THE GENERAL BACKGROUND 7 



Deegener's criteria for the social value of his categories were far 

 less sensitive than those which were shortly developed by other 

 workers in this field, and which will be summarized in the body of 

 the present discussion. Apphcation of such distinctions, even in their 

 present incomplete form, would necessitate a marked revision in 

 Deegener's scheme. 



Later, Deegener recognized that certain groups of animals are 

 held together by a social force or instinct of which we know at present 

 relatively httle. The arrangement of such groups in his original sys- 

 tem is obviously difficult. One may think of the satisfaction of the 

 so-called "social force" or "instinct" as having definite value for the 

 animal so satisfied. According to this reasoning, the group collected 

 by social instinct would be a "society"; although, since there is no 

 other demonstrable advantage accruing to the members of the group, 

 Deegener at first was inchned to regard such an aggregation of in- 

 dividuals as an "association." Faced with this dilemma, he decided 

 (191 9) that associations whose occurrence depends upon a social in- 

 stinct may be designated as "instinctive associations." They are 

 opposed to aggregations of purely accidental character which are 

 formed not because of instinct but because of hmited space or local- 

 ized food. If the aggregation is formed from obvious mutual attrac- 

 tion but without any recognizable objective benefit to the members, 

 Deegener calls it an "instinctive association," as with young spiders, 

 young ticks, or groups of grasshoppers. 



Alverdes (1927) understands by "associations" the chance gather- 

 ings produced solely by external factors, such as insects collected 

 around a lamp, while "societies" are genuine communities held to- 

 gether by the force of a social instinct. "In short," Alverdes says, 

 "no social instinct, no society!" According to this point of view, the 

 individuals are collected into an association because of their re- 

 sponses to environmental factors, but they collect into a society 

 primarily because of the presence of other similar animals and only 

 secondarily because of the action of environmental forces. Alverdes 

 v/ould consider the lack of a social instinct all the evidence necessary 

 for calling such a group an "association." 



Wheeler (1928), commenting on these two classification schemes. 



