As with organic evolution^ so with super-organic evolu- tion. Though, taking the entire assemblage of societies, evolution may be held inevitable as an ultimate effect of 108 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGT.
the co-operatdng factors, intrmsic and extrinfiic, acting^ on them all through indefinite periods of time; yet it cannot be held inevitable in each particular society, or even probable. A social organism, like an individual organism, undergoes modifications until it comes into equilibrium with environing conditions; and thereupon continues without further change of structure. When the conditions are changed meteorologically, or geologi- cally, or by alterations in the Flora and Fauna, or by migration consequent on pressure of population, or by flight before usurping races, some change of social struc« ture is entailed. But this change does not necessarily imply advance. Often it is towards neither a higher nor a lower structure. Where the habitat entails modes of life that are inferior, some degradation results. Only oc* casionally is the new combination of factors such as to cause a change constituting a step in social evolution, and initiating a social type which spreads and supplants inferior social types. For with these super-organic aggregates, as with the organic aggregates, progression in some produces retrogression in others: the more-evolved societies drive the less-evolved societies into un&vourable habitats; and BO entail on them decrease of size, or decay of structure.
Direct evidence forces this conclusion upon us. Lapse from higher civilization to lower civilization, made familiar during school-days, is further exemplified as our knowledge widens. Eg^tians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Jews, Greeks, Bomans — ^it needs but to name these to be reminded that many large and highly-evolved societies have either disappeared, or have dwindled to bar-> barous hordes, or have been long passing through slow decay. Ruins show us that in Java there existed in the past a more-developed society than exists now; and the like is Bhown by ruins in Cambodia. Peru and Mexico were once the seats of societies large and elaborately organized, that have been disorganized by conquest; and where the PBXMITIVS IDEAS. 109 cities of Central America once contained great populations carrying on various industries and arts^ there arc now but scattered tribes of savages. Unquestionably, causes like tbose wbicb produced these retrogressions, have been at work during the whole period of human existence. Always there have been cosmical and terrestrial changes going on, which, bettering some habitats, have made others worse; always there have been over-populations, spread- ings of tribes, conflicts with other tribes, and escape of the defeated into localities unfit for such advanced social life as they had reached; always, where evolution has been uninteifered with externally, there have been those decays and dissolutions which complete the cycles of social changes. That supplanting of race by race, and thrusting into corners such inferior races as are not exterminabed, which ia now going on so actively, and which has been going on from the earliest recorded times, must have been ever going on. And the implication is that remnants of inferior races, taking refuge in inclement, barren, or otherwise unfit re- gions, have retrograded.
Thus, then, the tribes now known as lowest must exhibit some social phenomena which are due, not to causes now operating, but to causes that operated during past social states higher than the present. This d 'priori conclusion barmonizes with the facts; and, indeed, is suggested by facts that are otherwise inexplicable. Take, for example, some furnished by the Australians. Divided into tribes wandering over a wide area, these savages have, not- withstanding their antagonisms, a complex system of re- lationships, and consequent interdicts on marriage, which could not possibly have been framed by any agreement among them as they now exist; but which are comprehen- sible as having survived from a state in which these tribes were more closely united, and subordinate to some common rule. Such, also, is the implication of the circumcision, and the knocking-out of teeth, which we find among them, as 110 THE DATA Of SOCIOLOaT.
among other races now in the lowest stages. For when we come hereafter to deal with bodily matilations, we shall see that they all imply a sabordination^ political, or eccle« siastical, or both, such as these races do not now exhibit.
Hence, then, a difficulty in ascertaining indactively what are primitiye ideas. Of the ideas current among men now forming each of the most rudimentary societies, there are doubtless some which have descended by tradition from a higher state. These haye to be discriminated from truly primitive ideas; so that simple induction does not suffice.
