APPENDIX 1. EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL AND SOCIETAL 



SELECTION ' 



Tlu' collective regulation of the individual extends to a prreater 

 range of thought and action in primitive society than with us. 

 Tiie struggle for existence is far more severe, for famine, pesti- 

 lence, drought, wild beasts, and fei-orious enemies are an ever- 

 present menace. ^Moreover, men are so ignorant of the causes 

 of these phenomena that they are loath to run the risk of new 

 ways of meeting old needs when use and wont have demonstrated 

 the security of established modes of action. Hence society cannot 

 afl'ord to take the risk of innovation, and the pressure of ancient 

 belief, of immemorial custom, and of mechanical ceremony is 

 harsh and arbitrary. Primitive social ascendancy is impatient 

 of individual idiosyncrasy and manifests itself in those cruder 

 forms of social control which coerce and constrain from without. 

 The subtle and refined instruments of social order, such as en- 

 lightenment and personal ideals, are less important than tribal 

 law, social custom, magical ceremony, and belief in the super- 

 natural. 



Mrs. Elsie Clews Parsons - has assembled some interesting 

 material showing how belief in the supernatural is a very potent 

 means of preserving the primitive social order. The "bogy- 

 man" who carries off naughty children, who eats and kills un- 

 manageable juniors, is appealed to by primitive parents to keep 

 the children where they belong and out of the way of adults. 

 The owl will come and take away noisy children of the Thompson 



1 "Primitive Social Aacoiidaiuy Viowod as an Agent of Selection in So- 

 ciety." By F. Stuart Chapin. Reprinted by kind permission from I'uhli- 

 cations of the American Kocioluf/ical t<orietif. Vol. XII, l'.>17. 



2 "Links between i;eli>;ion and "Morality in Early Culture," Amcr. An- 

 thropoJ., XVIT. No. 1, pp. 41-57. 



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