86 THE PKOBLEM AMONG MEN 



characterized the conditions under which our Palaeolithic ancestors 

 lived. 



There is here obviously suggested a method whereby the frame- 

 work of history arrived at by the evidence of fossil and cultural 

 remains may be filled in. The broad conclusions drawn from 

 a study of hunting and fishing races may be applied to Palaeolithic 

 races. But this method must be used with great caution ; it has 

 undoubtedly been pressed too far. It is possible to divide hunting 

 and fishing races into groups and to compare these groups with 

 stages in the evolution of Palaeolithic culture. How far it is in 

 any way valid to attribute in this fashion particular social institu- 

 tions which characterize lower, middle, and upper hunting races 

 to lower, middle, and upper Palaeolithic races respectively is very 

 doubtful. It is not proposed here to attempt to carry the method 

 as far as this. For one thing, so far as the subject has been worked 

 out, there is no clear correlation between different factors affecting 

 fertility and elimination on the one hand and stages in culture 

 among hunting races on the other hand. Thus, as it happens, any 

 attempt to carry this method into more detail is not productive 

 of results, and therefore it is not worth while to inquire whether 

 results would be valid or not. All that it is proposed to do here 

 is to examine the evidence regarding the prevalence of certain 

 customs, habits, and so on, among hunting races, and to apply 

 the broad conclusions founded on this evidence to the ancestors 

 of civilized races who supported themselves by hunting. In this 

 manner only is it at all possible to fill in the framework of history 

 provided by the remains of culture and by fossils, and thus to 

 arrive at any conclusions regarding the course of the movement 

 away from the conditions found in the pre-human ancestor to 

 those found among civilized races. 



4. With regard to the question as to the way in which this 

 evidence may be most conveniently set out, it is proposed to 

 proceed in the following manner. Before we come to the evidence 

 regarding fertility and elimination, something has to be said 

 regarding fecundity in man, and that will be the subject of the 

 fifth chapter. In the following chapter the evidence regarding 

 fossil and cultural remains will be very briefly discubsed, just so 

 far as, in the first place, provides the necessary historical facts to 

 form a basis for the discussion of the qualitative problem and as, 

 in the second place, provides the framework into which we can fit 



