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 THE AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

VOLUME XV SEPTEMBER, 1909 numbers

STANDPOINT FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF SAVAGE SOCIETY^

W. I. THOMAS The University of Chicago

I

The general acceptance of an evolutionary view of life and the world has already deeply affected psychology, philosophy, morality, education, sociology, and all of the sciences dealing with man. This view involves a recognition of the fact that not a single situation in life can be completely understood in its immediate aspects alone. Everything is to be regarded as having an origin and a development, and we cannot afford to overlook the genesis and the stages of change. For instance, the psy- chologist or the neurologist does not at present attempt to under- stand the working or the structure of the human brain through the adult brain alone. He supplements his studies of the adult brain by observations on the workings of the infant mind, or by an examination of the structure of the infant brain. And he goes farther than this from the immediate aspects of his problem — he examines the mental life and the brain of the monkey, the dog, the rat, the fish, the frog, and of every form of life possess- ing a nervous system, down to those having only a single cell;

Standpoint, Ethnological Materials, and Classified Bibliographies for the Inter- pretation of Savage Society. The University of Chicago Press. To be published September 15, 1909.
 * Introductory chapter from A Source Book for Social Origins : Psychological

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