Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/177

 INTERPRETATION OF SAVAGE SOCIETY 163

period. Different groups take steps in culture in a different order, and the order depends on the general environmental situa- tion, the nature of the crises arising, and the operation of the attention. This is a sufficient comment on the theory, sometimes used in pedagogy, that the mind of the child passes through epochs corresponding to epochs of culture in the race. We have every reason to think that the mind of the savage and the mind of the civilized are fundamentally alike. There are, indeed, organic changes in the brain of the growing child, but these are the same in the children of all races. The savage is not a modern child, but one whose consciousness is not influenced by the copies set in civilization. And the white child is not a savage, but one whose mind is not yet fully dominated by the white type of cul- ture. And, incidentally there was never a more inept comparison than that of the child with the savage, for the savage is a person of definitely fixed and specialized aims and habits, while the child, as Professor Dewey has expressed it, is "primarily one whose calling is growth," and who is consequently characterized by flexible and unspecialized habits. To be sure there is a certain rough parallelism between the mental development of the child and the course of civilization. The race began with motor activi- ties and simple habits and civilization has worked itself onto a complex and artificial basis, with special emphasis on the re- flective activities. The child also begins with hand and eye move- ments and is gradually and systematically prepared by society to operate in the more complex and reflective adult world. But that is all. In both child and race the motor activities precede the reflective, and this could not be otherwise, for consciousness is largely built up through the hand and eye movements.