that there has been no appreciable evolution since that
time, the events of the last five thousand years including the continued
progress in skill must be otherwise accounted for. It is surely more
probable that this series of events beginning with the rise to the early
civilizations and continuing to the present day is in the main based
upon one determining cause. This we have found reason to identify with
the influence of fertility and contact upon the development of
tradition; to germinal change we attribute in the earlier epochs no
little influence but an influence which is contributory—supplementing
for a time the process which continued when germinal change had largely
ceased. So far as we find this conclusion to be supported by further
inquiry, so far it is correct to say that races with the innate
mentality of the negroes would not by themselves have reached the
position attained by the white races, though it is not true that the
white races progressed directly because of their superior innate mental
endowment.
10. We may now inquire into the importance of the lesser racial
differences. There are usually recognized in Europe three chief racial
types—Nordic, Mediterranean, and Alpine. If innate mental differences
exist, we should expect to find associated with each type certain
peculiar traditional features; for, as we have seen, innate racial
peculiarities tend to set the current of tradition flowing in certain
directions, and the association of different institutions and beliefs
with particular racial types would suggest that innate mental
differences are making themselves felt, though, before this conclusion
can be accepted, it must be shown that the play of environmental factors
upon tradition has been fairly uniform for all these types. A
considerable amount of evidence can be accumulated to show that such
association exists. Thus the Nordic peoples are mostly Protestant and
the Alpine and Mediterranean peoples mostly Catholic or Greek Church.
The fact that during the Reformation a choice was set before most
European nations as to what religion should be adopted—the issue hanging
in the balance for some time in many places—seems to indicate that the
conditions were more or less equalized and that the adoption of the
Protestant religion by the Nordic type was influenced by certain innate
characters attaching to this type—self-assertiveness and love of
independence, for instance.[1681] The South Germans, who are of the
Alpine race, remained Catholic, while in the Netherlands the Nordic
Dutchmen became Protestant. Similarly there is a certain correspondence
in Europe between the distribution of types of political institutions
and that of racial types, and much other relevant evidence could be
brought forward. We have seen how sharply negroes are distinguished from
Europeans in emotional disposition; similar differences, though on a
much smaller scale, are visible as between European races. It can hardly
be doubted that the Irish and the Scotch differ from the English in
disposition and—though this is more doubtful—there may be intellectual
differences. There may be some slight difference between the English and
the French intellect; it is hardly likely that the French passion for
logic and the English aversion to it are altogether traditional
characteristics. It would, therefore, appear that there are innate
mental differences between European races which tend not so much to
thrust races along certain paths as in the course of generations to
colour tradition and even at crises in national life, when a choice is
presented, to determine which path shall be taken. These differences may
be explained—though it is a somewhat speculative enterprise—by supposing
that the ancestors of the various racial types were exposed to different
surroundings—the ancestors of the Alpine race to patriarchal
institutions, of the Nordic race to more individualistic
institutions—and that thus subservient and assertive types were
respectively favoured.[1682]
The influence, however, of innate racial differences between races so
closely related as those of modern Europe must not be overrated. It is
possible to point to many examples of the fact that the distribution of
institutions, customs, and so on does not always correspond to that of
racial types. In Belgium, to take only one instance, the Walloons are of
Alpine stock, that is to say, they are racially similar to the great
majority of Germans. But the Walloons are distinctly French in character
and sympathy, whereas the Flemings—the other element in the Belgian
population—are Nordic and are in certain respects more allied to the
Germans with whom racially they have little in common. Either in such a
case innate racial differences do not exist of the kind suggested, or,
as is more probable, they exist but have been obscured by tradition.
That tradition is the predominant factor in shaping those
characteristics, of which we think when we have any nation in mind, can
be seen when we look at two examples of race formation in modern times.
Those characteristics which we find to be distinctive of the Boer race,
for instance, can be traced to the peculiar turn given by the
environment to the peculiar tradition—remarkable both in its religious
and social aspects—brought by the first settlers. The racial elements
represented among the Boers of to-day are well known—Dutch for the most
part with some admixture of French and English blood. But it is not to
this peculiar germinal constitution but to the motherhood of the South
African veldt acting upon a peculiar tradition that what is
distinctively Boer is to be attributed. So, too, there are no mental
characteristics as manifested so definite as those which are associated
with Americans. But it is impossible to think that they are the product
of the influence of the various racial stocks which have gone to make
the modern American population. Clearly enough these characteristics are
almost wholly traditional, and it can without much difficulty be shown
how the peculiar geographical, social, and political environment has
given rise to them.
