270 DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION 



simple as the solitary unit from which insect societies 

 evolved, that is, an organism which lives alone and 

 is associated with another of its species only at the time 

 of mating. The lowest human beings now existing 

 have some form of family organization, traceable to 

 the more or less continuous unions formed among cer- 

 tain of the apes and even among many lower animals, 

 and not a characteristic that belongs to mankind alone. 

 The savage and his mate constitute the social unit out 

 of which all else is built up; the man and the woman 

 must perform all of the vital tasks demanded by nature. 

 Fruits and vegetables must be secured from the wild 

 forest or by cultivation; the flesh of game animals 

 or of a human victim is no less essential for food. The 

 savage is his own weapon maker and warrior ; he him- 

 self builds the rude shelter for his family and fashions 

 the canoe if such is required. He is also his own judge, 

 recognizing no control save the dictates of his wishes 

 and needs, for he does not consciously realize that he 

 must obey the primal commands of nature to preserve 

 himself and his family so that the species shall persist. 

 In brief, the elementary family unit carries on all of 

 the individual biological tasks of foraging, fighting, 

 home-building, and the like, and it also discharges the 

 racial task of multiplying, quite as instinctively as it 

 provides for its own maintenance. 



By the union of several families, a primitive associa- 

 tion arises, like that of the Veddahs in Ceylon. The 

 primal duties of each family are unchanged, and their 

 biological activities are identical, as in the protozoon 

 colony of Vorticella or in a pack of wolves ; but certain 

 new relations are established. A member of such an 



