Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/242

226 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY horde; (2) right of possession of the tribe; (3) right of possession of the clan; (4) right of possession of a family of the clan. Now, it is always on the frontiers of each civilization that the most simple forms are found; they are at the limits of the social space as they are at those of time.

When one observes that the lex Salica and the Saxenspiegel of the Germans reveal a customary right corresponding to the traditional usages of the American tribes, it is evident that these fundamental resemblances cannot be explained by imitation; and as it is true of possession and ownership, it is equally so in the case of the frontiers which are the external form of the combination of a population and a fixed territory — a combination out of which a society results.

Everywhere for genetic social structures with their corresponding frontiers we see substituted, under similar conditions, divisions whose bases are no longer natural, in the sense of physical or genetic. The same evolution occurs at the same stages, with the same essential characters, as well in Asia, in America, and in Africa as in Europe, and as well among the Aryans as among the Semites, the yellow, black, or red-skinned races. It is no more astonishing to see the ancient Peruvian capital divided into separate and unalterable quarters, according to the places of origin of the population, than to learn that the military forces were actually stationed in general in distinct districts and buildings, and even that each arm had its special quarters. In the Middle Ages, and even later, there were such quarters for every occupation, and also for inhabitants of different origins, as even today the names of a great number of our streets recall.

As the regional and genetic divisions tend to disappear, we see appearing simply numerical divisions, which recall only remotely the structure of the clan and of the family. Thus, the Hebrews were grouped in tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands. These same subdivisions are met with everywhere under analogous conditions. Thus in Japan, according to Alcock, in certain parts of the country there exists a sort of hierarchial system of chiefs of tens and of hundreds, the otonos of the towns and