THE PBnanvE xah — sxotional. 67 activity is thrown on peroeptiye boalties which are oonsti- tatioBally actiTe.* Jk tait which naturally goes along with inability so to coneerra the fatnre as to be influenced by the conception^ IB a childish mirtbfulness — merriment not sobered by thought of what is comings Though sundry races of the New Worlds along with their general impassiveness, are little inclined to gaiety^ and though among the Malay races and the Dyafa, g«vity is a oharaoteristio, yet g«n«aUy it is otherwise. Of the New Caledonians^ Fijiaos, Tahitians^ New Zealanders, we read that they are always laughing and joking. Throughout Africa^ too, the Negro shows us every- where this same trait; and of other races, in other lands, the various descriptions of variooa i^avellers B,re—^' full of fun and merriment/' ''full of life and spirits,^' '' merry and talkative/' ''sky-larking in all ways/' "boisterous gaiety/' ''laughing immoderately at trifles." Even the Esquimaux, notwithstondiug all their privations, are described as "a happy people." We have but to remember how greatly habitual anxiety about coming events, moderates the flow of spirits — ^we have but to contrast the lively but improvi- dent Irishman with the grave but provident Scot — ^to see that there is a relation between these traits in the uncivilized man. The relatively-impulsive nature, implying total abaorption in a present pleasure, causes at the same time these excesses of gaiety and this inattention to threatened evils.
Along with the trait of improvidence there goes, both * It ■honld be remarked as a qualifying facfc, which has its physiological, mm well as ita aocielogioal, interest^ that the characters of mea and women are in sundry cases described as nnlike in power of application. Among the Bhil% while the men hate labour^ many of the women are said to be indas- trkms. Among the Kookies, too, the women are ''quite as industrious and indefatigable as the Ksga women ": the men of both tribes being lazy. Sianlariy in Africa. In Loango, thongh the men are inert^ the womea "give therasdves up to'* husbandry *'with indefatigable ardour"; and our raoent experiences on the Gold-Coast show that a like contrast holds there. The establishment of this difference seems to imply the limitation of here- dity by sex.
p2 as cause and oonseqnence^ an nndeveloped proprietary sentiment. Wlien thinking about the nature of the savBge, we overlook the fact that he lacks the extended conscious- ness of individual possession^ and that under his con- ditions it is impossible for him to have it. Established, as the sentiment can be, only by multitudinous experiences of the gratifications which possession brings, continued through successive generations, it cannot arise where the ■circumstances do not permit these experiences. Beyond the few rude appliances ministering to his bodily wants, the primitive man has nothing that he can accumulate — there is no sphere for an acquisitive tendency. Where he has grown into a pastoral life, there arises a possibility of benefits from increased possessions: he profits by multiply- ing his flocks. Still, while he remains nomadic, it is difficult to supply his flocks with unfailing food when they are large, and he has increased losses from enemies and wild animals; so that the benefits of accumulation are kept within narrow limits. Only as the agricultural state is reached, and only as the tenure of land passes from the tribal form, through the family form, to the individual form, is there a widening of the sphere for the proprietary sentiment.
So that the primitive man, distinguished by his improvi- dence, distinguished also by deficiency of that desire to own which checks improvidence, is, by his circumstances, debarred from the experiences which develop tlus desire and diminish the improvidence.
§ 35. Let us turn now to those emotional traits which directly affect the formation of social groups. Varieties of mankind, as we now find them, are social in different degrees.; and, further, they are distinguished by different degrees of independence — are here tolerant of restraint and there intolerant of it. Clearly, the proportions between these two characteristics must greatly affect the social union.
Describing the Mantras, indigenes of the Malay peninsula.
