Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/540

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powell] SOCIOLOGY, OR THE SCIENCE OF INSTITUTIONS 48 1

nations, states, counties, cities, townships or wards, and families.

Within the governmental organization there are many other bodies corporate, such as educational institutions, ecclesiastical institutions, and industrial institutions. Every body of people is interested in the statistics which pertain to its functions. These secondary institutions are hereafter to be classified.

We have thus found that the elements of statistics are classu ficatio?i y tncnsuratio?i, enumeration, information, and verification.

ECONOMICS

When, on the frontier, a log house is to be built, the man who proposes its erection invites his neighbors to a house-raising. The logs cut from the surrounding forest are brought to accessi- ble places around the cabin site, and a yoke of oxen is made to drag them one by one into position for use. Four logs are placed on rocks as a foundation ; upon these logs others are placed by rolling them up on skids, and so log after log goes up and the house grows apace. That these operations may be conducted successfully, a man is needed to drive the oxen ; then a man is needed at each corner of the structure to fit the logs together where they cross each other near the ends. On each side of the house skids are used upon which the logs are rolled. As a log: goes up a man at each skid stands ready with a chock to hold it in place as it is moved up by intermittent advances, and the two men at the corners receive the log, manage the adjustment of its position, and with their axes fit the ends of one log into notches in another in such manner that the house is well tied together. The logs are usually too heavy to be handled by a few men, hence a number are necessary to put them up, especially after the house grows, when the logs must be lifted to a comparatively great height. Thus the pioneer who is building a house enlists the services of many men to enable him to accomplish that which he cannot do alone. When many men assist in the work, every one doing a like part, their mutual action is sometimes called " soli-

AM. ANTH. N. S., I— 31.

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