CHAPTEE XYI. 



SEKFDOM. 



801. DERIVED as are most men s ideas of social institu 

 tions from the histories of past and present civilized or semi- 

 civilized peoples, nearly all of them European, they are but 

 partly true: they err by their narrowness. Comparative 

 sociology, extended to many peoples living in many places 

 in many times, would greatly modify their conceptions; 

 showing them, among other things, that much which they 

 regard as special is in reality general. 



Current talk and popular writing have the implication 

 that the feudal system, for instance, was a peculiar form of 

 social organization. The tacit belief is that it belonged to 

 a certain phase of European progress. But among unallied 

 nations, in far-apart places, we find types of structure similar 

 in their essential natures. Everywhere the conflicts among 

 small societies, frequently ending in subjugation of many by 

 one, produces some form of vassalage minor chiefs subject 

 to a major chief; and at later stages, when these small ag 

 gregates of tribes subjugate other such aggregates, there are 

 formed compound aggregates with additional gradations of 

 rulers and ruled. It was thus in ancient Mexico : 



&quot; Among the feudatories of the King of Mexico were thirty, who had 

 each about 100,000 subjects, and other 3,000 lords, who had a smaller 

 number of vassals.&quot; 



So, too, was it in the Society Islands when first visited by 

 Europeans. Forster tells us that the king or principal chief 



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