COOPERATION, COERCION, COMPETITION. 527 



other hand, sea-fishing and plain-hunting to be successful had to be 

 carried on by clans or cooperating companies of virile males — manly- 

 men, as they were called — and as root-culture advanced from the orig- 

 inal essartage methods to the more complicated plantation system, the 

 association of the women and womanly-men was found essential. As 

 far as these latter cases were concerned, therefore, the character of the 

 surplus required personal association of labor and in this way the co- 

 operative system was originally established. 



Wliether the character of the surplus was such as to require sexual 

 or personal association of labor, in the natural state, the sources of the 

 surplus were far too widespread to admit of monopolization. True, 

 the spawning grounds of fish might be closed in to some extent, but for 

 the most part, fishing, hunting and primitive agricultural opportunities 

 were too far dispersed to be monopolized by any one party within the 

 community to the exclusion of others. As a result, access to the sur- 

 plus source was not restricted to any particular class. Where the char- 

 acter of the surplus was such as to require only sexual association of 

 labor, there each family had immediate access to the surplus source 

 and the individual members were dependent upon the domestic group 

 for their livelihood. Where the character of the surplus was such as 

 to require personal association of labor, there the cooperating company 

 had immediate access to the surplus source and the individual members 

 were dependent upon the clan for their livelihood. But though in both 

 cases individuals were dependent upon the group to which they be- 

 longed, still no one set of individuals was dependent upon another set 

 of individuals for their livelihood. In short, the fact that the surplus 

 source could not be controlled precluded the possibility of coercion and 

 left the cooperative system supreme in the natural state. 



During the proprietary period which succeeded the natural state the 

 surplus was derived primarily from cattle-raising and agriculture. For 

 the development of the pastoral surplus personal association was neces- 

 sary for the defense of the flock and for the occupation and defense 

 of pasture lands, with the result that we find the manly-men of pastoral 

 peoples organized like the hunters of the plain into military companies 

 under a competent chief. For the development of the agricultural sur- 

 plus personal association of labor was not everywhere necessary. In 

 the temperate zone, where the extensive system of agriculture was most 

 profitable, the land could best be cleared and cultivated by individual 

 families. In the subtropical zone, however, agricultural opportunities 

 were confined to certain favored localities, such as oases, river valleys 

 or lakesides, where irrigation and hoe and spade culture were necessary. 

 These conditions called for intensive agriculture and this in turn neces- 

 sitated the associated labor of men, women and even children. In sum- 

 marizing, therefore, we may say that during the proprietary period the 



