Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/641

 SOCIOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION LINES 625

As school-children drawing maps, we were taught to use con- struction lines. A few salient points were located, and these were connected by lines which indicated vaguely the outline of the country to be studied. From these points the pencil began to trace the intricate windings of the shore, and with reference to these lines it located rivers, mountains, and cities. The student of soci- ology cannot yet lay down a chart of the continent he explores, but he may attempt to form some general conceptions, to discern and state some truths with far-reaching implications, that will serve, like construction lines, to facilitate his progress toward the more accurate tracing of the outlines of this realm, and the com- pleter discovery of its particulars.

SECTION II. WHAT IS A SOCIETY?

What does the sociologist study? He studies societies, we are told. What, then, is a society ?

The state is the most imposing of social organizations. There- fore it was naturally the first to receive scientific treatment. The two chief social sciences that preceded sociology had been developed from the point of view of interest in the state ; they were political science and political economy. And the state has con- tinued to be the most conspicuous society in the eyes of sociolo- gists. Moreover, the idea of the state has grown concreter, richer, and more interesting by coming to include that which may be more accurately indicated by the word "nation." A "nation" is a people that is of one nativity, and that shares the other similari- ties of custom and culture which usually accompany unity of blood. During the period within which the notion of a science of sociology has been taking shape, the idea of a state, commonly held, has not been the idea of a massing of heterogeneous popu- lations, forced by political power into a merely political unity. Instead, the state usually has been thought of as the political organization of a nation, together with only such others as have been " naturalized " by adoption into the national family or clan, so that the state is bound together, not alone by political authority, but also by sharing, if not literally in the national blood, yet in the national patriotism, ideals, customs, economic and cultural