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 772 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

the group as norms of conduct.'^® The universaHty of funda- mental beliefs is attributable to the fact that they are ideaizations of impulses which actuate all individuals because developed out of universal instinct-processes. The universality of certain forms of social organization is attributable to the fact that they rest on these universal beliefs. As an example of the fact that beliefs and types of organization are derived phenomena and change when their instinctive and impulsive bases change, note the changes which have taken place in the idea of kinship and in the organization based thereon. Westermarck writes:

Kinship .... unsupported by local proximity .... loses much of its social force .... If, in modern society, much less importance is attached to kinship than at earlier stages of civilization, this is largely due to the fact that relatives, except the nearest, have little communication with each other. And if, as Aristotle observes, friendship between kinsfolk varies according to the degree of the relationship, it does so in the first instance on account of the varying intimacy of their mutual intercourse."

That is, the idea of kinship and the outgrowing forms of social organization, the latter so universally similar as to excite the comment of Morgan,^*' rest on the instinctive feelings and reactions made possible through proximity and the emotional and impulsive interchange made possible through communica- tion. Remove these conditions and the superstructure falls.

The institution of slavery in the United States rested upon the belief that slavery was right which was an ideaization of certain habitual emotions and impulses centering on the negro, among which were the emotion of contempt for him, the impulse to use him in the service of the acquisitive impulse, and the emo- tion of hatred toward those who would interfere. When the contrary emotions of compassion for the slave and indignation against his owner and the impulse of resistance against the slave- holder had become widespread and habitual and were ideaized, the belief that slavery was wrong arose and this belief, opposed to the other, precipitated social conflict. The institution resting

"Giddings, "Social Self-Control," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XXIV, No. 4.

••Westermarck, Origin and Development of Moral Ideas, Vol. II, pp. 202-4. '^Ancient Society, pp. 296, 321.