1. The Social Use of Space 99 



If culture really does permit individuals to function in the context of a 

 larger social group as if they were still only in the basic A^'t = 12 group com- 

 patible with their physiology, then any disruption in the culture should 

 reduce the group size since its unstable state would then no longer buffer 

 the individuals from the excessive contacts with their associates. I am as- 

 suming that, depending upon the extent of the cultural disturbance, 

 physiological disturbances comparable to those of my rats caught in the 

 behavioral sink (Section XII, C) would arise. 



In fact, Birdsell (1953) demonstrates that such a phenomenon has 

 characterized Australian aborigines in recent times. Tribes which have 

 recently adopted the rites of circumcision or subincision generally have a 

 size less than one-third that of tribes which have either not been exposed 

 to these practices or adopted them long ago. Furthermore, the historical 

 records indicate that tribes once reduced in numbers after they first adopted 

 these rites now after several generations have recovered their typical 

 numbers. 



These data on the Australian aborigines further suggest that an in- 

 dividual can shift his participation from one level of social organization to 

 another, provided there are cultural means for channeling such participa- 

 tion. Duff and Kew (1957) provide an account of the recently extinct 

 Kunghit Haida Indians of British Columbia, which enables similar in- 

 sights into basic group sizes in a food-gathering people. 



Their winter village consisted of 16 to 20 large houses (1600 sq. ft. of 

 floor space each). From various of the accounts it appears that the tribe 

 totaled about 500 individuals, of which slightly over 200 were adults. This 

 means about 10-12 adults on the average per house. Each house was in- 

 habited by a kinship group or lineage. During the warmer months of the 

 year each lineage group left the winter village for its own hunting territory. 

 Like the Australian aborigines, these British Columbia Indians also appear 

 to have a basic group size not diverging far from 12 and an assembly of 

 these into a tribe of around 200 adults. 



Incipient agriculture, in which plow and draft animals are absent, repre- 

 sents an even more ad\'anced efficiency of food extraction, characterized 

 by a permanent village. The Jarmo site in Iraq, inhabited some 6700 years 

 ago, presumably represents a typical village at this level (Braid wood and 

 Reed, 1957). Braidwood and Reed estimate that 150 persons (50 adults) 

 inhabited the 25 houses located there. This type of village structure ex- 

 tends into the present. The mean size of 185 villages in this part of Iracj 

 is 140, which presumably represents 46-56 adults. 



From the scanty examination of lower-order basic group sizes in man 

 we shall skip to the urban society of a modern nation, the United States. 

 The social organization represented by Australian aborigines and the 



