Hence, then, a derivative factor which, like the rest, is at once a consequence and a cause of social progress, is social growth, considered simply as accumulation of numbers. Other factors co-operate to produce this, and this joins other factors in working further changes.
§ 10. The next secondary or derivative factor to be noted^ is the reciprocal influence of the society and its units-^ the influence of the whole on the parts, and of the parts on the whole.
As soon as a social combination acquires some perma- nence, there begin actions and reactions between the so- THS VACIOBS OF SOCIAL PHnfOUBVA. 13 ciety as a whole and each member of it, such that either aSects tlie nature of the other. The control exercised by the aggregate oyer its units, is one tending ever to mould their activities and sentiments and ideas into congmitj with social reqxurements; and these activities, sentiments, and ideas, in so far as they are changed by changing circum* stances, tend to re-mould the society into congmity with themselves.
In addition, therefore, to the original nature of the individnala and the orig^inal nature of the society they form, we have to take into account the induced natures of the two. Superposed modifications are continually under- gone by the units; and the altered units are ever superposing modifications of social structure on the previous modifica- tions. Eventually this co-operation becomes a potent cause of transformation in both.
§ 11. Yet a further derivative factor of extreme import- ance remains. I mean the infiuence of the super-organic environment — the action and reaction between a society and neighbouring societies.
While there exist nothing but small, wandering assem- blages of men, devoid of organization, the conflicts of these assemblages with one another cannot work changes of structure. But when once there have^arisen the definite chieftainships which these confiicts themselves tend to initiate, and especially when the confiicts have ended in permanent subjugations, there arise the rudiments of poli- tical organization; and, as at first, so afterwards, the wars of societies with one another have all-important effects in developing the social structure, or rather, one moiety of it. For I may here, in passing, briefiy indicate the &ct to be hereafter exhibited in full, that while the industrial organ- ization of a society is mainly determined by its inorganic and organic environments, its governmental organization is mainly determined by its super-organic environment— by 14 THS DATA OV SOCIOLOGY.
the actions of those adjacent societiee with which it carries on the straggle for existence.
§ 12. There remains in the group of deriyed factors one more, the potency of which can scarcely be oyer-estimated. I mean that accnmnlation of snper-organic products which we commonly distingoish as artificial, but which, philoso- phically considered, are no less natural than aU others result- ing from evolution. There are several orders of these.
First come the material appliances, which, beginning with roughly-chipped flints, end in the complex automatic tools of an engine-factory driven by steam; which from boom- erangs rise to thirfy-five ton guns; which from huts of branches and grass grow to citiea with their palaces and cathedrals. Then we have language, able at first only to eke out gestures in communicating simple ideas, but eventually becoming capable of expressing highly-complex conceptions with precision. While from that stage in which it conveys thoughts only by sounds to one or a few other p^sons, we pass through picture-writing up to steam-printing: multiplying indefinitely the num,bers com- municated with, and making accessible in voluminous litera- tures the ideas and feelings of innumerable men in various places and times. Concomitantly there goes on the development ot knowledge, ending in science* Counting on the fingers grows into &r-reaohing mathematics; observ- ation of the moon's changes leads at length to a theory of the solar system; and at successive stages there arise sciences of which not even the germs can at first be de- tected. Meanwhile the once few and simple customs, beccmiing more numerous, definite, and fixed, end in systems of laws. From a &w rude superstitions there grow up elaborate noythologies, theologies, cosmogonies. Opinion getting embodied in creeds, gets embodied^ too, in accepted codes of propriety, good conduct, ceremonyji and in established social sentiments. And then THE FA0T0B8 OF SOCIAL PHSNOICENA. 15 there gradually eyolye also tho products we call assthetic; wluch of themselTeB form a highly-complex group. From necklaces of fish-bones we advance to dresses elaborate, gorgeoofiiy and infinitely varied j out of discordant war- chanta come symphonies and operas ^ cairns develop into magnificent temples; in place of caves with rude markings there arise at length galleries of paintings; and the recital of a chiefs deeds with mimetic accompaniment gives origin to epics, dramas, lyrics, and the vast mass of poetry, fiction, biography, and history.
All these varions orders of super-organic products, each evolving within itself new genera and species while daily growing into aki^r whole, and each acting upon the other orders while reacted upon by them, form together an immensely-voluminouB, immensely-complicated, and im- mensely-powerful set of influences. During social evolu- tion these influences are ever modifying individuals and modifying society, while being modified by both. They gradually form what we may consider either as a non-vital part of the society itself, or else as an additional environ- ment, which eventually becomes even more important than the original environments — so much more important that there arises the possibility of carrying on a high type of social life under inorganic and organic conditions which originaQj would have prevented it.
§ 13. Such are the factors in outline. Even when pre- sented under this most general form, the combination of them is seen to be of a complicated kind.
