Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/807

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 79 1

sciences, in so far as that is possible, seeing that the bulk of what we know of human associations up to date is given us by the social sciences ; and later to see how the conventional social sciences may be used to get more intimately acquainted with the content which the sociological formulation discloses.

All this may be indicated in still another way that to certain minds will be more vivid. The world of people, as it presents itself to the sociologist's preliminary survey, might be represented by a series of charts, which we may merely suggest in passing.

Using the largest surface available, describe a circle and out- line within it all the continental areas of our globe (Chart A). Without drawing lines of political division, cover the inhabited areas with points representing individuals, with degrees of density corresponding with the population statistics of the different countries. Chart A would then stand for the "big buzzing con- fusion" that confronts the mind when it first encounters entirely uncriticised elements of the social fact, viz., variously dense multitudes of persons."

On the same scale describe a second circle (Chart B), in which the points symbolizing individuals begin to represent rudimentary perceptions of groupings. So far as the mechani- cal limitations permit, arrange the points denoting individuals in pairs, in constellations numbering from three to an arbitrary maximum — say ten — and scatter among these groups a number of detached points corresponding with the ratios of unmarried adults in the various areas. Chart B indicates the primary fact of family grouping, characterizing all human populations, but in no case precisely accounting for the whole population. The family may not be monogamous; the monogamous family may or may not increase beyond the original pair ; and in no popula- tion of self-stj'led civilized people are all the adults members of family groups. In successive charts (C, D-N) on the same scale represent in turn associations that are dependent upon contiguity in space, and then those associations, commercial, scientific,

'"Der soziale Korper ist auf dem ersten Blick eine Vielheit von Einzelnperso-

nen Wir fassen vorlaufig das Individuum allein ins Auge, beziehungsweise

die Bevofkerung als eine Vielheit und Mannigfaltigkeit von Individuen." {Bau und Ltben, 2d ed., Vol. I, p. 35.)