302 APPENDIX 



tion and societal selection are used interchangeably to designate 

 selective processes that secure quite different forms of adaptation. 

 What some writers call counterselection,^* or misselection,^'' are 

 really forms of social selection. While it is not wise to try to 

 force formal logic on mobile life-processes which are in a state 

 of flux and forming, it is at least worth the effort to make an 

 attempt at consistent classification. 



When a human being gets in the way of ponderous social insti- 

 tutions or aged customs driven b}^ the momentum of antiquity, a 

 social selection takes place ; the unlucky individual may be 

 crushed to physical extermination, or simply pushed out of the 

 ways of ordinary social intercourse. In any event a social selec- 

 tion quite different from natural selection occurs, and in the 

 long run the process seems to result in the survival of a race 

 of tractable and conforming individuals. 



Considering this phenomenon we find that sociologists have not 

 always distinguished between selection that works on the physical 

 ])lane and selection that works on the ps3^chie plane. This dis- 

 tinction is very important, for selection on the physical plane 

 involves the extermination of the individual and brings decisive 

 results. The antisocial, the innovators, the non-conformists, and 

 offenders are once for all eliminated. Selection on the psychic 

 plane is milder. It merelj' modifies conduct and thought. It 

 fails to strike through to racial stock and secure a physical basis 

 for perpetuating its gains. 



Let us examine this selective process that works on the physical 

 phme. It manifests itself in various ways. Sometimes it in- 

 volves the killing of helpless non-producers — the aged and the 

 infants — as in parricide or infanticide. These victims of social 

 power are not offenders against social usage; their only sin is 

 that they stand in the way of group survival. In communities 

 where these practices flourish the struggle for existence is severe 

 and food is scarce, so that this established population policy of 



and C. A. Elhvood, Sociolog;/ in Its Psi/choloffical Aspects (New York, 

 1915), p. 5fi. 



38 A. G. Keller, Societal Kvohition (Xew York, 1915), chap. vi. 



3!) E. A. Ross, S^ocial Control (New York, 1!)10), p. 424; and Foundations 

 of Hociolopy {K»w York, 1005), pp. 328-30, 335-39. 



