Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/85

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 73

units grouped together is first of all a constant function of the habitat, of food, of social resistances, or simply physical sur- roundings. According to Appius, generally several families occupy a single hut, and each tribe is composed of from six to ten huts. In Algeria, Tunis, and Morocco a very careful observer, L. Piesse, said that the tribe varies from five hundred to four thousand. He adds this interesting fact, which explains the existence of their regime, that the number of its members is always less than the number which the territory can support, without explaining whether the tribe is less than the resources actually existing, or than the possible resources if the territory was better exploited. In the latter case, the phenomena would scarcely be different from the condition of all human society. In reality, the possible population of a tribe is determined only as a function of other conditions, some general, others special; in a word, of all sociological influences. A fixed number is not conceivable. From a simple horde may come only a band of individuals, or there may come an innumerable host.

In any group the frontier lands are the most exposed to incur- sions and devastations, and naturally, they are the least sought for. Those who go there are either the venturesome frontiers- men or military forces charged at the same time with the colo- nization or with the protection of the colonies. These, on account of their situation, are likely to be waste places, deserts. In reality, if natural limits exist, the desert is the most effica- cious. The desert represents essentially the negative function of frontiers, and yet it is equally positive as the defense and protection of the group in the interior. These lands are, in all cases, the least settled, and they are peopled by the most violent and vigorous individuals. "The Suevians and the Germans," said Caesar, " gloried in this that for a considerable distance from their territory the lands remained deserted." 4

Among peoples living upon the natural products of the terri- tory property is held in common. In the case of the Fuegians, who are among the least developed peoples, the horde is nomadic, but it claims as its property a certain territory for hunting and


 * Gallic War, Book IV, 2; Book VI, 21.