Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/750

 736 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

negroes of the South, though surrounded by Christian influences, is indeed to be regarded as due not so much to the preservation of some primitive copy of such religious practices brought over from Africa as to the innate tendency of the negro mind to take such attitudes toward nature and the universe as tend to develop such religions. But the influence of innate tendencies upon the process of personal and social development is manifest not merely when we consider those broad differences between men which we term racial ; it is in evidence also to some extent when we consider national differences, for these are by no means wholly imitative differences. It is even to be seen in family traits ; for any group which remains sufficiently isolated long enough to develop by natural selection physiological peculiarities may also develop innate psychical tendencies of its own. Again, it is plainly discernible in the pathological phenomena of the social life; the "instinctive criminal" and the "hereditary pauper" are such, not because of the contagion of vice, crime, and shiftlessness which certain models in society may furnish, but because inborn tendencies lead them to seek such models for imitation rather than others ; because they naturally gravitate to a life of crime or pauperism. 1 Finally, and most important of all, is the influ- ence upon social organization of those innate tendencies which are common to the whole human species to human nature. These are especially liable to the overlooked, because they vary so slightly in individuals and races. The instinct to imitate is admittedly one of these. But there are many others. Who can doubt that such universal tendencies as the tendency to store up a food-supply, to cooperate in obtaining a food-supply or in repelling the attacks of enemies, to form enduring family groups, to live in communities, to render obedience to elders and authorities, to judge some kinds of action right and other kinds wrong, to communicate by means of articulate sounds, to wor- ship supernatural beings, etc., have long been innate, instinctive, in our species, and are truly matters of race heredity ? And if they are instinctive tendencies of the same sort as the tendency to

1 It is unnecessary to point out that this is practically the unanimous conclusion of all experts engaged in the study of these classes.