THX FBDCinVZ MAN — ^UOTIONAL. 69 p£re Botirien says — ^''liberty seems to be to tkem a neces- sity of their very existence; '^ '^ every individual lives as if there were no other person in the world but himself;'* they separate if they dispute. So^ too, of the wild men in the interior of Borneo, " who do not associate with each other ^'; and whose children, when ^' old enough to shift for them- selves^ usually separate, neither one afterwards thinking of the other/' A nature of this kind manifestly precludes social development; and it shows its efEeets in the solitary families of the wood-Yeddahs, or those of the Bushmen, whom Arbrousset describes as ''independent and poor beyond measure, as if they had sworn to remain always free and without possessions/' Of sundry races that remain in a low state, this trait is remarked; as in South America, lunong the Araucanians, ''the MapuchS is impatient of contradiction, and brooks no command;'' as, according to Bates, among the Indians of Brazil, who^ tractable when quite young, begin to display " impatience of all restraint at puberty;" as among tiie Garibs, who were " impatient under the least infringement " of their independence.. Sundry of the HiU-tribes of India, too, exhibit a kindred nature. The savage Bhils have " a natural spirit of inde- pendence;" the Bodo and Dhimal "resist injunctions inju- diciously urged, with dogged obstinacy;" and ihe Lepchas ** undergo great privations rather than submit to oppression." This impediment to social evolution we meet with ag^in among some nomadic races. '^ A Bedouin," says Burckhardt, ''will not submit to any command, but readily yields to persuasion;" and he is said by Palgrave to have " a high appreciation of national and personal liberty," and "a remarkable freedom from anything like caste feeling in what concerns ruling families and dynasties." That this moral trait is injurious during early stages of social progress, is in some cases observed by travellers, as by Earl, who says of the New Guinea people that their " impatience of control" precludes organization. Not, indeed.
70 THB DATA Of 0OCIOLOOT.
that absenoe of independeoioe will of itself caose an oppesite result. The Kamtschadales^ according to GrieTe, exhibit '' slayiflhness to people who use them hard,^' and '' contempt of those who treat them with gentleness;'' and Gbdton, describing the Damaras as having ^^no independence/' says they ''court slavery '^ — that ''admiration and fear" are their only strong sentiments. A certain proportion between the feelings prompting obedience and prompt- ing resistance^ seems required. The Malays, who have evolved into several semi-civilized societies, are said to be submissive to authority; and yet each is ''sensitive to any interference with the personal liberty of himself or another." Clearly, however, be the cause of subnussion what it may — ^whether want of self-assertion, or fear, or awe of superiority, which, separately and together, in different proportions, favour subordination — a relatively-subordinate nature is everywhere shown by men composing social aggregates of considerable sizes. In such semi-civilized societies as tropical Africa contains, it is conspicuous; and it was manifest in the peoples who formed the extinct oriental societies, as also in those who formed the extinct societies of the New World.
If, as among the Mantras above named, intolerance of restraint is joined with want of sociality, there is a double obstacle to social union: a cause of dispersion is not checked by a cause of aggregation. If, as among the Todas, a man will sit inactive for hours, " seeking no companionship," he is imder less temptation to tolerate restrictions than if solitude is unbearable. Clearly, the ferocious Fijian in whom, strange as it seems, " the sentiment of friendship is strongly developed/' is impelled by this sentiment, as well as by his extreme loyalty, to continue in a society in which despotism based on cannibalism is without check.
When we average the evidence, first as presented by the very lowest men, who gi*oup themselves socially to the smallest extent, and then as presented by nK>re advance THE PBUCITITS HAW — ^EMOTIONAL. 71 men^ forming larger aggregates, we find warrant for saying that primitive men, who, before imy arts of life were de- veloped, necessarily lived on wild food, implying wide dispersion of small numbers, were, on the one hand, not much habituated to associated life, and were, on the other hand, habituated to that uncontrolled following of immediate desires which goes along with separateness. So that while the attractive force was small the repulsive force was great. Only as primitive men were impelled into greater gregarious- ness by local conditions which furthered the maintenance of many individuals in a small area, could there come that increase of sociality required to check unrestrained action* And here we see yet a further difficulty which stood in the way of social evolution at the outset.
§ 36. Led as we thus are from emotions of an exclusively* egoistic kind to emotions which ipiply the presence of other individuals, we will take first the ego-altruistic. (Prin. of Pay., §§ 519 — 23 J Before there exist in consider- able degrees the sentimeuts which find satisfaction in the happiness of others, there exist in considerable degrees the sentiments which find satisfaction in the admiration given by others. Even animalfl show themselves gratified by applause after achievement; and in men the gregarious life early opens and enlarges this source of pleasure.
Great as is the vanity exhibited by the civilized, it is ex- ceeded by that which the uncivilized exhibit. The red pig- ment and the sea-shells pierced for suspension, found with other traces of men in the Dordogne caves, show us that in that remote past when the rein-deer and the mammoth inhabited the south of France, men drew to themselves admiring glances by colours and ornaments. Self-decora- tion occupies the thoughts of a savage chief even more than it does the thoughts of a fashionable lady among ourselves. The painting of the skin, abont which so much trouble is taken before the use of clothiug is established, shows \ \ this. It k Bbown again hy submissioii to prolonged and repeated tortures while being tattooed; and hj tolei*ance of those pains and inconveniences which acoompanj the dis- tension of the under-lip by a block of wood^ the wearing of stones in holes made through the cheeks, or of quills through the nose. The strength of the desire to gain approbation is, in these cases, proved by the mnversality of the fashion in each tribe, and by the rigour with which it is enforced. When the age comes, there is no escape for the young savage from the ordained mutilation. The North- American brave, enduring the tortures of initiation, does not question the authority of usage. Fear of the frowns and taunts of his fellows and desire for their praise, consti- tuto a motive so strong that dissent is almost unknown.