Can we further understand how these distinctive accumulations of
tradition are maintained? Let us remember that a man requires not only a
home in the usual sense of a roof over his head, but what we may call a
home in the world of tradition, and that just as most men find a
dwelling-place in the country in which they are born, so most men at the
same time find a home in the world of tradition in the same country. Now
in any area, where men have for a longer or shorter time acted together,
there has been evolved a certain tradition under the influence of those
elements in the surroundings enumerated above. If another group of men
has been associated together in a very similar area, the tradition there
elaborated will show a likeness to that in the former area. But there
may be considerable differences. Small differences in the aggregate of
influences sometimes have far-reaching effects, and again what we regard
in our ignorance as ‘chance’ happenings may have, as we shall point out
later, profound consequences. Small differences and apparently
unimportant happenings give turns and twists to the direction in which
tradition is built up, and the individual differences between one
tradition and another become exaggerated by the tendency of tradition to
move in grooves. The peculiarities of a tradition become embodied in the
sum of all the institutions—using that term in the widest
sense—characteristic of a race and, as each man passes under the
influence of those traditions, so these peculiarities are maintained. As
often pointed out language is of less importance than might be supposed.
A common language does not imply a common tradition, and on the other
hand a diversity in language does not imply a diversity in tradition.
Institutions of another kind are of more importance. It is institutions
like the public schools of England which embody the distinctive elements
in social tradition. The case of the Jews is especially noteworthy.
There is no common language, no Jewish state, but one thing a Jew has in
common with other Jews—his religion. Round the Jewish religion centres
all that is distinctively Jewish, and the clinging of the Jew to his
religion has resulted in the maintenance of a Jewish race amidst all the
strange vicissitudes to which the Jews have been subject. ‘Qu’est-ce qui
a conservé le Juif à travers les siècles et l’empêché de disparaître au
milieu des nations? C’est sa religion.... Or ces rites protecteurs,
cette cuirasse ou cette carapace d’observances qui l’a défendu durant
deux mille ans, et que rien ne pouvait transpercer, notre esprit
occidental l’a entamée.... Si le judaïsme, débilité, venait à se
décomposer et à se dissoudre, qu’adviendrait-il du Juif? Fermé et
sauvegardé par sa religion, le Juif ne risquait-il point de s’évanouir
avec le judaïsme?’[1683]
Again, it has been pointed out that men have often achieved fame as
contributors to the civilization or literature of countries other than
that to which they by race belonged. It has been said that no one could
have been more French than the English Hamilton, the Swiss Rousseau, the
Italian de Maistre, the German Heine, or the mulatto Dumas. Great
contributions to the building up of what is typically British have been
made by men who were not of British blood though of course distinguished
British patriots. A string of names from Simon de Montfort to Disraeli
can be quoted. On the other hand, ‘natives of the British Isles have
helped to create the armies and fleets, and to build up the politics of
most European States. In the eighteenth century you might have found an
Irishman directing as Prime Minister the fortunes of Spain, and another
those of Naples, a third commanding the forces of Austria, and a fourth
seeking to rebuild the French dominions in India. Scots as a rule
restricted their attention to Protestant countries, but John Law in the
early years of that century did wonderful things with French finance.
The right-hand man of Frederick the Great was a Scot, and Scots took
more than their share in the making of Russia—an article of almost
exclusively foreign manufacture. Peter the Great himself had a mother of
Scottish birth, and the fact made all the difference between him and his
imbecile half-brothers. Napoleon himself was not a Frenchman by birth;
one of his marshals, an Italian, became king of Sweden, and founded the
present Swedish line of monarchs.’[1684]
This reference to the nature of minor racial differences thus tends to
confirm what was said above. Germinal differences are not to be
disregarded, but we must reject such theories as those of Gobineau and
Houston Chamberlain, who see in race the primary explanation of all
national achievement. Mommsen poured scorn upon the Celts and Vacher de
Lapouge attributed most of the misfortunes of France to the
brachycephalic element in the population.[1685] But we are now sceptical
of any such facile explanations of the course of history.
