24 COMMUNITY FUNCTIONS— DYNAMICS OF BIOTIC FORMATION 



the statement: "Human society then, by the diversity of its parts, 

 their specialization, the distribution of functions, the mutual service 

 and support of the parts, and their solidarity, is a true system or 

 organization. It has a life different from that of the individuals. The 

 quality of a combination is not the sum of the qualities of its com- 

 ponents. There is a body to study as well as a cell, a society as well 

 as an individual; and the body and the society are things with lives 

 and laws of their own. Hence forces arise in the societal organization 

 which are characteristically societal forces." It is evident that this 

 derives much from Spencer's earlier ideas (1866) and that these may 

 have sprung from the germ contained in Comte's positivist philosophy 

 (1830). 



The most recent and illuminating discussion of the theme of the 

 complex or social organism is that of Phillips (1935; cf. Tansley, 

 1935), which must be read and pondered by everyone who wishes 

 to obtain a comprehensive outlook upon the world of living things. 

 To the forward-looking biologist, it leaves no doubt that this con- 

 cept is the "open sesame" to a whole new vista of scientific thought, a 

 veritable magna carta for future progress, as Jennings has pointed out. 



At the most primitive levels, human families and societies are 

 merely integral parts of the biome. It was only with the advent of 

 agriculture and the control of the habitat by culture and especially 

 of urbanization that man achieved such mastery of biome and habitat 

 as to become an outstanding dominant of a new order. Such domi- 

 nance, however, is chiefly the consequence of the development of steel 

 and machinery. In pastoral areas, man perhaps is still to be reckoned 

 as a constituent of the biome rather than the superdominant in it. 

 Although ecology has advanced beyond the simple distinction of the 

 natural and the artificial, it is evident that this still suggests an 

 important difference in the reactions and coactions exerted by man at 

 the various culture levels, a difference, however, that runs the entire 

 gamut from influence to dominance and superdominance. Conse- 

 quently, as suggested earlier, bio-ecology may at present concern 

 itself chiefly with modern man in the role of coactor or reactor in 

 the biome, leaving for sociology and related fields the development 

 and structure of human communities per se. However, in basic stud- 

 ies of social processes and origins, bio-ecology must lay the founda- 

 tion on which the superstructure of the other social sciences can be 

 reared. 



Status of the Concept. At first thought it might appear that the 

 recognition of the biome as the basic unit would necessitate much 

 modification in dealing with the development and structure of com- 



