Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/692

 676 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

contracts ; and temporary contracts or work without contract. Laborers (other than domestic servants) are classified as day- laborers, piece-laborers, laborers who are tenants, chiefs of trade or foremen, laborers who possess property, laborers whose work is chiefly upon their own property (proprietors).

2. Preliminary observations. The preliminary observations describe in a way the whole family and the social milieu in which it lives. The principal facts which these thirteen para- graphs should contain are as follows : ( I ) Precise designation of the locality inhabited by the family. Constitution and relief of the soil ; mountains, forests, rivers situated in the vicinity, chan- nels of communication. Climate. Hygienic conditions due to the nature of the locality. Agricultural products. Industries.

Commerce. Status of the land; division of rural properties.

Status of the population; number of heads of households classed according to their professions. Nature of contracts which bind laborers to masters, communities, or societies. Political and administrative conditions. (2) Constitution of the family in an isolated household or in a communistic group. Give here also the names, the place of birth, the age, the paren- tal and domestic relations of the different members of the family still living together ; also the names of other members who are dead or established elsewhere. (3) Religious beliefs and wor- ship of the members of the family and of the population in gen- eral. Influence of the clergy. Details of religious practice; domestic worship, public worship, prayers, images, ceremonies at marriage, at birth, and at decease; temples, holidays. Note also domestic virtues : attachment between husband and wife ; position accorded the wife in the home ; care and deference shown to aged parents ; affection and enlightened care given to the children, and measures taken for their intellectual and moral development. Also social virtues; charity and self-sacrifice; spirit of conciliation ; politeness ; deference and attachment of the family for their employer; tolerance in religious belief. Also moral habits relative to mode of existence : disposition to pro- priety in the house and in clothing ; tendency to simplicity,