COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION: PERIODISM 



561 



man are aperiodic, Passalus cornutus, with 

 its relatively stable habitat and slightly de- 

 veloped sociality, is aperiodic. 



two periods of seasonal change, spring and 

 autumn, and two periods of diel change, 

 dawn and dusk. 



TIME 



Fig. 198. The prostrate log habitat has a smaller range, and a lag in temperature as com- 

 pared with air temperature about the log. (After Savely.) 



The tendency toward arrhythmicitv in 

 social species is interesting. It suggests that 

 the society, in basing its existence upon 

 mutual cooperation, places in operation a 

 complicated system of demands upon the 

 individual (pp. 420, 428-435). These de- 

 mands can be satisfied fully only by control 

 of the environment. That is, a relatively 

 arrhythmic social medium is interposed be- 

 tween the organisms and the periodic diel 

 cycle. It is difficult to conceive how the 

 highest known types of society could pros- 

 per on a strictly diel basis (O. Park, 

 1941a). 



In closing this chapter on community 

 periodism, it should be remembered that a 

 majority of major communities have many 

 of their activities and inactivities upon a 

 seasonal and a diel basis. These two pe- 

 riodic patterns are in general correlation 

 with periodic patterns of the inanimate 

 portions of the environment; that is, sea- 

 sonal periodicity is congruent with the sea- 

 sonal march of operating physical in- 

 fluences, and diel periodicity is congruent 

 with the march of operating physical in- 

 fluences through the twenty-four hour cycle. 



In both instances there is a period of rel- 

 ative overlap between the complementary 

 halves of the cycle. The community has 



There is a basic diflFerence in those com- 

 munities at latitudes or altitudes that have 

 sufficiently severe winters to control their 

 pattern. The seasonal periodicity has two 



Fig. 199. Diagram of a temperate community 

 in the form of a seasonal wheel. Hibernal and 

 aestival periods are differentiated on the basis 

 of the average level of activity, with the overlap 

 of the vernal and autumnal periods suggested. 



parts that differ in amount of total activity: 

 namely, summer ("growing season"), in 

 which there is relatively great activity, and 



