We sliall probably be safe in concluding that throaghout ihe pafit^ as at present^ and that with tbe hnman race as other races, size is bn^ one trait of higher eyolution, which may or may not coexist with other traits; and that, within certain limits, it is determined by local conditionB, which here fayonr the preservation of the largest, and elsewhere, when nothing is gained by size, condnce to the spread of a smaller variety relatively more prolific. Bnt we may farther conclude that since, in the struggle for existence between races, superiority of size gives advantages, there has been a tendency to increase, which has told where other conditions bave allowed; and that the average primitive man was somewhat less than is the average civilized man, § 25. As of stature, so of structure, we must say that the contrast is not very marked. Passing over smaller distinctive traits shown us by some of the lowest human races, such as the deviation in the form of the pelvis, and the existence of solid bone where in the civilized the frontal sinus exists, we may limit ourselves to traits whicb have here a meaning for us.
Men of inferior types appear to be generally charac* terized by relatively-defective development of the lower limbs. Sufficiently marked as this is to have attracted the attention of trarellers among various unrelated races, we shall probably not be wrong in setting it down as a primitive character. Pallas describes the Ostjraks as having ^' thin and slender legs.'' I find two authorities mentioning the "short legs'' and '^ slender legs" of the EiamtBchadales. So, among the Hill-tribes of India, Stewart says the Kookdes hare legs " short in comparison to the length of their bodies, and their arms long." Of sundry American races the like fact is remarked. We read of the Chinooks that they haye " small and crooked " legs; of the Guaranis, tiiat their "arms and legs are relatively short and thick;" and ev^i of the gigantic Patagonians it is asserted that 4£ THS DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.
'^ their limbs are neither so mnscolar nor so large«1x)ned as their height and apparent bulk wonld induce one to sup* pose/' This truth holds in Australia^too. Even if the legbones of Australians are equal in size to those of Europeans, it is unquestionable that their legs are inferior iiji mass of muscle: the lower part of the figure is of feebler make than the upper. Though I find no direct statement respecting the Puegians under this head, yet since, whHe said to be short, they are said to haye bodies comparable in bulk to those of higher races, it is inferable that their deficiency of height results from the shortness of their legs. Lastly, the description which Schweinfurth gives of the Akka, shows that not only have they ''short, bandy legs,'' but that^ though they are extremely agile (their small size giving them advantages in relative activity), their powers of locomotion are defective: " every step they take is accompanied by a lurch;" and Schweinfurth describes iixe one who was with him for nmny months, as never able to carry a full dish without spilling. Those remains of extinct races lately referred to, seem also to countenance the belief that the primitive man was characterized by lower limbs inferior to our own: the " unusually clumsy fibula " found in the Settle cave, and the one found at Mentone, as well as the platycnemic tibia once so widely prevalent, seem to imply this. While recognizing differences, we may fairly /say that this trait of relatively-inferior legs is sufficiently marked; and it is a trait which, remotely simian, is also repeated by tlie child of the civilized man.
That the balance of power between legs and arms, which was originally better adapted to climbing habits, is likely to have been changed in the course of progress, is manifest. During the struggles between races, ever invading one another's localities, an advantage must have been gained by those having the legs somewhat more developed at the expense of the' body at large. I do not mean chiefly an advantage in ^swiftness or agility; I mean in trials of THX FBDOTIVB ICAN — PHTSICAL. 40 strength at close qaarters. In combat, the power exercised by arms and tmnk is limited by the power of the legs to withstand the strain thrown on them. Hence, apart from advantages in locomotion, the stronger-legged races have tended to become, other things eqnal, dominant races.
Among other stmctoral traits of the primitive man which we have to note, the most marked is the larger size of the jaws and teeth. This is shown not simply in that prognathous form characterizing various inferior races, and, to an extreme degree, the Akka, but it is shown also in the races otherwise characterized: even ancient British skulls have relatively-massive jaws. That this trait is connected with the eating of coarse food, hard, tough, and often uncooked, and perhaps also with the greater use of the teeth in place of tools, as we see our own boys use them, is fairly inferable. Diminution of function has brought diminution of size^ both of the jaws and of the attached muscles. Whence, too, as a remoter sequence, that diminution of the zygomatic arches through which these muscles pass: producing an additional difference of outline in the civilized face.
