754 MAN 



s\I(}UsU'riun Sta^e. It was not, however, until some time during the 

 fourth ghieiation (al)()ut i 50,000 years ago) that the Neanderthal raee, pass- 

 ing through its remarkable Mouslcrian eultural phase, took a decisi\c step 

 forward, at once so eritieal, so epoch-making that the importance of its lar- 

 reaching psychological efTccts has scarcely as yet been fidly ap]>reciated. 

 Tills profitable step — and it may well l)e called such — has made itself felt 

 with increasing force upon all the subsequent development of the human 

 race. It actually led the Neanderthal man to the threshold of a new idea. 

 The ultimate expansion of this new idea was to become one of the kexstoncs 

 of all social organization, it not ihv fundamental pnncijjie m the upbuilding of 

 human society. This great step forward gave the Mousterian the first real 

 conception of jjroperty holding. It implanted in his mind that germ out of 

 which grew the rights of possession handed down by him as an heirloom to 

 all the remainder of his race and to other races of mankind. 



Development 0/ ibe Ciince])li(in 0/ Pr()])erly I loldu}!^. The jihysical basis 

 of the conception of property holding de\eloped trom the tact that the 

 Mousterian Neanderthal became a cave-dweller. He sought shelter from the 

 elements in the rude dwellings fashioned by nature. W h\ he had not seen 

 the advantages of such protection long before this late period m his progress 

 seems c|uite remarkable, and \ ct the explanation ma\ not Ix' tar to seek. 

 Those caves \\hich he might haxc found to his liking or suited to his con- 

 venience were already inhal)ited by such dangerous tenants as the ca\e- 

 lion and leopard, the hyena, the wolf, the great ea\e-bear, and pirhaps 

 even the dread machacrodus or saber-toothed tiger. All of these were his 

 nat lira! enemit's tor I lu' most part suecesstLiI ones — with w ho in he could only 

 at the e\|)ensc of greatest risk dispute the right ol wax, to say nothing of the 

 right of possession. Through all tlu' long periods of his upward progress, he 

 had not yet learned the nutans nor had his hands lashioned tlu' implements 

 by which he could contend w ith these beasts of j)re\ on an\ thing like an cc|ual 