§ 51. To the deductive method there are obstacles of another kind but equally great. Comprehension of the thoughts generated in the primitive man by his converse with the surrounding worlds can be had only by look- ing at the surrounding world from his stand-point. The accumulated knowledge and the mental habits slowly acquired during education^ must be suppressed; and we must divest ourselves of conceptions which, partly by in- heritance and partly by individual culture, have been rem- dered necessary. None can do this completely, and few can do it even partially.
It needs but to observe what unfit methods are adopted by educators, to be convinced that even among the dis- ciplined the power to frame thoughts which are widely unlike their own, is extremely small. When we see the juvenile mind plied with generalities while it has yet none of the concrete facts to which they refer — ^when we see mathematics introduced under the purely rational form, instead of under that empirical form with which it should be commenced by the child, as it was commenced by the race — ^when we see a subject so abstract as grammar put among the first instead of among the last, and see it taught analytically instead of synthetically; we have ample evi- dence of the prevailing inability to conceive the ideas of un- developed minds. And if, though they have been children PBUcrnvs ideas. ill themselves, men find it hard to re-think the thoughts of the duld; still harder mnst they find it to re-think the thoughts of the savage. To keep out aatomorphic interpretationa is beyond onr power. To look at things with the eyes of absolute ignorance, and observe how their attributes and actions originally gprouped themselves in the mind, implies a self-suppression that is impracticable.
Kevertheless, we must here do our best to conceive the surrounding world as it appeared to the primitive man; that we may be able the better to interpret deductively the evidence avaQable for induction. And though we are in- capable of reaching the oenoeption by a direct process, we may makei some approach to it by an indirect process. Guided by the doctrine of evolution in general, and by the more special doctrine of mental evolution, we may help ourselves to delineate primitive ideas in some of their lead- ing traits. Having observed, d priori, what must be the characters of those ideas, we shall be as tar as possible pre- pared to realise them in imagination, and then to discern them as actually existing.
§ 52. We must set out with the postulate that primitive ideas are natural, and, under the conditions in which they occur, rational. In early life we have been taught that human nature is everywhere the same. Led thus to con- template the beliefs of savages as beliefs entertained by minds like our own, we marvel at their strangeness, and ascribe perversity to those who hold them. Casting aside this error, we must substitute for it the truth that the laws of thought are everywhere the same; and that, given the data as known to him, the inference drawn by the primitive man is the reasonable inference.
From its lowest to its highest grades, intelligence pro- ceeds by the classing of objects and the classing of rela- tions; which are, in fact, different aspects of the same pro- I. {PfincipUs of Piyehology, §§ 809—816, § 881.) On the 112 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.
one hand^ perception, of an object implies that its attributes are severally classed witb like before-known attributes, and the relations in which they stand to one another witb like before-known relations; while the object itself, in being known, is classed with its like as such or such. On the other hand, every step in reasoning implies that the object of which anything is predicated, is classed with objects pre- viously known of like kind; implies that the attribute, power, or act, predicated, is classed as like other previously- known attributes, powers, or acts; and implies that the relation between the object and this predicated attribute, power, or act, is classed with previously-known like relations. This assimilation of states of consciousness of all orders with their likes in past experience, which is the universal intellectual process, animal and human, leads to results that are correct in proportion to the power of appreciating like- nesses and unlikenesses. Where simple terms stand in re- lations that are simple, direct, and close, the classing can be correctly carried on by simple minds; but in proportion as the terms are complex and the relations between them in- volved, indirect, remote, the classing can be correctly car- ried on only by minds developed to a corresponding complexity. In the absence of this corresponding complexiiy the terms of relations are g^uped with those which they conspicuously resemble, and the relations themselves are grouped in like manner. But this leads to error; since the most obvious traits are not always those by which things are really allied to one another, and the most obvious traits of relations are not always their essential traits.