These changes are noteworthy as illustrating, unmistakably, the reaction which social development, with all the appliances it brings, has on the structure of the social unit. And recognizing the externally-visible changes arising from this cause, we can the less doubt the occurrence of important internal changes, as of brain, arising from the same cause.
§ 26. One further structural trait may be dealt with in immediate connexion with physiological traits. I refer to the size of the digestive organs.
Here we have to deal with very inadequate evidence. In the absence of some conspicuous modification of figure caused by large stomach and intestines, this character is one not likely to have been noticed by travellers: a considerable difference of internal capacity may have existed without attracting attention as a peculiarity. Still, we 5C THB DATA OF 8OOIOL0GT« haye some evidence in point. Giieve describes ihe Kamtschadales as having "a liang^ng belly, slender legs and arms/' Of the Bushmen, Barrow says, '^ their bellies are uncommonly protuberant/' Schweinfurth speaks of the ^' large, bloated belly and short, bandy legs " of the Akka; and elsewhere, describing the structure of this degraded type of man, he says — ''The superior region of the chest is flat, and much contracted, but it widens out below to support the huge hanging belly/' Indirect evidence is supplied by the form of the young, alike of civilized and savage peoples. Doubtless, the relativelylarge abdomen in the child of the civilized man, is in the main an embryonic trait. But as the children of inferior races are more distinguished in this way than our own children, we get indirect reason for thinking that the lessdeveloped man was thus distinguished from the moredeveloped. Schweinfurth refers to the children of the African Arabs as like the Akka in this respect. Describing the Yeddahs, Tennant mentions the protuberant stomachs of the children. Galton, after saying of the Damara children that ''all have dreadfully swelled stomachs," expresses his surprise that they should become so well shaped at maturity. And from Dr. Hooker I learn that the like trait holds throughout Bengal.
The possession of a relatively-larger alimentary system is, indeed, a character of the lowest races inferable from their immense capacities for containing and digesting food. These capacities are made familiar to us by travellers. Wrangel says each of the Yakuts ate in a day six times as many fish as he could eat. Cochrane describes a five-yearold child of this race as devouring three candles, several pounds of sour frozen butter, and a large piece of yellow soap; and adds — " I have repeatedly seen a Yakut, or a Tongousi, devour forty pounds of meat in a day." Of the Comanches, Schoolcraft says — " After long abstinence they eat voraciously, and without apparent inconvenience/' THS PBIMITiyE HAK — ^PHTSICAL. 51 Thompson remarks ihat the Bushmen have '^ powers of stomach similar to the beasts of prey^ both, in voracity and in supporting banger.'^ And no less clear is the implication of the stories of gluttony told by Captain Lyon about the Esquimaux^ and by Sir G. Grey about the Australians* Such traits appear to be necessary. It seems scarcely possible that a digestive apparatus large enough for a civilized man^ feeding at short and regular intervals^ should be large enough for a savage whose meals^ sometimes scanty, sometimes abundant, follow in succession, now quickly, and now after the lapse of days. One who de* pends on the chances of the chase will profit by the ability to digest a great quantity wben it is obtainable, to compensate for intervals of semi-starvation. A stomach able to deal only with a moderate meal, must leave its possessor at a disadvantage in comparison with one whose stomach is able, by immense meals, to make up for mauy meals missed. Beyond the need hence arising for a large alimentary system, there is the need arising from the low quality of the food. Wild fruits, nuts, berries, roots, shoots, etc., must be eaten in great masses to yield the required supplies of nitrogenous compounds, fats, and carbo-hydrates; aud of animal food, the insects, larv89, worms, vermin, and offal, consumed in default of larger prey, contain much waste. Indeed, the massive jaws and worn teeth of savages, serve of themselves to show that mnch indigestible matter is masticated and swallowed. Hence, such au abdominal development as the Akka show in a degree which recalls a simian character, may be regarded as a trait of primitive man that is, in a greater or less degree, necessitated by primitive conditions.