11. We can now come rather closer to the problem if we go on to examine
certain instances of germinal change that we know to have taken place,
and ask what effect is to be attributed to them and to such traditional
changes as have accompanied them.
Again and again in the course of history certain stocks have been
exterminated. This was apparently the fate of the Neanderthal race, and
in modern times was the fate of the Tasmanians. But though in this
manner the average germinal constitution of the whole species has been
altered, and as a rule raised, there has been little or nothing in such
events working towards the further evolution of the remaining stocks.
Intermingling of different racial stocks has been of frequent
occurrence.[1686] As we have seen, if the differences are large, vigour
may be exhibited in the first cross but will soon disappear;
unfavourable combinations of characters on the other hand are likely to
arise, and the mulatto thus tends to be a genetically undesirable type.
Nevertheless, the undesirable character of the mulatto is in large part
traditional. The mulatto is neither of one race nor the other and he
knows it. He is an outcast. There is no tradition which he naturally
absorbs. He neither grows up with the pride of the white man nor with
the feeling of community with his coloured relatives, whose position
with regard to other races is generally accepted as something
inevitable. In the world of tradition there is no home for him. There
are no channels which enable his capacities, such as they are, to
develop in a favourable manner, and we have thus to give greater weight
to tradition than to an unfavourable germinal constitution in producing
the results which we see.
When the differences are less, there is again the advantage of hybrid
vigour, though this again is transitory. More important is the chance of
a favourable re-combination of characters. Many interesting speculations
have been made, though they are all very fanciful, with regard to the
fortunate blendings which have produced some races, the bringing
together of practical capacities and imagination and the like. In
general we may regard such crossing as genetically favourable and of
considerable importance in history. Its frequent occurrence in Europe
and Asia has probably favoured those regions as compared with India,
where racial differences have perhaps been too great, and China, where
they have perhaps been too small.
Nevertheless, it is probable that too great an effect has been
attributed to the genetic results of crossing. When we come to consider
traditional changes, we shall see how potent a factor is the contact of
traditions which accompanies the intermingling of stocks and to which
the greater part of the results observed have to be in all probability
attributed.
It has been noticed that to an increasing extent from the first period
onwards the selection of mental characters comes largely to be
determined by tradition. The trend of tradition sets in a peculiar
direction; tradition develops in a groove and the peculiarities tend to
become exaggerated. Men are favoured in so far as they are innately
adapted to the chief features of the tradition. In an oligarchic society
like that of ancient Peru the naturally servile man fares better than
the self-assertive man; among the warlike tribes of North America the
servile man goes under. It may be argued that so distinctive a religion
as the Mohammedan would only gain ascendancy where the average innate
mental faculties were of a peculiar kind; however that may be, it is
clear that once having gained ascendancy this peculiar tradition would
favour a certain mental type and discourage others. Thus again we see
the tendency of germinal change to reinforce the trend of traditional
change rather than to determine traditional change.
We also saw that under a segmentary organization of society the tendency
was towards the preservation of a certain type of mental constitution
adapted to the peculiar tradition. Departures from the favoured type in
any direction are cut off. When organic organization supersedes
segmentary organization the whole position changes. It is no longer
necessary that a peculiar tradition should be strictly maintained
demanding a certain type of mental organization. There is favoured a
tradition allowing of the fullest division of labour which not only
permits but even encourages various types of innate mental capacity.
Various forms of intellectual and emotional capacity thus find a place
which would otherwise have gone under. But there are two sides to the
picture; though artists and philosophers may survive, even if they do
not exactly flourish, the feeble-minded survive also.
12. The selection of mental characters within the third period demands
further attention. We have commented upon the incompatibility between
group selection and the selection of individuals in the earlier periods.
