114 UNIVERSALITY OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



7. Summary. This long series of modifications, 

 the result of which was the transformation of 

 primitive communities of goods into the modern 

 forms of public and private property, was ac- 

 companied throughout by degenerative changes. 

 The establishment of family property entailed 

 the curtailment of tribal and clan rights. Family 

 property passed into property held by the village ; 

 next the development of feudal tenure involved the 

 degeneration of the old agrarian communities ; 

 finally, the primitive organization "of property with 

 the administrative and political institution depen- 

 dent on it, disintegrated and disappeared as the 

 primitive community of goods lapsed into the 

 personal enjoyment of these by individuals, and 

 as the primitive method of land tenure passed 

 into the rights of private property. 



We see then that degeneration has always 

 accompanied evolution : the destruction of old 

 institutions is involved in the formation of new 

 institutions. 