Let us observe the great mistakes thus caused among our uncultured kindred; and then pass to the greater mis- takes made by savages, still more ignorant and lower in faculty. In old works on natural history, whales are called fishes: living in the water, and fish-like in shape, what else should they be? Nine out of ten cabin-passengers, and ninety-nine out of a hundred of those in the steerage, would PRIMITIVE IDEAS. 118 be amassed wcro yon to tell them tliab tho porpoises playing abont the steamer's bow^ are nearer akin to dogs than to cod. Take, again, the name shell-fish, as popularly used. In the first place^ there is supposed to be some alliance between shell-fish and fish proper, because both are aquatic; and in the second place^ the fishmonger includes under shell-fish both oysters and crabs: these, though really far more re- mote in type than an eel is from a man^ having in common the character that their softer parts are inclosed in hard cases. After reminding ourselves of these mistakes to which classing by obvious characters 'leckds our own people^ we shall see how natural are the mistakes into which uncivilized men are similarly led. Hayes could not make the Esquimaux understand that woollen clothing was not a skin. '^Glass " they " took for ice, and biscuit for the dried flesh of the musk-ox.^' Having so small an acquaintance with things, these were the most rational group- ings they could make — quite as rational as those above iuf stanced. If his erroneous classing led the Esquimaux to the erroneous inference that glass would melt in his mouth, it was no more erroneous than that of the ship-passenger who, instead of what he looked for, would find in the porpoise hot bloody and lungs to breathe air with. So, too, remembering that they had no experiences of metals, we shall see nothing irrational in the question put to Jackson by the Fijians — " how we could get axes hard enough in a natural country, to cut down the trees which the barrels of muskets were made of.'' For were not tubular canes the only objects to which musket barrels bore any resemblance? When, again, certain Hill-tribes with whom Dr. Hooker came in contact, saw thrown on the ground a spring-box measuring-tape, that had just been extended for use, and when, seeing the coils of tape disappearing into the box they ran away shrieking, it is manifest that the tape was considered in virtue of its spontaneous movement as some- thing alive, and in virtue of its shape and behaviour as 114 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGT.
some kind of snake. Without knowledge of mechanical oontriyances^ and seeing nothing of the internal springs this belief was perfectly natural — any other would have been irrational. Turn, now, from the classing of objects to the classing of relations. We may again help ourselves by analyzing a few errors current in our own society. It is a common recommendation of some remedy for a bum, that it '' draws the fire out: *' the implication being that between the thing applied and the heat supposed to be lodged in the tissues, there is a connection like that between some object and another which it pulls. Again, after a frost, when air highly charged with water comes in contact with a cold smooth surface, such as that of a painted wall, the water condensed on it collects in drops and trickles down; whereupon may sometimes be' heard the remark that "the wall sweats/' Because the water, not visibly brought from elsewhere, makes its appearance on the wall as perspiration does on the skin, it is assumed to come out of the wall as perspiration does out of the skin. Here, as before, we see a relation classed with another which it superficially resembles, but from which it is entirely alien. If, remembering such cases, we consider what must happen where ignorance is still greater, we shall no longer bq astonished at primitive interpretations. The Orinoco Indians think that dew is *' the spittle of the stars." Observe the genesis of this belief. Dew is a clear liquid to which saliva has some resemblance. It is a liquid which, by its position on leaves, etc.) seems to have descended from above, as saliva descends from the mouth of one who spits. Having thus descended during a cloudless night, it must have de- scended from the only things then visible above; namely, the stars. Thus the product itself, dew, and the relation between it and its supposed source, are respectively assimi- lated with those resembling them in obvious characters; and we need but recall our own common expression '' it spits with rain," to see how natural is the interpretation.
