500 



GENERAL BIOLOGY 



J. The social organism. 



Human history begins in isolation and not in society. 

 Primitive man was a barbarian, and the hfe of a barbarian 

 is essentially solitary. Probably he made a friend of his 

 dog earlier than of any person outside his own household; 

 for strangers were enemies. And the reason for this is not 

 far to seek. He must have room, or starve. He could not 

 live on grass or any other plant product of unlimited abun- 

 dance, as do the m.ammals, that nature had made gregarious 



■■•*«^'' 



Fig. 280. Typical gregarious herbivores. 



(fig. 280); nor had he superior powers of locomotion that 

 would enable him to get about and find widely scattered 

 food products as do the social birds. The households of 

 cave-dwellers were therefore, few and far between*. 



Nor are the habits of a barbarian favorable to social life. 

 He eats like an animal when hungry, and waits until hungry 



*Ethnologists estimate that without any agriculture, it requires 

 sixteen square miles of territory in temperate regions to furnish 

 sufficient available food for one person. 



