Family and Society 



If food is very scarce and hard to obtain, the 

 families will probably scatter and live singly. 

 But In most cases the separation will not be 

 complete and permanent. Clusters of families 

 will form a small clan, and these clans will 

 gather in tribes. In one way or another social 

 life is almost sure to follow the rise of the fam- 

 ily as its original constituent element. 



Kropotkin ^ and others have shown that social 

 life can originate without the family as Its basis 

 and unit of organization. The fact of a gre- 

 garious instinct In animals is undoubted. This 

 instinct is far older than the comparatively mod- 

 ern family institution. Fish seek their spawn- 

 ing grounds In vast shoals. Seals and porpoises 

 are found in groups. Birds flock and mammals 

 herd. The flock or herd is an Invaluable means 

 of mutual aid and protection, as Kropotkin has 

 shown. Many weaker mammals probably owe 

 their survival to this instinct or habit. It Is very 

 well marked In monkeys, and generally through- 

 out the order of primates. 



Hence some writers think that human beings 

 first gathered In hordes of men, women, and 



1 Kropotkin, P., "Mutual Aid a Factor in Evolution." 



45 