It is thus, too, in large measure with the regulation of conduct*. The precepts of the religion of enmity are, in early stages of social development, enforced mainly by the aid of this ego-altroistie sentiment. The duty of blood- revenge is made imperative by tribal opinion. Approval comes to the man who, having lost a relative, never ceases his pursuili of the supposed murderer; while scowls and gibes make intolerable the life of one who fails.. Similarly with the fulfilment of various usages that have become established. In some uncivilized societies it is not un- common for a man to ruin himseUE by a funeral* feast; and in some semi-civilized sooieties,. one motive for killing a female child is avoidance of the future cost of a marriage- festivaL — a cost made great by the prevailing love of display.
This ego-altruistic sentiment, probably increasing in strength during a long period as social aggregation ad- vances, we have here to note chiefly because it is at first an important controlling agency; a6>. indeed,, it continues still to be. Joined with sociality, it has ever been a power helping to hold together the units of each group, and tending to cultivate a conduct furthering the welfare of the group. Probably a kind of subordination was produced by it before THI FBDOnVB KAK — ^EMOTIOirAL. 73 there was any political stEbordination; and, indeed, in some cases it secures social order even now. Mr. Wallace says: — I have liyed with communities of savages in South America and in the E^ast, who have no laws or law courts but the public opinitm of the ▼iUage freely expressed. Each man scrupulously respects the rights of his fellow, and any infraction of those rights rarely or never takes place. In sudi a community all are nearly equaL" § 37. There remain to be glanced at those traits of the primitiye nature dne to presence or absence of the altruistic sentiments. These, having sympathy for their root, must, on the hypothesis of evolution, derelop in proportion as the circumstances make sympathy active; that is — ^in pro- portion as they favour the maintenance of the marital and parental relations, in proportion as they foster sociality, and in proportion as they do not cultivate aggressiveness.
To what extent the facts justify this d priori inference, it is not easy to say: the evidence is very difficult to disentangle and to general«». Many oansea oonspire to mislead us. We assume that there will be tolerable uni- formity in the manifestations of character in each race > but it is not so. Both the individuals and the groups differ con- siderably; as in Australia, where, according to Sturt, one tribe ** is decidedly quiet,'' and another " decidedly disor- derly.'' We assume that the traits shown will be similar on successive occasions, which they are not r the behaviour to one traveller is unlike the behaviour to another; pro- bably beeause their own behaviours were unlike. Yery generally,^ too, the displays of character by an aboriginal race revisited, are determined by the treatment received from previous visitors: being changed from friendliness to enmity by' painful experiences. Thus, of Austrahan traveUers, it is remarked that the earlier speak more favour- ably of the natives than the later; and, similarly, it is said by Earl of the Java people, that those inhabiting parts little visited by Eoropeans " are much superior in point of 71 THB DATA OT SOCIOLOCnT.
morality to the natiyes of the north coast/' whose inter- course with Europeans has been greater. When, as a resnli of his experiences in the Pacific, we find Captain Srskine saying, " nor is it at all beyond the range of probability that habits of honesty and decorum may yet be forced upon the foreign trader by those whom he has hitherto been accus- tomed to consider as the treacherous and irreclaimable savages of the sandal-wood islands "; when we learn that in Vate, one of the New Caledonia Islands, the native name for a white man is a '' sailing profligate "', and when we remember that worse names are justified by recent doings in those regions; we shall understand how, on different occasions, the conduct met with from native races may be widely different, and how conflicting state- ments about native characters may result.
Beyond the difiEiculty hence arising, is the difficulty arising from that impulsiveness already described, which itself leads to a variability perplexing to one who would form a conception of the average nature. As Livingstone says of the Makololo — " It would not be difficult to make these people appear excessively good or uncommonly bad ''; and the inconsistent traits above quoted from Captain Burton, imply a parallel experience. So that in respect of these, as in respect of other emotional characters, we have to strike an average among manifestations naturally chaotic, which are further distorted by the varying relations to those who witness them.
