THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIOLOGISTS 155 
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.!| 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, of. cit., 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 [bid., p. 17. 
