SOCIAL HI:I;I:M n 



older traditional elements or coi - an extension, 



of the 



Norman 1 i h, h was largely imitated by the KiiL'li-ii peo- 



md so became in large j. orporated with the 



Kndish language. The religion of I'.uddlm was adopted 



apanese people, an<i partially fu>.-l with rather 



than Mipplaiit.-.!, t'h.'ir national Shinto religion of an- 



oestor- worship." In this way the new is amalgamated 

 with th- old, and usages or trad it ions change very gradu- 

 ally under the .strain of meeting new conditions and new 

 needs. But in the change the ascendancy of the old form 

 still immensely outweighs the prestige of recent innova- 

 tions. " Passive obedience to ancestral orders, customs, 

 and intl omes to be not replaced, but neutralized 



in part, by submission to the pressure, advice, and sug- 

 ons of contemporaries. In acting according to these 

 last-named inoti\ *, the modern man flatters himself that 

 he is making a five choice of the propositions that are 

 made to him, whereas, in reality, the one that he welcomes 

 ami follows is the one that meets his preexistent wants 

 and desires, wants and desires which are the outcome of 

 his habits and customs, of his whole past of obedient 

 With regard to this point Professor Boas reminds us 

 that we are only too apt to forget entirely the general, 

 and, for most of us, the purely traditional basis of our 

 reasoning, and to assume that our conclusions are abso- 

 lute truth. In so doing we commit the error of less 

 civilized peoples. They are more easily satisfied than 

 we 11 ie truth of their conclusions. Their fallacy 



lies in assuming the truth of the traditional element which 

 enters into their explanations; consequently they accept 



. pp. 336437. 

 "Tattle, of. of., p. 24. 