Becogniidng the primary truth that social phenomena depend in part on the natures of the individuals and in part on the forces the individuals are subject to, we see that these two fundamentally-distinct sets of &ctors, with which social changes commence, become progressively in- volved with other sets as social changes advance. The pre-established environing influences, inorganic and organic.
16 THE DATA OY SOCIOLOOT.
wliich are at first ahnost unalterable^ become more and more altered by tbe actions of the eyolving society. Simple growth of population as it goes on, brings into plaj fresh causes of transformation that are increasingly important. The influences which the society exerts on the natures of its units, and those which the units exert on the nature of the society, incessantly co-operate in creating new elements. As societies progress in size and structure, they work in one another, now by their war-struggles and now by their industrial intercourse, profound metamorphoses. And the erer-accumulating, ever-complicating super-organic products, material and mental, constitute a further set of factors, which become more and more influential causes of change. So that, inyolved as the factors are at the beginning, each step in advance increases the involution, by adding factors which themselves grow more complex while they grow more powerful.
But now that we have glanced at the &bctors of all orders, original and derived, we must neglect for the present those which are derived, and attend exclusively, or al- most exclusively, to those which are original. The Data of Sociology, here to be dealt with, we must, as far as possible, restrict to those primary data common to social phenomena in general, and most readily distinguished in the simplest societies. Adhering to the broad division made at the outset between the extrinsic and intrinsic co-operating causes^ we will consider first the extrinsic.
CHAPTER III.
ORIGINAL EXTERNAL FACTORS.
§ 14. A COHPLETB outline^ or anytliing like a complete oatline^ of the original external factors^ implies a knowledge of the past whicli we have not got, and are not likely to get. Now that geologists and archasologists are uniting to prove that human existence goes back to a date so remote that " pre-historic '' scarcely expresses it — ^now that imbedded traces of human handiwork show us that, not only sedi- mentary deposits of considerable depths and subsequent extensive denudations, but also immense changes in the distribution of land and sea, have occurred since the rudest social groups were formed; it is clear that the effects of external conditions on social evolution cannot be fully traced. Remembering that the 20,000 years, or so, during which man has lived in the Kile-valley, is made to seem a relatively-small period by the evidence that he coexisted ¥nth the great pachyderms and other extinct mammals of the drift — ^remembering that England had human inhabitants at an epoch which some judges think was glacial — ^remem- bering that in America, along with the bones of the Mastodon imbedded in the alluvium of the Bourbense, were found arrow-heads and other traces of the savages who had killed this member of an order no longer represented in that part of the world — ^remembering that, judging from the evidence L8 TUB DATA OF 80GI0L00T.
as interpreted by Professor Huxley, those vast subsidences which changed a continent intg the Eastern Archipelago, took place after the Negro-race was established as a distinct variety of man; we must infer that it is hopeless to trace back the external factors of social phenomena to anything like their first forms.
One important truth only, implied by the evidence thus glanced at, must be noted. Geological changes and meteoro- logical changes, as well as the consequent changes of Floras and Faunas, must have been causing over all parts of the Earth, perpetual emigrations and immigrations. From each locality made less habitable by increasing inclemency, a wave of diffusion must have spread; into each locality made more favourable to human existence by amelioration of climate, or increase of indigenous food, or both, a wave of concentration must have been set up; and by great geological changes, here sinking areas of land and there raising areas, other movements of local human races must have been pro- duced. Continually-accumulating facts show us that these enforced ebbings and flowings have, in some localities, and probably in most, taken place time after time. And such waves of emigration and immigration, brought about by numerous causes having many varieties and complexities, occurring here at long intervals and there at short, and constituted now by descendants from the original inhabit- ants and now by men of another ancestry; must have been ever bringing the dispersed groups of the race into contact with conditions more or less new.
Carrying with us this conception of the way in which the external factors, original in the widest sense, have co-operated throughout all past time, the further consideration of their effects must be limited to such as we have now before njs.
§ 15. life in general is possible only between certain limits of temperature; and life of the higher kinds is possible only within a comparatively-narrow range of temperature, main- ORIGINAL IZTBRNAL FACT0B8. 19 tained artificiallj if not natoraily. Hence it results tliat social life^ pre-sapposing as it does not only human life but that life vegetal and animal on which human life depends^ is restricted by certain extremes of cold and heat.
