IX 



THE TRANSITION FROM TRIBAL SOCIETY 

 TO CIVIL SOCIETY 



MANKIND did not make the change from primitive so- 

 ciety, organized on the basis of blood relationship, to 

 civil society where the bond of union is mutual toleration 

 and cooperative interest, in any sudden and complete 

 manner. The transition period was a long and an im- 

 portant one. Many factors and numerous influences 

 were at work undermining and breaking down the old 

 structure of society. Although the beginnings of this 

 change belong to a more or less remote prehistoric period, 

 the later stages of the transition have been recorded in 

 a most interesting manner in the early literature and laws 

 of historic peoples. Ancient Greek literature, early 

 Irish, Welsh, and Saxon laws, contain numerous refer- 

 ences to a structure of society which was neither tribal 

 nor yet properly civil, but presented rather the charac- 

 teristics of a transition form. We must not consider 

 that this change took place at the same time all over the 

 world among those peoples which are now civilized, for 

 there is indication that different races attained civiliza- 

 tion at different periods. Nor must we expect to find 

 that the transition was always made in accordance with 

 the same process of change. Sometimes one factor was 

 most important, at other times or among differently 

 situated peoples some previously neglected influence be- 

 came a dominant force. Thus the problem is one of ex- 

 ceeding complexity and all we can hope to do is to study 



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