Just noting that some mechanical disadvantage results from having to carry about relatively-larger stomach and intestines, let us observe, chiefly, the physiological effects naturally accompanying such a structure adapted to such circumstances* At times when enormous meals have to be 52 THE DATA OF SOCflOLOOT.
digested, repletion must be accompanied by inertness; and at times when, from lack of food, the energies flag, there can be none to spare for any activities save those prompted by hanger. Clearly, persistent industry is favoured by an equable flow of energy; and this implies regular feeding. The irregular feeding entailed on the primitive man, prevents continuous labour: so hindering, in yet another way, the actions required to lead him out of his primitive state.
§ 27. There is evidence that, apart from stature and apart even from muscular development, the uncivilized man is less powerful than the civilized man. He is unable to exert suddenly as great an amount of force, and he is unable to continue the expenditure of force for so long a time. Here are a few testimonies to this effect.
Of the TasmanianSj now no longer existing. Perron said that, though they were vigorous-looking, the dynamometer proved them to be inferior in strength. So, too, of their allies by race, the Papuans: ''although well made,'' these are described as being '' our inferiors in muscular power/' Respecting the aborigines of India, the evidence is not quite consistent. Mason asserts of other Hill-tribes, as of the Karens, that their strength soon flags; while Stewart describes the Kookie boys as very enduring: the anomaly being, as we shall presently see, possibly due to the fact that he did not test their endurance over successive days. While describing the Damaras as having ''immense muscular development," Galton says — " I never found one who was anything like a match for the average of my own men" in trials of strength; and Anderson makes a like remark. Galton further observes that " in a long, steady journey the savages [Damaras] quickly knock up unless they adopt some of our usages." Similarly with American races. King found the Esquimaux relatively weak; and Burton remarks of the Dakotahs that, " like all savages, they are deficient in corporeal strength."
THE PBIMITITE MAN — ^PHTSICAL. 53 llere are probably two causes for this contrast between savage and civiliaed — ^relative innutrition, and relativelysmallar development of tbe nervous system. On remembering that a horse out at grass gains in bulk while losing his fitness for continued exertion^ and that to prepare him for hunting he is put on a more nutritive diet under which he diminishes in siae while he increases in power, we shall see that a savage may have bulky limbs and be comparatively weak, and that his weakness may be still more marked when his muscles, fed by a blood of low quality, are, at the same time, small. Men in training for feats of strength, show us that it takes months to raise muscles to their highest powers, whether of sudden exertion or prolonged exertion. Whence it is to be inferred that from food poor in kind and irregularly suppUed, deficiency of strength, under both its forms, will result. The other cause, less obvious, is one which must not be overlooked. As was shown in the Prindplea of Psychology, Ch. L, it is the nervous system rather than the muscular system, which measures the force evolved. Throughout the animal kingdom the development of the nervous system, which is the initiator of all motion, varies partly as the quantity of motion generated and partly as the complexity of that motion. On remembering the failure of muscular power which comes along with flagging emotions or desires lapsing into indifference, and, contrariwise, the immense power given by intense passion, which, as in the insane, greatly exceeds that put out by a man under ordinary excitement, we shall see how immediate is the dependence of strength upon feeling. And, seeing this, we shall understand why, other things equal, the savage with a smaller brain, generating less feeling, is not so strong.
§ 28. Among the physiological traits which distinguish man in his primitive state from man in his advanced state, we may with certainty set down relative hardiness. Con* 54 THX DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.
irast thq trial of conBtitation wliich child-bearing brings on the civilized woman^ with the smsdl constitutional disturbance it causes to the sayage woman. Ask what would happen to both mother and child^ under the conditions of sarage life^ had they no greater toughness of physique than is possessed by the civilized mother and child. Both the existence of this trait and its necessity will then be obvious.
