434 INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTIONS. 



Everywhere affiliation of strangers has been prompted 

 both by the desire of fugitives for safety and the desire of 

 the group to increase its strength. We see this alike in the 

 adoption of a brave vanquished man into a tribe by savages, 

 in the adoption into the family among the Romans, and in 

 the acceptance of immigrant men-at-arms by feudal lords. 

 So was it, probably, among the Semitic tribes in early days. 

 The quarrel between the men of Abraham and those of Lot, 

 was most likely a quarrel between the two masses of fol- 

 lo\vers, who were mostly neither children nor slaves but 

 affiliated outsiders. 



Of course the status of those who are alien in blood to the 

 patriarchal group, almost necessarily differs from that of its 

 members differs more or less according to ideas and circum 

 stances, and in some cases very greatly. An example of 

 extreme and permanent inferiority of position, is given by 

 Sir Henry Maine concerning a case in which the patriarchal 

 group was a conquering group. He says that in certain 

 villages of Central and Southern India, there is an heredi 

 tary class of &quot; outsiders/ who are looked upon as &quot; essential 

 ly impure,&quot; and who, though &quot; not included in the village 

 . . . are an appendage solidly connected with it ; they have 

 definite village duties, one of which is the settlement of 

 boundaries . . . They evidently represent a population of 

 alien blood, whose lands have been occupied by the colonists 

 or invaders forming the community.&quot; 



Where family-systems and caste-systems are less marked, 

 and where union with the group has been voluntary, there 

 is less difference in the position of the alien ; and there may 

 eventually come absorption into it. But inevitably permis 

 sion to join the group is made dependent on obedience to its 

 head, and the giving to him of services in return for protec 

 tion. The transaction is analogous to that which, during the 

 feudal stage, was known as &quot;commendation: &quot; subjection 

 being exchanged for safety, and labour being regulated 

 compulsorily. 



