CIVOLOGY— A SUGGESTION 365 



CIVOLOGY— A SUGGESTION 



By professor lindley m. keasbey 



UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS 



SO far civilization — Johnson ' abominated ' the word and suggested 

 ' civility ' instead — has been considered philosophically, described 

 historically, viewed esthetically and computed statistically. I say ' so 

 far/ and I may add ' so good,' for by these disciplines the phenomena 

 in question have been arrayed under their vicarious aspects with illu- 

 minating, impressive, interesting and significant results. Hence we 

 have systems, narratives, tales and tables, all of which are well enough 

 in their respective ways. As a whole, however — if one can consider 

 them collectively — these systems, narratives, tales and tables lack con- 

 tinuity. Coordination is required, so, it seems to me, civilization 

 should be subjected to scientific research. Ours is the age of science, 

 we affirm; certainly each century has contributed its quota. To the 

 credit of the nineteenth belongs biology, which has succeeded in co- 

 ordinating the phenomena of life ; it is the task of the twentieth, I take 

 it, to coordinate the phenomena of civilization and afford us the science 

 of, Civology, shall I say? 



But why, you ask, is a new science necessary? Civilization is the 

 work of man and anthropology, the science of man, is already estab- 

 lished. Beavers build dams, but there's not one science of beavers and 

 another of their dams, why, then, one science of man and another of his 

 works? If men established civilizations by instinct, as beavers build 

 dams, and the same sorts of civilizations from generation to generation, 

 with only such changes as are effected through selection, there would 

 be no necessity of a separate science, but such is not the case. Civiliza- 

 tion is not instinctive and conservative, it is purposive and progressive. 

 So there is something in the distinction Spencer sought to establish 

 between organic and super-organic phenomena. Man himself is an 

 organic phenomenon, his works, however, are super-organic — to be 

 sure, they proceed, as Spencer said, by insensible steps out of the 

 organic, even as organic phenomena proceed by insensible steps out of 

 the inorganic, still for this very reason they are super-organic. Since 

 such is the case, manifestly man and his works can not be included 

 within one science ; there must be two sciences, one of man, and another 

 of his works. It is of no avail — in fact it only mixes matters the 

 more — to divide anthropology into two parts: physical anthropology, 

 which purports to deal with man himself, and cultural anthropology. 