Inevitably^ survival of the fittest must ever have tended to produce and maintain a constitution capable of enduring the n:useries^ hardships^ injuries^ necessarily accompanying a life at the mercy of surrounding actions; since there must ever have been a destruction of constitutions not enduring enough. The Fuegian who quietly lets the falling sleet melt on his naked body^ must be the product of a discipline which has killed off all who were not extremely tenacious of life. When we read that the Yakuts, who from their ability to bear cold are called " iron men/' sometimes sleep in that rigorous region ^^ completely exposed to the heavens, with scarcely any clothing on, and their bodies covered with a thick coat of rime/' we cannot but infer, that their adaptation to the severities of their climate has resulted from the continual destruction of all but the most resisting. Similarly with respect to another detrimental influence. Mr. Hodgson remarks that a " capacity to breathe malaria as though it were common air characterizes nearly all the Tamulian aborigines of India''; and we need but recall the ability of Negro-races to live in pestilential regions, to see that elsewhere there has been similarly produced a constitutional power to withstand deleterious vapours. So, too, is it with the bearing of bodily injuries. The recuperative powers of the Australians, and others of the lowest races, are notorious. Wounds which would be quickly fatal to Europeans they readily recover from.
Whether this gain entails loss in other directions, we have no direct evidence. It is known that the hardier THI PBDOnyi XAH — ^PHYSICAL. 55 breeds of domestic aniTnalB are smaller than ihe less liardy breeds; and it may be that a coiistitation adapted to extreme pertarbations gains its adaptation at the expense, perbaps of size^ perhaps of energy. It seems, indeed, highly probable that this physiological advantage is purchased by some physiological disadvantage — a disadvantage escaped by the higher races whose arts of life enable them to evade these deranging actions. And if so, this fitness for primitive conditions entails some further impediment to the establishment of higher conditions.
§ 29. A closely-related physiological trait must be added. Along with this greater ability to bear injurious actions, there is a comparative indifference to the disagreeable or painful sensations those actions cause; or rather, the sensations they cause are not so acute. There are many testimonies to this fact, of which a few will suflBice. According to Lichtenstein, the Bushmen do not '^ appear to have any feeling of even the most striking changes in the temperature of the atmosphere.'' Grardiner says the Zulus '^ are perfect salamanders'' — arranging the burning faggots with their feet, and dipping their hands into the boiling contents of cooking-vessels. And it is said that the Abipones are ''extremely tolerant of the inclemencies of the sky.'' Similarly respecting the feelings caused by bodily injuries. Travellers in many lands e:q)ress surprise at the seeming indifference to pain displayed by inferior races. The calmness with which they undergo serious operations, forces on us the belief that the sufferings produced must be much less than would be produced in men of higher types.
Here we have a further characteristic which might have been inferred a priori. Pain of every kind, down even to the irritation produced by discomfort, entails a physiological waste of a detrimental kind. No less certain than the fact that continued agony is followed by exhaustion, which in feeble persons may be fata], is the fact that minor sufferings.
56 THS DATA Of 80CI0L0GT.
inclading the disagreeable sensations caused hj cold and hunger^ undermine the energies^ and Jh&j, when the vital balance is difficult to maintain^ destroy it. Among primitive races it must continually have happened that individuals with the keenest sensations^ worn more than others in bearing hardships and the pains of wounds, succumbed when others did not. The most callous must have had the advantage when irremediable evils had to be borne; and thus relative callousness must have been made, by survival of the fittest, constitutional.
This physiological trait of primitive man has a meaning for us. Positive and negative discomforts — ^the sufferings which come from over-stimulated nerves, and the cravings which come from parts of the nervous system debarred from their normal actions — ^being in all cases the stimuli to exertion, it results that a constitution characterized by callousness, is a constitution less readily spurred into activity. A physical evil which will prompt a relatively-sensitive man to provide a remedy, will leave a relatively -insensitive man almost or quite inert: either he will submit passively, or he will be content with some inadequate, make-shift remedy.
So that beyond the sundry positive obstacles to advance, there exists at the outset this negative obstacle, that those simplest feelings which prompt efforts and cause improvements, are less intense.
