154 UNIVERSALITY OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



istic of primitive societies that sooner or later most 

 of these customs come to be regarded as having a 

 supernatural sanction, and the whole community is 

 impressed with the belief that if the old tribal 

 customs are violated, incalculable misfortune will 

 follow." l 



Social modifications are therefore effected very 

 slowly and with great difficulty stagnation is the 

 rule, and progress but a rare exception, innovators 

 being forced to retain the greater part of the old 

 institutions, introducing only an inevitable minimum 

 of change. A course of history, or a careful study 

 of the conditions of social institutions at an earlier 

 stage of development than our own, will furnish 

 numerous instances of survivals. It now remains 

 to be seen if there are no rudimentary social groups 

 wherein all the primitive institutions have been 

 retained, and which, having undergone no modifica- 

 tions, exhibit no traces of degeneration. We shall 

 further see if no form of society exists uninfluenced 

 by the spirit of tradition, and where institutions 

 which have come to be regarded as no longer useful, 

 disappear suddenly and entirely either by voluntary 

 dissolution or by legislative measures. Only in these 

 two extreme cases can the existence of survivals 

 be questioned. We have then to establish two 

 points: 



(a) That all societies, even those to be regarded as 



1 Bagehot, Lois scientifiques du developpement des nations, p. 154, 

 Bibl. sclent, intern., Paris, F. Alcan, 1885. 



