BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



inclusive of all that men anywhere have devised by way of 

 cultural device. 



Though origins are irretrievably lost, we are not without 

 some insight into some of the principles and conditions that 

 have guided social evolution. Early cultures are purely and 

 simply adaptations to environment. From very early stages 

 this environment included not only physical habitat but 

 also the spirit world. Later the political environment 

 became highly important, while with advanced cultures 

 we see adaptation to the conditions of world trade and 

 world politics. We may conceive primitive man, like our- 

 selves, trying, by trial and error, various ways of satisfying 

 his wants, always seeking, with the least effort, to avoid 

 pain and increase pleasure. The more successful ways tended 

 to be adopted and so to become the folkways of the group. 

 One could, without distortion, describe this as a process of 

 selection among variates. That a full set of culture traits, 

 as outlined above, was attained in the very remote past is 

 shown by the fact that the most primitive races known 

 have cultures which, in one or more respects, are highly 

 elaborate. Since culture is man's device, he cherishes it; 

 among savages, even apparently trivial matters are often 

 imbued with a ceremonial rightness which makes departure 

 from them dangerous and sinful. The primary reason for 

 this is that a large part of the folkways become mores — 

 that is, they become imbued with a quality of sacredness 

 because believed essential to group welfare. Age gives 

 authority among primitive minds; and the more ancient 

 a custom is, the more it is believed entitled to sacredness. 

 Back of the mores are placed awe-inspiring and fearsome 

 mandates of the gods with which primitive man peoples 

 his world. Henceforth they become inviolate; their Tight- 

 ness and adequacy are no longer proper subjects for critical 

 thought. Every culture thus resists, in greater or less degree, 

 invasion by alien cultural elements, partly because it 



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