§ 80. As preliminary to the summing up of these physical characters, I must name a most general one — early arrival at maturity. Other things equal, the less evolved types of organisms take shorter times to reach their complete forms than do the more evolved; and this contrast, conspicuous between men and most inferior creatures, is perceptible between varieties of men. There is reason for associating this difference with the difference in cerebral development. The greater costliness of the larger brain, which so long delays human maturity, as compared with mammalian ma- THS FKDfimrS UAH-— PffTSICAL. 57 iarity generally^ delays also the maturity of the ciyilJzed as compared with that of the savage. Causation apart^ however^ the fact is that (climate and other conditions being equal) the inferior rac^s reach puberty sooner than the superior races. Everywhere the remark is made that the women early bloom and early fade; and a corresponding trait of course holds in the men. This completion of growth and structure in a shorter period is of interest to us as implying less plasticity of nature: the rigidity and unchangeableness of adult life sooner make modification difficult. We shall hereafter see that this trait has noteworthy consequences. For the present it is enough to observe that it tends to increase those obstacles to progress arising from the characters above described; which^ on now re-enumerating them^ we shall see are already great.
If the primitive man was on the average less than man as we now know him, there must have existed, during those earliest stages when there were only small groups of men capable of but the feeblest co-operation, with ineffective weapons, greater difficulties than afterwards in dealing with the larger animals, both enemies and prey. The inferiority of the lower limbs, alike in size and structure, must also have made primitive men less able to cope with powerful and swift creatures; whether they had to be escaped from or mastered. Besides the mechanical inconvenience attendant on his larger alimentary system, adapted to a very irregular supply of food, mostly inferior in quality, dirty, and uncooked, primitive man had a variable supply of nervous power, smaller in average amount than that which follows good feeding. Constitutional callousness, even of itself adverse to progress, must, when coexisting with this lack of persistent energy, have hindered still further any change for the better. So that in three ways the impediments due to physical constitution were at first greater than afterwards. By his structure man was not so well fitted for dealing with his difficulties; the energies required for 58 THK DATA Of SOCIOLOQT.
overcoming them were smaller and irregular in flow; and lie was less sensitive to the evils he had to bear. At the time when his environment was entirely nnsubjngated^ he was least able and least anxious to subjugate it. While the resistances to progress were greatest^ the power and the stimulus to overcome them were smallest.
m3,^M CHAPTER VI.
THB PRIMITIVB MAN — ^EMOTIONAIj.
§ 31. A XEASUBB of evolution in liying things^ is iihe degree of correspondence between changes in the organism and coexistences and sequences in the enyironment. In the Prineiples of Psychology (§§ 189 — 176), it was shown that mental development is ''an adjustment of inner to outer relations that gradually extends in Space and Time, that becomes increasingly special and complex, and that has its elements ever more precisely co-ordinated and more completely integrated/' Though in that place chiefly exemplified as the law of intellectual progress, this is equally the law of emotional progress. The emotions are compounded out of simple feelings, or rather, out of the ideas of them; the higher emotions are compounded out of the lower emotions; and thus there is progressing integration. For the same reason there is progressing complexity: each larger consolidated aggregate of ideal feelings contains more varied, as well as more numerous, clusters of components. Extension of the correspondence in Space, too, though less manifest, may still be asserted: witness the difference between the proprietary feeling in the savage, responding only to a few material objects adjacent to him — ^weapons, decorations, food, place of shelter, etc. — and the proprietary feeling in the civilized man, who owns land in Canada, shares in an Australian mine, Egyptian stock, and mortgagebouds on an Indian railway. And that extension of tho 60 THE DATA OJ 80CI0L0QT.
oorrespondence in Time may be asserted of the moreeTolved emotions^ will be manifest on remembering bow the sentiment of possession is gpratified bj acts of which the fruition can come only after many years^ and even gets pleasure from an ideal power over bequeathed property; and on remembering how the sentiment of justice seeks satisfaction in reforms that are to benefit future generations.
As was pointed out in a later diyision of the Principles of Psydiology (§§ 479—483)^ a more special measure of mental development is the degree of representativeness in the states of consciousness. Cognitions and feelings were both classified in the ascending order of presentative, presentativerepresentative^ representative, and re-representative. This general order has been necessary; since there must have been presentation before representation, and representation before re-representation. It was shown, too, that this more special standard harmonizes with the more general standard; since increasing representativeness in the states of consciousness is shown by the more extensive integrations of ideas, by the greater definiteness with which they are represented, by the greater complexity of the integrated groups, as well as by the greater heterogeneity among their elements; and here it may be added that greater representativeness is also shown by the greater distances in space and time to which the representations extend.