We may best guide ourselves by taking, first, not the altruistic sentiments proper, but the feeling which habitn- ally co-operates with them — the parental instinct, the love of the helpless. {Prin. of Psy., § 582.) Of necessity the lowest human races, in common with inferior animals, have large endowments of this; since deficient endowment of it must ever be followed by disappearance of the species or the variety. On the average, those only can survive in postexilj in whom the love of offspring prompts due care of TEX FRIMmVB MiJf — ^UfOnONAL. 75 oSspring; aoid among the savag^^ the sdf-eacrifice required is as great as^ or perhaps greater than, among the drilised. Hence the fondness for children which eren the lowest of mankind display; though^ with the impuIsiTeness habitaal to them^ they often join with it great cmelty. Thns the Fnegians^ described as "very fond of their children/' never- theless sell them to the Patagonians for slaves. Great love of offspring is ascribed to the New Ghiinea people; and yet a man will "barter one or two" with a trader for something he wants. Eyre states that the natives of Australia are diaaracterized by stitmg parental affection; and yety besides being said to desert mk duldrai, Angaa aaserts of tiiem that on the Murray they will sometimes kill a boy to bait their hooks with his fat. Though among the Taemanians the parental instinct is described as having been strongs yet there was infanticide^ and a new-bom infant was buried alive with its deceased mother; and though, among the Bushmen, the rearing of offspring under great difficulties implies much self-sacrifice, yet Moffat says they '^kUl their children without remorse on various occasions.'^ Not to accumuhite further proofs of love of offspring on the one hand, qualified on the other by examples of a violence which will slay a child for letting fall something it was carrying we may safely say of the primitive man that his philoprogenitiveness is strong, but its action, like that of his emotions in general, irregular.
Keeping this in mind, we shall be aided in reconciling the conflicting accounts of his excessive egoism and his fellow feeling — his cruelty and his kindness. Of the Fuegians we read that they are affectionate towards each other; and yet that in times of scarcity they kill the old women for food. Mouat, who describes the Andamanese as a " merciless race,'' nevertheless says that the one he took to Calcutta had a very kind and amiable character. Many and extreme cruelties may be proved against the Australians. Yet Sturt and Eyre unite in testifying to their kindness.
76 THB DATA (MT SOCIOLOGT.
their self-sacrifice, and even their chivalry. So, too, of the Bashmen. Liohtenstein thinks that in no savage is there ''so high a degroe of brutal ferocity;" but MoSat was '' deeply affected by the sympathy of these poor Bushmen/' and Barchell says that they show to each other '' hospitality and generosity often in an extraordinary degree/' Thus among the very lowest types of men there is not that un- qualified brutality which we associate with the name savage; and when we come to races higher in social state, the testimonies to traits of good feeding are abundant. The New Caledonians are said to be ''of a mQd and good-natured temper;" the Tannese are " ready to do any service that lies in their power/' the New Guinea people are "good-natured/' "of a mild disposition/* Passing from the Negrittoe to the Malayo-Polynesians, we meet with like characteristics. The epithets applied to the Sandwich Islanders are "mild, docile/' to the Tahitians, "cheerful and good-natured /' to the Dyaks, " genial /' to the Sea- Dyaks, '^sociable and amiable/* to the Javans, " mild/' " cheerful and good-humoured /* to the Malays of Northern Celebes, " quiet and gentle." We have^ indeed, in other cases, quite opposite descriptions. In the Tupis of South America, revenge is said to be the predominant passion: a trapped animal they kill with little wounds that it may ^suffer as mueh as possible." The leading trait ascribed to the Fijians is "intense and vengeful malignity." Galton condMnns the Damcums as " worthless, thieving,, and mur- derous/' and Anderson as "unmitigated scoundrels." In some cases allied tribes show us these opposite natures; as do the aborigines of India.. While the Bhils are reputed to be very eruel, very revengeful, and ready to play the assassin for a trifiing recompense, the Nagas are described as " good-natured and honest /* the Bodo and IHiimal as " full of amiable qualities," " honest and truthful," " totally free from arrogance, revenge,, cruelty /' and of the Lepcha, Dr. Hooker says — ^"his disposition is really amiable," THE PBIHinyB MAN — EMOTIONAL. 77 ''peaceful and no brawler:" "thus contrasting strongly with his neighbours east and west/' Without further detail^ it will be manifest enough that the primitiye man, if he has but little activei benevo- lence, is not, as often supposed, distinguished by active malevolence. Indeed, a glance over the facts tends rather to show that while wanton cruelty is not ^$ommon among the least civilized, it is common among the mora civilized. The sanguinary Fijians have reached a consider- able social development. Burton says of the Fan that " cruelty seems to be with him a necessary of lifei^' and yet the Fans have advanced arts and appliances, and live in villages reaching, some ol them, four thousand inhabitants. In Dahomey, where a large population considerably or- ganized exists, the love for bloodshed leads to frequent horrible sacrifices; and we have but to study the social system of the ancient Mexicans, rooted as it was in camubaliam, and yet highly erolyed in many ways, to see that it is not the lowest races which are the most inhuman.
