Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/77

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 6 1

Moreover, in the military city, just as it is the military and at the same time religious chieftain who founds the city, by locat- ing its boundaries, it is in like manner the chief who in case of defeat gives it up, and cedes the terminal gods and all the con- tents of the social group to the preservation of which these gods were supposed to be devoted. If the limits of the ancestral land were strict and continuous and if the town itself was guarded from its neighbors by its inclosure, nevertheless the latter was less closed than the domestic territory. The town communi- cated with the region beyond by gates. Its territory, although limited, had openings. It is remarkable that even in our language these openings recall the partly pacific character of their primi- tive function. Thus, for example, in the form of expression "to make overtures of peace" (ouvertures).

The ancient town was, in its normal situation, in harmonious relations with the surrounding agricultural domains; accord- ingly, with progress of inequality, the rural family estates fin- ished by falling into the hands of residents of the town, or of great proprietors who located in the town and ceased to work their estates directly. Moreover, the town with its agricultural dependencies was more accessible to the stranger than the ances- tral estate, whether that of the clan or of the tribe. If the city represented by the town and the annexed agricultural estates thus formed virtually the embryo of the modern state, and if it developed by conquest of new territories and of other cities, it is certain that it presented in its very structure the germs of pacific development. In the sociological differentiation resulting from the distinction between town and country there is a compli- cation of structure which gives to the internal organization an importance almost as great as that belonging to the external structure. There is an exterior frontier and a center. In soci- eties chiefly military this center will be as distinct as the frontier, but much less significant, because it is in pacific relations at least with the agricultural territory and population forming part of the same social aggregate with itself. This pacific tendency of urban centers cannot fail to increase in strength. For example, when, as in our day, they have become commercial and indus-