THE PROSPECTS OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES 



ways and possessions of the "out-group." One's own 

 government, morals, and gods become sacred and inviolate, 

 while those of the "out-group" are wicked and contempti- 

 ble. Civilized man, to a very limited extent, outgrows these 

 age-old attitudes, though warfare revives them even in 

 those academic circles where scientific candor and objectivity 

 are cultivated as the highest virtues. Moreover, they are 

 sometimes explained as mere expressions of human vanity; 

 whatever in any way typifies one's own group is to some 

 extent identified with oneself. Consequently, one's own 

 egoistic satisfaction requires that all such things be highly 

 esteemed. This explanation is doubtless true so far as it 

 goes. 



At the same time, we may see in this spirit of clannish- 

 ness both a consequence of, and an aid in, the group struggle 

 for existence. "The strength of the wolf is the pack; and 

 the strength of the pack is the wolf." What heightens 

 individual courage and confidence increases the group 

 chances of success. Confidence in the strength and superior- 

 ity of one's race, and tradition and faith in the omnipotence 

 of one's gods, are assertions of the group will to live and 

 to conquer. In their absence, courage weakens and degener- 

 ation presages defeat and elimination. The study of the 

 decay of tribal societies, both in this country and in the 

 South Seas, reveals the profoundly significant fact that 

 the crushing of tribal confidence by white supremacy destroys 

 in the individual even the will to live and to reproduce.^ 



Finally, one further word may be hazarded regarding this 

 "struggle of races" which has for so many thousands of 

 years dominated the human scene. It has inspired men to 

 their most heroic efforts, stimulated invention, forced 

 repeated modification, and even the annihilation, of culture 

 patterns. It has always been an essential element of empire 



• Rivers, W. H. R., "Essays on the Depopulation of Melanesia," Cambridge 

 University Press (The Macmillan Company, New York), 1922. 



[43] 