PRIHITIVS IDRAS. 115 Anotlier tarait of savage conceptions becomes cor:prohen- sible on observing what happens when complex objects and relations are thought of in the same manner as simple ones. Only as knowledge advances and observation becomes deli- berate and critical, does there grow up the perception that the power of any agent to produce its peculiar effect, may depend on some one property to the exclusion of the rest, or on some one part to the exclusion of the rest, or not on any one of the properties or parts but on the combination of them. What character it is in a complex whole which determines its efficiency, can be known only after analysis, has advanced somewhat; and until then, the efficiency is necessarily conceived as belonging to the whole indiscrimi- nately. Further, this unanalyzed whole is conceived as standing towards some unanalyzed effect, in some isolation that is unanalyzed. This trait of primitive thought is so important a one as determining the characters of primitive conceptions, that we must consider it more closely. Let us symbolize the several attributes of an object, say a sea-shell, by A, B, C, D, E, etc., and the relations among them by w, x, y, z. The ability of this object to produce the particular effect of concentrating sound on the ear, is due in part to the smoothness of its internal surface (which we will express by C), and in part to those relations among the portions of this surface constituting its shape (which we will symbolize by y). Now, that the power of the shell to concentrate sound may be nuderstood as thus resulting, it is needful that C and y should be separated in the thought from the rest. Until this can be done, the sound-multiplying power of the shell cannot be known not to depend on its colour, or hardness, or roughness (supposing these to be separately thinkable as attributes.) Evidently, before attributes are distinguished, this power of the shell can be known only as belonging to it generally — ^residing in it as a whole. But, as we have seen, (§ 43), attributes or properties, as we understand them, aro 116 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOGT.
not recognizable by tbe savage — are abstractions wliich neither his faculties can grasp nor his language express. Thus, of necessity^ ho associates this peculiar power with the shell bodily — ^regards it as related to the shell as weight is related to a stone — conceives it as inhering in every part of the shell. Hence certain beliefs^ everywhere conspicuous among the uncivilized. A special potency which some object or part of an object displays^ belongs to it in such wise that may be secured by consuming or possessing this object or part. For example^ the powers of a con- quered antagonist are supposed to be gained by devouring him: the Dakotah eats the heart of a slain foe to increase ^ his own courage; the New Zealander swallows his dead / enemy^s eyes that he may see the further; the Abipone consumes tiger's fleshy thinking so to gain the tiger's / strength and valour. The like trait is seen in such beliefs as that prevailing among the Guaranis^ whose '' pregnant women abstained from eating the flesh of the Anta^ lest the child should have a large nose; and from small birds, lest it should prove diminutive;" or again, in such beliefs as that which led the Garibs to sprinkle a male infant with its father's blood to give him his father's courage; or again, in such beliefs as that of the Timmanese and BuUoms^ who hold that possessing part of a successful person's body gives them " a portion of his good fortune." Glearly the mode of thought thus exhibited, displayed even in the medical prescriptions of past ages, and continuing to recent days in the notion that character is absorbed with mother's milk, is a mode of thought necessarily persisting until analysis has disclosed the complexities of causal relations.
While physical conceptions are absent or remain very vague, any antecedent will serve to account for any con- sequent. Ask the quarryman what he thinks of the fossils his pick-axe is exposing, and he will tell you they are " sports of nature:" the tendency of his thought to pass from the existence of the fossils as an effect, to some proranciTrrx ideas. 117 dncing agent^ is satisfied, and His curiosity ceases. The plumber^ cross-examined about the working of the pump he is Tepairing, says that the water rises in it by suction. Having classed the process with that which he can perform by the mnsctilar action of his own mouth applied to a tube, he thmks lie understands it — ^neyer asks what force makes the water rise towards his mouth when he performs these muscular actions. Similarly with an explanation of some unfamiliar &ct which you may often hoar in cultivated society — " it is caused by electricity." The mental tension is sufficiently relieved when to the observed result there is joined in thought this something with a name; though there is no notion what the something really is^ nor the remotest idea how the result can be wrought by it. Thus recognizing, even among ourselves, a readiness to accept any alleged relation between an action and a power, provided it is not directly contradicted by familiar experiences, we shall have no difficulty in seeing how the savage, with fewer experiences more vaguely grouped, adopts, as quite adequate, the first explanation which familiar associations suggest; and there- upon thinks no further. If Siberian tribes, finding mam- moths imbedded in ice and the bones of mammoths in the ground, ascribe earthquakes to the burrowing of these huge beasts; or if savages living near volcanoes, think of them as fires lighted by some of their ancestors to cook by; they do but illustrate in a more marked way, the common readiness to fill up the missing term of a causal relation by the first agency which occurs to the mind. Further, it is observable that, besides this easy acceptance of any explanation suggested by familiar experiences, there is a complete contentment with the proximate explanation — there is no tendency to ask for anything beyond it. Thus the Africans who denied the alleged obligations to Gk)d, by saying that "the earth, and not God, gave them gold, which was dug out of its bowels: that the earth yielded tliera maize and rice; * * * that for fruits they were 118 THE DATA OJf SOCIOLOGY.