Help in rightly estimating the moral nature of the primi- tive man, is furnished us by the remark of Mr/ Bates, that ''the goodness of these Indians, like that of most others amongst whom I lived, consisted perhaps more in the ^ abs^ace of active bad qualities, than in the possession of good ones; in other words, it was negative rather than positive. * * * The good-fellowship of our Gnc&mas seemed to arise, not from warm sympathy, but simply from the absence of eager selfishness in small matters.'^ And we shaill derive further help in reconciling what seem con- tradictory traits, by observing how the dog unites great affectionateness, socialily, and even sympathy, with habitual egoism and bursts of ferocity — ^how in his behaviour he posses readily from playful friendliness to fighting, and while at one time robbing a fellow dog of his food will at another succour him in distress* 78 Tfls DATA or aodOLoar.
One kmcl of evidenoe, however, ihere is whioli amid all these conflicting testmionies^ yietda us tolerably-safe goidanoe -—the treatment of women. The statas of women among any people^ and the habitual behaviour to them, indicate with approzimato truth, the average power of the altroistic sentimentB; and the indication thus yielded tells against the character of the primitive man. Often the actions of the stronger sex to the weaker among the uncivilized are brutal; generally the weaker are treated as mere belong* Logs, without any regard for their personal claims; and even at best the conduct towards them is unsympathetic. That this slavery, often joined with cruelty, and always with indignity, should be the normal condition among savages, accepted as right not by men only but by women them- selves, proves that whatever occasional displays of altruism there may be, the ordinary flow of altruistic feeling is small.
§ 88. As preliminary to a summary of these leading emotional traits, I may here add one which affects all the others — ^the fixity of habit: a trait connected with that of early arrival at maturity, similarly added at the close of the last chapter. The primitive man is conservative in an ex- treme d^^ee. Even on contrasting higher races with one another, and even on contrasting different classes in the same society, it is observable that the least developed are the most averse to change. Among the common people an improved method is difficult to introduce; and even a new kind of food is usually disliked. The uncivilized man is thus characterized in a still greater deg^ree. His simpler nervous system, sooner losing its plasticity, is still less able to take on a modified mode of action. Hence both an unconscious adhesion, and an avowed adhesion, to that which is established. '^ Because same ting do for my &ther, same ting do for me,'' say the Houssa negroes. The Creek Indians laughed at those who suggested that they should '^ alter their long-established customs and habits of THS FIUMITITE HAM — IKOTiOKAL. 7D living/' Of some Afiicaius InvingBtone 8ay&-^^'I often presented my friendB witili iron spoons, and it was carioaB to observe how the habit of hand-eating prevailed, though ihey were delighted with the spoons. They lifted ont « little [milk] with the atensil^ then put it on the left hand, and ate it out of that/' And the way in which this ten- dency leads to unchangeable social usages, is well shown by a story teld of the Dyaks; who, as Mr. T^lor says, ** marked their disgust at the innovation by levying a fine on any of their own people who should be caught chopping in the European fashion/' Becapitulating the emotional traits, severally made more marked by this relative fizity of habit, we have first to note the impulsiveness which, pervading the conduct of primitive men, so greatly impedes co-operation. That " wavering and inconstant disposition,'^ which commonly makes it ^* impos- sible to put any dependence on their promises,'' negatives that trust in mutual obligations on which social progress largely depends. Governed as he is by despotic emotions that successively depose one another, instead of by a council of the emotions in which they all take part, the primitive man has an explosive, chaotic, incalculable behaviour, which makes combined action very difficult. One of the more special traits, partly dependent on this general trait, is his improvidence. The immediate desire, be it for personal gratification or for the applause which generosity brings, excludes fear of future evils; while pains and pleasures to come, not being vividly, conceived, there is no adequate spur to exertion, but a light-hearted, careless absorption in the present. Sociality, strong in the