8 



The Civilisations 

 of M.an 



In a study of the social evolution of animal organizations 

 other than man, one is constantly reminded of situations 

 which appear in human society. There are definite domi- 

 nance-subordination relationships in groups of people. The 

 hierarchies of birds and mammals have obvious counterparts 

 in man's society, where despotism of a more complex and 

 thorough type often appears but is not to be condoned, 

 however, on the excuse of an animal origin. Unlike the 

 social insects, which depend on the fixity of instinct, 

 man's whole evolutionary trend is toward a plasticity 

 of intelligence. Man's societies are never likely to work 

 with the machine-like smoothness of the ant hill; the 

 altruistic instincts will not become completely dominant. In 

 fact, as Haldane points out, absolute altruism is probably 

 possible only in a caste system where there are sterile in- 

 dividuals (such as workers and soldiers among ants) . It would 

 appear that altruism in man will only with difficulty be in- 

 creased beyond its present level— perhaps by the transmis- 

 sion of acquired, favorable social characters or, more re- 

 motely, by favorable gene mutations or, better, by proper 

 educational indoctrination. 



Man's freedom from absolute control by instinct is the 

 gift of his mammalian ancestors. There, in her seeking of 

 conscious understanding, nature found the formula with the 



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