INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY. XL
PART III. GENERAL STRUCTURE OF SOCIETIES.
CHAPTER VII. THE SOCIAL FRONTIERS. (CONTINUED.)
SECTION in. BELIEFS, PRACTICES, AND INSTITUTIONS RELATING TO THE SOCIAL LIMITS AMONG PRIMITIVE PEOPLES. (CONTINUED.)
THE structure of the internal organs always tends toward adjustment. In reality, the frontier line is the expression both of the internal organization and of the relations of that to the sur- roundings. As, according to Bancroft, the ancient Pueblos of North America, sheltered in their walled villages, went to war only to repel invasion, so their interior state approached a peace- ful democracy; they had a governor and council, chosen each year by the people, and were monogamous. This law of correla- tion between the external structure and the internal organization is, however, only a particular application of the general law of the correlation of the social organs a law which we shall study at another time.
Heretofore it seems to have been lost sight of in sociology that the frontier, the exterior limit of every society, is a part of the structure of that society, and constitutes the most simple and most general condition of its existence; constitutes, first of all, its successive differentiations.
The phenomena observed in America by Bancroft are found also among the colonists who, having peaceful relations with their neighbors, have limits which are not at all essentially military. The amiable and peaceful tribes of Bodos and Dhimals have high morality and large independence of character; they resist unrea- sonable injunctions with an indomitable obstinacy; likewise they do not give themselves over to any act of violence against their neighbors; they refrain from similar acts within the group. The peaceful Lephas undergo great privations rather than submit to oppression and injustice; they seldom quarrel; in all cases the disputes are adjusted by chiefs elected from the people; they
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