THE INFLUENCES OF PHYSICAL ENVIRON- 

 MENT 



Ltfk ill society becomes a lilV of increasing coniiilexity 

 and riclmess 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 tlie less subjecte*] to iii- 

 fhiences from the surrounding conditions of its physical 

 environment. 1 Clhnate, soil, food, and the general topog- 

 raphy of the grou])'s habitat exercise a powerful sway 

 over the life of ])ot]i gnni]) and indivicbiaV The con- 

 ditions of surrounding nature ad as comixdling 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 adai^t itself to the forces 

 of environment, has 1)een discussed in cliapter IT. In 

 tlie present chapter we shall consider the effect of geo- 

 gra])hic environment u]')on the mode of life and the 

 cultural development of social groups-. 



"Man can no. more be scientifically studied a])art from 

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

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

 bear or the desert cactus can ho understood aj^art from 

 its habitat. Man's relations to this environment are 



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