THE PROBLEM AMONG MEN 85 



before they came into contact with Europeans. With regard to 

 the unsatisfactory nature of the evidence there will be more to 

 say later. 



It is of primary importance to observe that these races are not 

 to be regarded as actual representatives of certain stages through 

 which civihzed races have passed. We know that in the evolution 

 of control over nature civihzed races have passed through certain 

 stages of culture ; the first stage was marked by the use of 

 unpolished stone implements and the obtaining of food by hunting 

 and fishing only ; the second stage was marked by the use of 

 pohshed stone implements and the obtaining of food by agricul- 

 ture and the domestication of animals.-^ These two broad divisions 

 — the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic — may be subdivided. But 

 no primitive race can be regarded as representing any definite 

 stage in exact detail, whether in the first or in the second of the 

 two broad divisions through which civilized races have passed. 

 While the culture of the ancestors of civilized man was evolving 

 from that of the Palaeolithic stage to that of the present day, the 

 culture of certain other races did not progress as far even as the 

 Neohthic stage. But the culture of these races did not remain 

 unmodified ; it followed in each case a hne of evolution of its own. • 

 These races are therefore to be regarded as specialized representa- 

 tives of the earlier stages of culture through which the civilized 

 races passed. Nevertheless, speciahzed though their culture may 

 be, the general conditions of their existence are certainly similar 

 to the general conditions which must have characterized the 

 corresponding stage in the evolution of the culture of civihzed 

 races. That is to say, the broad features which characterize the 

 conditions found among hunting and fishing races must also have 



1 Except where otherwise stated, increase of skill — of power, that is to say, 

 to control the environment — is taken as the criterion of ' progress '. Except, 

 therefore, where otherwise stated, the terms ' civilized ' and ' higher ' races are 

 merely intended to convey that races so denominated have a greater power of 

 controlling the environment than ' uncivilized ' and ' lower ' races. The terras 

 ' higher ' and ' lower ' are thus in this book merely convenient labels used in 

 a special sense. In a fuller sense the terms ' higher ' and ' lower ' would take 

 account of irmate faculties, social organization, and moral tradition, as well as of 

 the tradition of skilled methods. It is worthy of note, so far as the argument 

 in this book is concerned, that there is a correlation between the tradition of 

 skilled methods and the tradition of social organization and between both of 

 these traditions and the innate faculties. The result, therefore, of a classification 

 of races according to the special sense of the terms ' higher ' and ' lower ', aa 

 given above, does not conflict so directly as might be thought with a classification 

 according to the fuller meaning of these terms. Further reference is made to the 

 subject in the later part of this book. 



