THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIOLOGISTS 1 55 



always right," the other extreme brought out somewhere by- 

 Ross, " The mores are never right "; that is, mores are of neces- 

 sity adaptations to past conditions, and as life is a process they 

 can never keep up with that process. 1 Sumner's book is, how- 

 ever, a valuable contribution to our discussion as his multitude of 

 citations and illustrations show how important is this principle of 

 adaptation in the formulation of folkways among primitive 

 people. 



Franz Boas (1858- ) 



Opportunity and Race Progress 



At the opposite pole from Sumner and all Darwinian anthro- 

 pologists, is Franz Boas who minimizes differences in native 

 ability among individuals and races, and emphasizes the time 

 element in social evolution which, working through environment 

 and historical events, has determined the differential in achieve- 

 ment of extant races. 2 According to him, the present superiority 

 of European races may be accounted for along the following lines 

 of reasoning: (1) Social and economic causes working through 

 a more favorable habitat gave the European races the advantage 

 in social progress; (2) Consciousness of kind operates today to 

 prevent the rise of the backward as it did not a few thousand 

 years ago; (3) Social progress in Europe has brought a higher 

 form of social organization, making possible greater achievement; 

 (4) The devastating influences of diseases resulting from the 

 contact of primitive with cultural groups is a hindrance to the 

 progress of the former today as it was not to the ancestors of 

 the latter; (5) Industrial development among the cultural groups 

 gives them ever increasing advantages over the non-cultural, and 

 the expansion of the former holds back and drives back the latter. 

 Boas concludes that " achievement alone does not justify us in 

 assuming greater mental ability for the white race than for 

 others, unless we can sustain our claim by other proof." 3 



1 Cf. Sumner, op. tit., p. 634: " The folkways need constant rejuvenation and 

 refreshment if they are to be well fitted to present cases." 



2 Mind of Primitive Man, p. 9. 



3 Ibid., p. 17. 