Cold^ though great^ does not rigorously exclude warm-i blooded creatures^ if the locality supplies in adequate quantify the means of generating heat. The arctic Fauna contains yarious marine and terrestrial mammals^ large and small; but the existence of these depends^ directly or in- directly^ on the existence of the inferior marine creatures^ vertebrate and invertebrate^ which would cease to live there did not the warm currents from the tropics check the formation of ice. Hence such human life as we find in arctic regions^ dependent as it is mainly on that of these mammals, is also remotely dependent on the some source of heat. Here the fact we have to note is that, where the temperature which man^s vital functions require can be maintained with difficulty, social evolution is not possible. There can be neither a sufficient surplus-power in each individual nor a sufficient number of individuals. Not only are the energies of the Esquimaux expended mainly in defending himself against loss of heat, and in laying up stores by which he may continue to do this during the arctic night; but his physiological processes are greatly modified to the same end. Without fuel, and, indeed, unable to bum within his snow-hut anything more than an oil-lamp, lest the walls should melt, he has to keep up that bodily warmth which even hie thick fur-dress fails to retain, by devouring vast quantities of blubber and oil; and his digestive system, heavily taxed in providing the wherewith to meet excessive loss by radiation, supplies lees material for other vital purposes. This great physio- logical cost of individual life, indirectly checking the multi- plication of individuals, arrests social evolution. A kindred relation of cause and effect is shown us in the Southern hemisphere by the still-more-miserable Fuegians.
20 THS DATA OV 80CI0L0GT.
Living nearly nnclothed in a region of oontinnal storms of rain and snow^ which their wretched dwellings of sticks and grass do not exclude^ and haying little food but fish and moUasks^ these beings^ described as scarcely human in appearance, have such difficulty in preserving the vital balance in face of the rapid escape of heat, that the surplus for individual development is narrowly restricted; and, by consequence, the surplus for producing and rearing new individuals. Hence the numbers remain too small for exhi- biting anything beyond incipient social existence.
Though, in some tropical regions, an opposite extreme of temperature so far impedes the vital actions as to impede social development, yet hinderance from this cause seems exceptional and relatively unimportant. Life in general, and mammalian life along with it, is great in quantity as well as individually high, in localities that are among the hottest. The inertness and silence during the noontide glare in such localities, do, indeed, furnish evidence of enervation; but in cooler parts of the twenty-four hours there is a compensating energy. And if it is true that varieties of the human race adapted to these localities, show us, in comparison with ourselves, some indolence, this does not seem greater than, or oven equal to, the indolence of the primitive man in temperate climates. Contemplated in the mass, the fckcts do not countenance the current idea that great heat hinders progress. Many societies have arisen in hot climates, and in hot climates have reached large and complex growths. All our earliest recorded civilisations belonged to regions which, if not tropical, almost equal the tropics in height of temperature. India and Southern China, as still existing, show us great social evolutions within the tropics. And beyond this, the elaborate architectural remains of Java and of Cam- bodia yield proofs of other tropical civilinttions in the F^t; while the extinct societies of Central America, Mexico^ and IVuru^ need but be named to make it manifest ORiaiNAL BXTBBNAL FACTOBS. 21 Hiat in the New World, also, there were in past times great advances in hot regions. It is thus, too, if we compare societies of ruder types that have developed in warm climates, with allied societies belonging to colder climates. Tahiti, the Tonga Islands, and the Sandwich Is- lands, are within the tropics; and in them, when first disco- vered, there had been reached stages of evolution that were remarkable considering the absence of metals. So that, though excessive heat hinders the vital actions, not only of man as at present constituted but of the mammalia gene- raUy, such heat hinders the evolution of bodily energy only during part of the day; and by the abundance of materials for living which it fosters, aids social development in most ways more than it impedes it in some ways.
I do not ignore the fact that in recent times societies have evolved most, both in size and complexity, in tem- perate regions. I simply join with this the fact that the first considerable societies arose, and the primary stages of social development were reached, in hot climates. Joining these two facts, the entire truth would seem to be that the earlier phases of progress had to be passed through where the resistances ofEered by inorganic conditions were least; that these phases having been passed through, and the arts of life having been advanced, it became possible for societies to develop in regions where the resistances were greater; and that further developments in the arts of life, and further discipline in co-operation going along with them, enabled societies inheriting the resulting advantages to take root and grow in regions which, by climatic and other condi- tions, ofFered relatively-great resistances.
Taking the most general view of the facts, we must there- fore say that solar radiation, being the source of those forces by which life, vegetal and animal, is carried on; and being, by implication, the source of the forces displayed in human life, and consequently in social life; it results that there can bo no considerable social evolution on tracts of the EartVs 22 THB DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.
surface where solar radiation is very feeble. We see thab though^ contrariwise^ there is on some tracts a solar radia- tion in excess of the degree most f ayonrable to vital actions; yet the consequent hindrance to social evolution is relatively small. Further^ we conclude that an abundant supply of light and heat is requisite during those first stages of pro- gress in which social vitality is small.
§ 16. Passing over such traits of climate as variability and equability^ whether diurnal^ annual^ or irregular^ all of which have their effects- on human activities^ and therefore on social phenomena^ I will name here one other climatic characteristic that appears to be an important factor. I refer to the quality of the air in respect of dryness or moisture.
