Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/184

 172 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

philology, comparative art, comparative religion, and the history of science, all of which are investigations of the social mind; third, the political sciences, devoted to a study of social organiza- tion; and, fourth, such sciences of the social welfare as political economy and ethics, the scientific study of education, studies of pauperism, and criminology.

Such being our conceptions of the nature of society, and of the proper analysis and classification of social facts, let us pass on to examine our concepts of the great processes of social evolu- tion, and of the causes in operation.

We accept the evolutionist' point of view, and regard all the transformations that occur within any social group as a phase of that ceaseless equilibration of energy taking place throughout the universe. Every finite aggregate of matter is in contact or communication with other finite aggregates, no two of which are equally charged with energy. From the aggregate more highly charged, energy is given off to aggregates that are under- charged, and in this process the strong absorbs, or disintegrates, or transforms, the weak. Every social group, animal or human, since time began, has been in ceaseless struggle with its material environment and with other social groups. Whatever has hap- pened to it or within it is most intelligibly accounted for if we view the process as one of equilibration of energies, between the group and its environment, or betwen group and group, or between unequal and conflicting elements within the group itself.

The modes that this equilibration assumes are many.

There is, first, the external equilibration of the society with its surroundings. This gives rise to the processes of migration, in which populations move from place to place, in search of new food supplies. Social groups are thus brought into conflict with one another, and the activities of militarism are engendered.

There is, next, a process of combined external and internal equilibration. Migration is its chief manifestation, but the migration is not now one of entire populations organized for war and conquest. It is one of individuals or families, moving from land to land in search of economic opportunity or of reli-