Growth and Development of Social Groups 
Warfare between neighbouring groups of people is another 
well known means of preserving equilibrium at home, and this 
is particularly true in regions where there is an imbalance 
between women’s work—gardening—and men’s work—hunt- 
ing, in the absence of domestic animals. Such warfare was a 
seasonal practice among many tribes of American Indians. 
All peoples also play games, which serve as a substitute for 
warfare in providing an ordered pattern of interaction, usually 
accompanied by ritual. The original Olympic games made it 
possible for the independent Greek city-states to coexist peace- 
fully, at least during the times when the games were held. The 
current space race, in which semi-divine astronauts whirl 
around our planet, may be viewed as a very expensive kind of 
game which takes some Russian and American minds off 
greater problems, while leaving spaceless nations uneasy. 
Law, of course, is the prime arbiter of the internal stability 
of states and nations. The law states explicitly which actions 
may or may not be done, and the actions that are forbidden 
are precisely those that upset the smooth patterns of human 
relations within a society. Among very primitive peoples there 
is no code of law, only a general agreement about what has 
disturbed the group in the past, and what to do about it. 
Laws vary as cultures vary and laws change, if tardily, as 
cultures change. 
An equally fundamental means of maintaining orderly 
relationships within societies is education. In simple, illiterate 
societies there is usually a large enough group of boys or of 
girls to form an age grade, which in itself is a kind of institution, 
The classmates play together, learn from their elders by imita- 
tion, and go through puberty ceremonies together. In these 
ceremonies the basic rules of behaviour toward persons of 
different ages and the other sex are imprinted, often by shock 
treatment including fasting, vigils, and sensory deprivation. We 
are only beginning to understand the effectiveness of these 
didactic techniques. 
As societies grow in size and complexity so do the educational 
institutions. Formal schools for an élite arose with cities, and 
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