Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/368

SOCIOLOGY. 314 SOCIOLOGY. the patronymic. The transmission of property and office from father to son thus made possible leads to the differentiation of certain families as of sujierior rank. If a primitive agriculture has been suppli-niented by ])astoral industry, wealth in cattle bee(]nies one of the chief temptations to engage in tribal wars. Chieftains as leaders of successful expeditions receive an exceptionally large number of stolen cattle, and the privilege of pasturage on the border lands of tribal terri- tory. They obtain also as retainers and herds- men the broken and ruined men of other tribes, whose clans have been destroyed, and whose fu- ture position in society is secured only by their allegiance to a powerful protector. From such beginnings a rude tribal feudalism develops, which encroaches steadily upon the earlier kin- ship system. (Consult Sir Henry Maine, Lec- litreson the Early History of Institutions.) Evi- dences of this stage of evolution are found in various bodies of barbarian law, but especially in the Irish and Welsh codes. When a confederation of tribes becomes thor- oughly consolidated by war or otherwise, the chieftaincy of the confederation, having become hereditary, may develop into a kingship through the uniting into one of the offices of chief military leader, supreme judge, and high priest. At this stage the ethnic society is on the point of passing over into civilization. If it is tempted by the pressure of population upon the means of subsistence to migrate to a more pro- ductive region, and after conquering the occu- piers of a coveted territory, reduces them to task work, and establishes itself permanently on the soil, it undergoes a further development of feudal organization, and in the course of time begins to include as members of the settled clans and tribes any newcomers who come to reside amor.g them. Civilization once established develops through three stages, which are well marked so far as the structure, policy, and activities of society are concerned, but which to some extent overlap and run into one another chronologically. The break- •down of the kinship system, and the intermin- gling of men of diverse origin at centres of indus- trial and commercial activity, arc presentl.y fol- lowed by the beginnings of assimilation and amal- gamation. When this process is perceived, the possibility of creating a new ethnic unity on a broad scale — the imily of a people, one in lan- guage, in religion, and in standards of conduct — ■ is seized upon, and a passion for homogeneity begins to express itself in certain great policies. The attempt is made by military campaigns to bring into one political organization adjacent peoples nearly related in blood, in language, and in tradition, and to annex any territory which may form with that already occupied a geogra- phic unity. The militarism thus developed is of itself a powerful iniifving agency, and it is sup- plemented by policies of religious unification, and by harsh systems of sumptuary legislation and of criminal law. When the Work of nation-making by policies of unification has been completed, the first stage of civilization yields to a second, which is a result of the liberation of energies no longer de- manded in military activity. Commerce, travel, and learning receive a new impulse. The com- parative study of peoples and institutions leads to criticism and discussion. The authoritative regime is subjected to review: it begins to disin- tegrate under imiieachment and resistance. Ra- tionalism and liberalism create the great institu- tional products of civil liberty and constitutional law. Men no longer care as of old for perfect mental agreement ; they encourage the growth of independence and variety. This is the age of progress, of the liberal-legal civilization. Presently, however, wide liberty, divergence of mental type, and the multiplication of differing interests begin to threaten social cohesion. Pow- erful and unscrupulous men abuse their liberty, using it to take an unfair advantage of others and to curtail the lil>ertics of the weak. Free- dom of enterprise and of contract are fol- lowed by an enormous increase of wealth and of population. But the wealth is cencentrated in relatively few hands and increasingly large num- bers of working men find that they are not receiv- ing a proportional share of well-being. Growing inequality places the severest strain upon the social system, and compels the community to limit liberty in some measure by equality. Po- litical and legal equality come first, but meas- ures of economic equality also are demanded, and great educational enterprises try to achieve an equality of cultural opportunities. This is the modern democratic movement, and the third stage of civilization. Expla>:atoey Sociologt. This department is as yet in a very incomplete state of development. So far as the physical side of social evolution is concerned, it exhibits the same phenomena of integration, differentiation, and increasing defi- niteness of organization, that material bodies undergo. The cause also is the same, namely the equilibration of energv between bodies over- charged and contiguous bodies undercharged. There is such an equilibration between a popula- tion and its environment, and all the energy that society is enabled to expend it derives from the bounty of nature, supplemented by industrial activities. There is such an equilibration of energy between strong and weak States and be- tween strong and weak races. The transforma- tion of the weak by the strong can never cease until equililn-ium is established. The transforma- tion need not be a military conquest, liowever, or even an economic exploitation. So far as physical law is concerned, it may equally well be an uplifting of the weak to higher planes of sympathy and intelligence by the hands of the strong. The extent to which the process may thus be philanthropic depends upon the growth of the consciousness of kind. Originally limited to the kindred of horde and clan, it has broad- ened into tribal and at length into a national consciousness. To-day it is becoming a human consciousness. In all this transformation every change obeys the laws of parsimony. IHotion follows the line of least resistance and human activities try to achieve given results with the least expenditure of effort. In is only a corollary of this law that activity is conditioned by the consciousness of kind, since strangeness and an- tipathy are resisting conditions. It is only an- other corollary again that dogmatic like-minded- ness develops out of sympathetic, and delibera- tive like-mindedness out of dogmatic: for the results achieved by the lower forms of con- certed volition, namely the instinctive and the