There is a further measure which may be serviceably used along with the other two. In the Principles of Psychology, § 253, we saw that — ** Mental evolution, both intellectaal and emotional, may be measured by the degree of remoteness from primiUye reflex action. The formation of sudden, irreversible conclusions on the slenderest evidence, is less distant from reflex action than is the formation of deliberate and modifiable conclusions after much eyidence has been collected. And similarly, the quick passage of simple emotions into the particular kinds of conduct they prompt, is less distant from reflex action than is the comparatively -hesitating passage of compound emotions into kinds of conduct determined by the joint instigation of their components."
TAB PBDCITIVS IfAN — SKOTIOKAL. 61 Here, tHen, are our guides in studying the primitive man as an emotional being. Considering liim as less evolved, we must expect to find liim comparatively wanting in those most complex emotions that respond to multitudinous and remote probabilities and contingencies. His consciousness differs from that of the civilized man, by consisting, to a much greater extent, of sensations and the simple represented feelings directly associated with them, and by containing fewer and weaker feelings involving representations of consequences beyond the proximate. And the relatively-simple emotional consciousness thus characterized, we may expect to be consequently characterized by less of that coherence and continuity which results when the promptings of direct desires are checked by sentiments responding to ultimate effects, and by more of that irregularity which results when each desire as it arises discharges itself in action before counter-desires have been awakened* § 82. On turning from these deductions to examine the &ct6 with a view to induction, we meet difficulties like those met in the last chapter. As in size and structure, the inferior races differ from one another enough to produce some indefiniteness in our conception of the primitive man — ^physical; so in their passions and sentiments, the inferior races present contrasts which obscure the essential traits of the primitive man — emotional.
This last difficulty, like the first, is indeed one that might have been anticipated. The spreading of the race during all past epochs into multitudinous widely -contrasted habitats, entailing widely-unlike modes of life, has necessarily been accompanied by emotional specialization as well as by physical specialization. And beyond differentiations of character directly due to differences of natural circumstances and resulting habits, the inferior varieties of men bave been made to differ by the degrees and durations of 62 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOaT.
social discipline they hare been subject to* Beferring to Bach nnlikenesses^ Mr. Wallace remarks that '' there is, in &ct, almost as much difference between the various races of savage as of civilized peoples/' To conceive the primitive man, therefore, as he existed when social aggregation commenced, we must generalize as well as we can this entangled and partiallj-conflicting evidence: led mainly by the traits common to the very lowest, and finding what guidance we may in the d priori conclusions set down above.
§ 33. The fundamental trait of impulsiveness, though one to be looked for as universal among inferior races, is not everywhere conspicuous. Taken in the mass, the aborigines of the New World seem impassive in comparison witii those of the Old World: some of them, indeed, exceeding the civilized peoples of Europe in ability to control their emotions. Tlirough stories, most people have been made familiar with this trait of the North-American Indians; and the statements of recent travellers confirm those of older ones. The Dakotahs are said to suffer with patience both physical and moral pains. The Creeks display ^' phlegmatic coldness and indifference.'^ With native peojples of South America it is the same. According to Burnand, the Guiana Indian, though ''strong in his affections, will lose his dearest relations, as he bears excruciating pains, with apparent stoical insensibility;'' and Humboldt speaks of his '' resignation." So, too, of the Uaupes: Wallace comments on '' the apathy of the Indian, who scarcely ever exhibits any feelings of regret on parting or of pleasure on his return." And that a character of this kind was wide-spread, seems implied by accounts of the ancient Mexicans, Peruvians, and peoples of Central America, who were not impulsive. Nevertheless, there are among these races traits of a contrary kind, more congruous with those of the uncivilized races generally. Spite of their usually unimpas- THl FBDOrm HAM — EMOTIONAL. 63