COMMUNAL SOCIETIES. 327 



tions, and then family groups developing in the midst of the larger 

 social groups, and acquiring special interests which render them finally 

 hostile to other family groups. There can be but little question that 

 the ants, termites, bees, and wasps, have passed through these various 

 stages of association, and that the old social groups gradually broke 

 up into minor family groups, which in turn have developed into ex- 

 tensive groups, combined on the principle of blood relationship. 



This gradual evolution of the principle of association, beginning in 

 the completely solitary or hermaphrodite tribes, and reaching its ulti- 

 mate stage in the colonial or compound animals, of which we have a 

 notable instance in the Siphonophora, or family compound of swim- 

 ming polyps, in which the loss of individuality is complete, is a highly 

 interesting phase of animal development, which we can not undertake 

 to consider here as a whole. "We may simply say that animals might 

 be classified, from this point o f view, as the truly solitary, the sexual, 

 the social, the communal, and the colonial or compound. 



The views above expressed lead directly to the consideration of 

 primitive human societies, since these present a striking resemblance 

 to those of the lower animals. The indications are, indeed, that the 

 development of society everywhere follows one fixed course, and 

 obeys one general law, and that human society has in no sense escaped 

 this law, despite all the seemmg irregularity of its development. 



Man may properly be ranked with the ants, bees, and termites, as 

 another instance of the communal animal, the beaver being his only 

 vertebrate counterpart in this respect. Communalism probably did 

 not exist with primitive man. He seems to have been originally a 

 social animal, like the quadrumana, from whom it is assumed that he 

 descended. Yet it is interesting to perceive that, at the opening of 

 the historical period, the ancestors of all the present civilized races 

 were in the communal stage of association, and under conditions which 

 present a striking parallel to those of the lower tribes of communal 

 animals. 



Alike with the American Indians, the Mongolians and Semites of 

 Asia, and the primitive Aryans, history opens with strongly declared 

 instances of the communal type of association. The original social 

 groups, with few interests in common, had been replaced by well-de- 

 fined family groups, with nearly all interests in common. The ancient 

 association vanished as this new association developed, and the family 

 became the basis of all social organization. We might, had we space, 

 consider at some length the evolution of this new condition of human 

 society. It doubtless had its basis in that slowly growing energy of 

 the marriage sentiment, whose development has been traced by several 

 recent writers. The primitive weak sense of union between husband, 

 wife, and children gradually grew into a strong bond of association, 

 whose strength was added to by the possession of a separate family 

 property, which increased in value with the development of society. 