obliged to the Portuguese, who had planted the trees f and so on; show us clearly that a relation between the last consequent and its immediate antecedent haying been established in thought, nothing further happens. There is not enough mental excursiyeness to raise a question respect- ing any remoter antecedent.
One other trait, consequent on the foregoing traits, must be added. In proportion as complex objects and relations are conceiyed in terms of simple ones which they super- ficially resemble, there must result conceptions that are inconsistent and confused. The intellectual jumble which among ourselyes unites the belief that epidemics are caused by unfayourable conditions, with the belief that they result from diyine yengeance, must, among primitiye men, unite beliefs still more incongruous. That their beliefs do exhibit extrem© incongruities, is commonly remarked by trayellei'S. Certain fundamental ideas as found among the Iroquois^ are described by Morgan as " yague and diyersified;" as found among the Creeks, are characterized by Schoolcraft as " confused and irregular;" as found among the Karens^ are said by Mason to be "confused, indefinite, and con- tradictory.^^ Byerywhere occur gross inconsistencies which arise from leaying propositions uncompared; as when " in almost the same breath, a Malagasy will express his belief that when he dies he ceases altogether to exist, * * * and yet confess the fact that he is in the habit of praying to his ancestors *' — ^a special inconsistency occurring among many peoples. How illogicalities so extreme are possible, we shall the more easily see on recalling certain of our own illogicalities. Instance the popular notion that killing a mad dog preseryes from harm a person just bitten by it; or instance that familiar absurdity fallen into by belieyers in ghosts, who, admitting that ghosts are seen clothed, admit, by implication, that coats haye ghosts — an implica- tion they had not perceiyed. Among men of low type, then, far more ignorant and with less capacity for thought.
FBDCrriTE IDKAS. 119 ire most expect to find a chaos of notions^ and a ready ac- ceptance of doctrines which to ns seem monstrous.
And now we have prepared ourselves, so far as may be, for understanding primitive ideas. We have seen that a truo interpretation of these most be one which recognizes their naturakiess under the conditions. The mind of the savage, like the mind of the civilized, proceeds by classing objects and relations with their likes in past experience. Glassing them rightly, implies a faculty complex enough to grasp in thought the groups of attributes characterizing them, and to grasp in thought the resulting modes of their action. In the absence of adequate mental power, there result simple and vague classings of objects by conspicuous likenesses, and of actions by conspicuous likenesses; and hence come crude notions, too simple and too few in their kinds to repre- sent the &ct8. Further, these crude notions are inevitably inconsistejit to an extreme degree. Let us now glance at the sets of ideas thus formed and thus characterized.
§ 53. In the sky, clear a few moments ago, the savage sees a fragment of cloud which grows while he gazes. At another time, watching one of these moving masses, he observes shreds of it drift away and vanish; and pre- sently the whole disappears. What thought results in him? He knows nothing about precipitation and dis- solution of vapour; nor has there been any one to stop tis inquiry by the reply — "It is only a cloud.^' The essential fact forced on his attention is that something lie could not before see has become visible; and something just now visible has vanished. The whence, and the where, and the why, he cannot tell; but there is the fact.
In this same space above him occur other changes. As ^y declines bright points here and there show themselves, l>ccoming clearer and more numerous as darkness increases; and then at dawn they fade gradually, until not one is left. I^iffering from clouds utterly in size, form^ colour, etc.; 120 THB DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.