cook: primitive social states 125 



Mr. Letcher describes the fruit as " quite delicious" and in a 

 recent communication received through the State Department 

 from Mr. Samuel E. Magill, American consul at Guadalajara, he 

 refers to the "ilama of Colima" as having a richer flavor than the 

 chirimoya, the species which has hitherto been considered the 

 queen of the custard apples. 



ETHNOLOGY.— Definitions of two primitive social states. O. F. 

 Cook. 



Primitive social systems are usually classified by standards 

 borrowed from legal or political science, such as the different 

 systems of inheritance of property or rank. Familiarity with 

 two groups of primitive people, in West Africa and Central Amer- 

 ica, has suggested the possibility of a different system of socio- 

 logical classification, based on facts that have a more fundamental 

 relation to the development of civilization. 



That a primitive society be matriarchal or patriarchal, or that 

 it be governed by a priestly or a military caste, does not deter- 

 mine its possibilities of progress, for progressive peoples have 

 shown many differences and have survived many changes in 

 these respects. More important factors have been contributed by 

 the external environment, but none of these can be considered 

 indispensable. Capable peoples have developed in apparently 

 unfavorable environments, until they were able to choose their 

 own environments. The underlying question of civilization is to 

 know what conditions are really favorable for the development of 

 human talent. 



The essentials of civilization, considered as characters of human 

 races, are not transmitted from one generation to another by pre- 

 natal inheritance like the instinctive arts of animals. Human 

 arts and social adjustments have to be acquired by postnatal 

 inheritance, thro the medium of contacts with parents and 

 elders during the years of childhood and youth. It is reasonable, 

 therefore, to believe that any factors or conditions that tend to 

 increase or diminish these contacts are of practical importance 

 in the development of civilization. 



