THE INFLUENCES OF PHYSICAL ENVIRON- 

 MENT 



LIFE in society becomes a life of increasing complexity 

 and richness of experience. The intricate adjustments 

 and adaptations demanded of social individuals tend to 

 make them more refined in their responses to external 

 stimuli and develop a highly complicated nervous organi- 

 zation accompanied by an increasing mellowness of cul- 

 ture. But the individual man or animal living under the 

 conditions of group life is none the less subjected to in- 

 fluences from the surrounding conditions of its physical 

 environment. Climate, soil, food, and the general topog- 

 raphy of the group's habitat exercise a powerful sway 

 over the life of both group and individual. The con- 

 ditions of surrounding nature act as compelling and re- 

 straining forces to which adaptations must be made. 

 The inheritance of modifications caused during the life 

 of the organism by its effort to adapt itself to the forces 

 of environment, has been discussed in chapter II. In 

 the present chapter we shall consider the effect of geo- 

 graphic environment upon the mode of life and the 

 cultural development of social groups. 



"Man can no more be scientifically studied apart from 

 the ground which he tills, or the lands over which he 

 travels, or the seas over which he trades, than the polar 

 bear or the desert cactus can be understood apart from 



its habitat. Man's relations to this environment are 



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