THE KEGULATION OF NUMBERS 239 



Lastly it may be recalled that there are many indications that 

 fecundity is somewhat less among these races than among modern 

 races. However this may be, it has always to be remembered 

 that the power of increase is nevertheless huge. It has been, for 

 instance, calculated that between the years 1906 and 1911 the 

 population of the world was increasing at such a rate that it 

 would double itself in about sixty years. At this rate of increase the 

 estimated population of the world in 1914 — namely, 1,694,000,000 

 — would be produced by the progeny of a single pair in 1,782 

 years.^ Furthermore, this is occurring under conditions in which 

 the increase is everywhere obviously and severely checked in 

 very many ways ; therefore, even if the fecundity among these 

 races is less than among civilized races, it must not be thought 

 that there is thereby brought about any considerable alleviation 

 of the problem as to how numbers should be controlled. 



13. We have now to ask how far the conclusions to which 

 we have come regarding primitive races are applicable to pre- 

 historic races. In the first place, they are clearly only applicable 

 to races among whom social organization has become established ; 

 for it is only when men begin to reap the advantages of co-opera- 

 tion that the conception of the optimum number arises. As we 

 have seen, it is not possible to say when primitive social organiza- 

 tion arose. It must certainly have been present in the Upper 

 Palaeolithic ; the evidence of the presence of a large body of 

 tradition is otherwise incomprehensible. As suggested, it may 

 very well be that we should look for the origin of social organiza- 

 tion in the Lower Palaeolithic. Among the Tasmanians, whose 

 skill was not much in advance of that of Acheulean man, there 

 was a primitive form of social organization. Nevertheless, 

 wherever the beginnings of social organization are to be placed, 

 we must suppose that a long period of time elapsed before it 

 assumed that rigid form characteristic of primitive races. Giving 

 all due weight to this consideration, we must assume that in, and 

 perhaps before, the Upper Palaeohthic era the position with 

 regard to numbers was in all essentials similar to that among 

 primitive races. It is not uncommon to meet with statements 

 to the effect that man was a wanderer until he began to practise 

 agriculture. This is a mistake if it implies that after social 

 organization had arisen definite areas for different groups of 



* Knibbs, Census of Australia, Appendix A, vol. i, p. 31. 