Either extreme brings indirect impediments to civiliza- tion, which we may here note before observing the more important direct effects. That great dryness of the air^ causing a parched surface and a scanty vegetation^ negatives the multiplication needed for advanced social life^ is a familiar fact. And it is a fact^ though not a familiar one^ that extreme humidity, especially when joined with great heat^ may raise unexpected obstacles to progress; as, for example^ in some parts of East Africa (Zungomero)^ where, according to Captain Burton, "the springs of powder-flasks exposed to the damp snap like toasted quills; * * * paper, becoming soft and soppy by the loss of glazing, acts as a blotter; * * * metals are ever rusty; * * * and gunpowder, if not kept from the air, refuses to ignite.^' But it is the direct effects of different hygrometric states, which must here be more especially set down — ^the effects on the vital processes, and, therefore, on the individual activities, and, through them, on the social activities. There is good reason, inductive and deductive, for believing that the bodily functions are facilitated by atmospheric con- ditions which make evaporation from the skin and lungs OBiaiXAL £XT£BNAL FACTORS. 23 tolerably rapid. Tliat weak persons^ whose variations of health furnish good tests^ are worse when the air^ surcharged with water^ is about to precipitate, and are better when the weather is fine; and that such persons are commonly ener- vated by residence in moist localities but invigorated by residence in dry ones, are facts generally recognized. And this relation of cause and efEect, manifest in individuals, is one which we may suspect holds in races— other things being equal. In temperate regions, differences of constitu- tional activity due to differences of atmospheric humidity, are less traceable than in torrid regions: the reason being that the inhabitants are subject to a tolerably-rapid escape of water from their surfaces; since the air, though weU charged with water, will take up more when its temperature, previously low, is raised by contact with the body. But it is otherwise in tropical regions where the body and the air bathing it differ much less in temperature, and where, indeed, the air is often higher in temperature than the body. Here the rate of evaporation depends almost wholly on the quantity of surrounding vapour. If the air is hot and moist, the escape of water through the skin and lungs is greatly hindered; while it is greatly facilitated if the air is hot and dry. Hence in the torrid zone, we may expect constitutional differences between the otherwise-allied in- habitants of the low steaming tracts and the tracts which are habitually parched with heat.. Needful as are cutaneous and pulmonary evaporation for maintaining the movement of fluids through the tissues and thus furthering molecular changes, it is to be inferred that, other circumstances being alike, there will be more bodily activity in the people of hot and dry localities than in the people of hot and humid localities.
The evidence, so far as we can disentangle it, justifies this inference. The earliest recorded civilization grew up in a hot and dry region — ^Bgypt; and in hot and dry regions also arose the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Phoenician civili* 24 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.
zations. But the facts when stated in terms of nations are far less striking than when stated in terms of races. On glancing over the rain-map of the world, there will be seen an almost continuous area marked ^' rainless district,^' ex- tending across North Africa, Arabia, Persia, and on through Thibet into'Mongolia; and from within, or from the borders of, this district, have come all the conquering races of the Old World. We have the Tartar race, which, passing the Southern mountain-boundary of this rainless district, peopled China and the regions between it and India — ^thrusting the aborigines of these areas into the hilly tracts; and which has sent successive waves of invaders not into these regions only, but, from time to time, into the West. We have the Aryan race, overspreading India and making its way westward through Europe. We have the Semitic race, becoming dominant through North Africa, and, spurred on by Mahommedan fanaticism, conquering parts of Europe. That is to say, besides the Egyptian race, which, seeming by its alliances to have originally been of low type, became powerful in the hot and dry valley of the Nile, we have three races, widely unlike in type, and speaking languages classed as fundamentally distinct, which, from different parts of the rainless district have spread as invaders over regions relatively humid. Original superiority of type was not the common trait of these races: the Tartar type is inferior, as well as the Egyptian. But the common trait, as proved by subjugation of other races, was energy. And when we see that this common trait in races otherwise unlike, had for its concomitant their long-continued subjection to these special climatic conditions — ^when we find further that from the region characterized by these conditions, the earlier waves of conquering emigrants, losing in moister countries their ancestral energy, were over-run by later waves of the same races, or of other races coming from this region; we get strong reason for inferring a relation between constitutional OSIGINAL EXTEENAL FACTOBS. 25 vigonr and the presence of an air whicli^ by its warmth and dryness^ facilitates the vital actions. A striking verification is at hand. On turning to the rain-map^ it will be seen that of the entire New World, the largest of the parts distingmshed by the absence of shade as almost rain- less, is that Central-American and Mexican region in which indigenous civilizations developed; and that the only other rainless district is that which formed part of the ancient Peruvian territory — ^the part, moreover, in which the pre- Ynca civilization has left its most conspicuous traces. Inductively, then, the evidence justifies in a remarkable manner the physiological deduction. Nor are