INTERDEPENDENCE IN CULTURE 311 



increasing application of the principle of division of 

 labour, this result is such as we might expect. It 

 may be, of course, that the greater interdependence 

 of the different elements of savage culture is only 

 apparent, but almost certainly it is more than this. 

 The close dependence of one department of social 

 life upon another is so great that interference with 

 any department has consequences far more im- 

 mediate and far reaching than in the more developed 

 and specialised varieties of culture. 



In our own social life we are accustomed to 

 distinguish clearly certain departments, such as 

 religion, politics, economics, medicine, etc. The 

 existence of mutual relations between these different 

 departments is, of course, fully recognised by every 

 student of society, but the advance in specialisation 

 and the relatively high degree of independence are 

 shown by the fact that every department has its own 

 practitioners, who form independent social groups, 

 while their rules of conduct in relation to their 

 special occupations form separate and distinct bodies 

 of social regulations. One who attempts to give a 

 description of the activity of any one department 

 finds no serious difficulty in doing so without trench- 

 ing seriously upon the special province of another. 



Among savage peoples such definite distinction 

 is not possible. Departments of culture which we 

 distinguish clearly are so inextricably interwoven 

 that the describer of customs and institutions has 

 the greatest difficulty in dividing his subjects into 