Favourable individual developments may not survive because they are not
in harmony with the type necessary to maintain the group. Group
selection was active in the earlier part of the third period, and
resulted in the evolution of higher types. Later group selection took
rather a different form, but though it allowed the survival of
variations from the favoured type, it did not altogether cease. There
was, however, apparently little tendency towards further evolution of
groups as a whole; but germinal changes took place according as to
whether circumstances allowed the survival of more departures in an
upward or in a downward direction. We may glance at the results of
lethal and of reproductive selection. The average germinal constitution
of a race may be profoundly changed by the operation of factors that we
may place under the heading of lethal factors, though they do not always
operate by elimination. In a civilized country with its complicated
machinery of social organization, the government may adopt a policy
which greatly favours certain types and discourages others; apparently
chance happenings may so turn the course of events as to produce the
same results. Thus the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove out of
France men who undoubtedly differed in their innate mental constitution
from the average; so too did the setting up of the Inquisition in Spain.
The bad management of the liberal movement in Germany in 1848 resulted
in the setting up of a régime as a result of which a certain type of
German, to whom the régime was uncongenial, tended to emigrate. The
Bolshevist régime obviously favours a peculiar mentality. From such
instances it is clear that the average germinal constitution may be
changed in very different directions in neighbouring countries with
great suddenness. But in seeking the explanation of what follows in
these cases, it is clear that germinal change is following traditional
change; it may accelerate traditional change, but it is only a
contributory cause of the historical movement that we observe. The lack
of enterprise that has marked the Spanish people during the last three
hundred years was not caused by germinal change but by traditional
change which moulded the outlook and disposition of the people; germinal
change doubtless followed in the same direction and contributed to the
present position. The true importance of germinal change is not, as some
authors would have it, that it sets movements in progress among
civilized nations, but that it exaggerates the tendencies of traditional
change, and renders it difficult for nations to get out of the grooves
into which they have moved.
Just as germinal change may set in different directions owing to lethal
selection, so it may do owing to reproductive selection. In the
religious celibates of the Middle Ages we have probably to recognize a
distinct mental type, though how far a more valuable type than the
average it is impossible to say. Some of their peculiar qualities were
doubtless valuable, but they presumably lacked other valuable qualities,
since they were disinclined to face the difficulties of the normal
social life of their time. Even if it is held that their peculiar
qualities were on the whole distinctly valuable, we have, before a final
judgement is passed as to the effects of celibacy, to remember that it
may have had a beneficial influence on tradition. An authority upon the
Middle Ages has said that ‘It is more than probable that any real
familiarity with the early Middle Ages will lead an unprejudiced student
to the belief that the celibacy of the clergy was at that time essential
to the setting apart of the clerical order, to the purification of the
Church, and to its influence upon the world, that clerical celibacy was
in fact a necessary stage in the spiritualization of European
society’.[1687]
Reproductive selection chiefly arises because certain classes make
greater contributions to the following generation than other
classes.[1688] Generally speaking, throughout the Middle Ages, so far as
is known, the so-called upper classes contributed more to succeeding
generations than the so-called lower classes. The position is now
reversed, and it would appear that in the later days of Greece and Rome
also the upper classes contributed less to the population than the lower
classes. It is possible that the same may have been the case in other
ancient empires. The utmost importance has been attributed to the
influence of this form of differential fertility upon the course of
history. Mr. McDougall, for instance, writes as follows: ‘Looking at the
course of history widely, we may see in the differentiation of the
social classes by the social ladder and in the tendency of the upper
strata to fail to reproduce themselves, an explanation of the cyclic
course of civilization.’[1689] Clearly a careful inquiry into this
subject is needed. There are certain points to which attention may be at
once drawn, but we shall not be able to reach any definite conclusion
until we have examined farther into the nature of the modifications
produced by differences in tradition between the different classes.
Here we may observe that it is altogether misleading to speak, as Mr.
McDougall does, of the lower classes as being ‘drained’ by the operation
of the social ladder, even in England at the present day where the
chance of rising is as great, if not greater, than it has ever been
before. A very limited number can and do rise. The ladder is not only
steep and difficult to climb; it is also narrow and does not permit of
many upon it at the same time. Further, so great is the prestige of
class that very few of the descendants of those who have climbed ever
sink back, and yet among them the regression to the mean is always in
operation. In other words, supposing that the ancestors of those
composing the upper social classes to have been distinguished by
desirable mental qualities, their descendants, to whose disappearance so
much is attributed, are not distinguished by a similar superiority to
the average.