Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/352

 338 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

detail, since there exists no literature to which I can refer the reader.

First it is necessary clearly to understand the question. Formerly, when the Aryan peoples were regarded as descended from a single family, it was permissible to ask what was the anthropological type of that family. This manner of view can no longer be tolerated when it is realized that the Aryan peoples proceeded from the evolution of earlier peoples. The unity of type possible within a single family is no longer found through- out a tribe. Probably no tribe in the world can be found entirely homogeneous, and this appears to be equally true of tribes in the past, as far as we can study them in the light of prehistoric anthropology.

In order to so ve the question as formerly framed, "What was the type of he primitive Aryan?", it would be neces- sary that prehistoric anthropology should show us a homo- geneous population in the region and epoch of the formation of the first Aryan civilization. The region was that to the north of the Seine, the Alps, the Balkans, and the western part of the Black Sea; the epoch was that of the middle and end of the period of polished stone. Now, instead of a homogeneous popu- lation, there existed a considerable number of human types, among which it is necessary to choose. The question ought, therefore, to be framed thus : Of the races presetit among the Aryan peoples, zvhich race ivas socially predomitiant, to which ought the civilization to be attributed?

It is necessary to exclude the races represented only by the servile element, or onlv by savage tribes existing more or less separately from the Aryan peoples, like the Indians in the United States, or only by strangers, who may have been slaves brought from a distance, or travelers or adventurers. Among every people, in fact, and especially among peoples like the early Aryans or the Indo-Chinese of the present day, it is necessary to dis- tinguish between the element which counts and that which does not count, between that which is influentical and that which simply exists within the society without playing any active roll.