THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIOLOGISTS 1 53 



Granting that all origins are lost in mystery, 1 he holds that by 

 study of primitive life as observed and recorded during the past 

 few centuries, and of the forces now at work, we are able to reach 

 valid conclusions as to the development of mores. How these 

 arise, largely by an unconscious process of trial and error, and 

 how they are related to the folkways is well brought out in a 

 recapitulation he gives of his preliminary analysis: — 



Men in groups are under life conditions; they have needs which are simi- 

 lar under the state of the life conditions; the relations of the needs to the 

 conditions are interests under the heads of hunger, love, vanity and fear; 

 efforts of numbers at the same time to satisfy interests produce mass phenom- 

 ena which are folkways by virtue of uniformity, repetition, and wide con- 

 currence. The folkways are attended by pleasure or pain according as they 

 are well fitted for the purpose. Pain forces reflection and observation of 

 some relation between acts and welfare. At this point the prevailing world 

 philosophy (beginning with goblinism) suggests explanations and inferences, 

 which become entangled with judgments of expediency. However, the folk- 

 ways take on a philosophy of right living and a life policy for welfare. Then 

 they become mores, and they may be developed by inferences from the phi- 

 losophy or the rules in the endeavor to satisfy needs without pain. Hence 

 they undergo improvement and are made consistent with each other. 2 



Sumner makes the group the sociological unit and evaluates 

 individuals and classes according to their production of social 

 utilities, holding that societal value depends on a harmonious 

 combination of physical, economic, moral and intellectual ele- 

 ments and is measured roughly by income from work contributed 

 to the industrial organization, whether by a member of the 

 " masses " or by a genius. 3 



A race or group is classified by means of the normal frequency 

 curve, 4 but the masses which determine the classification along 

 certain lines are never the cause of progress nor the builders of 

 institutions but these results come " by the selection of the lead- 

 ing men and classes who get control of the collective power of the 

 society and direct it to the activities which will (as they think) 

 serve the interests which they regard as most important." 6 



The mores make the right, not only because there is no other 

 standard for the group, but because they are backed by force, and 

 " nothing but might has ever made right." 6 



1 Folkways, p. 7. 3 Ibid., p. 41. B Ibid., p. 49. 



2 Ibid., p. 34. * Ibid., p. 43. 6 Ibid., pp. 64, 65. 



