Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/807

 SOCIAL ASSIMILATION 793

us believe, or whether, as Sir Henry Maine 1 and M. Fustel de Coulanges 2 strongly insist, the paternal element was paramount in descent and authority, in the first association of men, certain it is that contact of group with group was inevitable from the very beginning. At first the mere fact of contact spontaneously engendered assimilation, though, to be sure, it was feeble and unconscious. Contact of different peoples, whether caused by festivals or battles, led to complicated genetic relationships, and through heredity the individuals of different groups became more and more alike. Soon, too, assimilation was accelerated through the rite of adoption, which came into vogue early in the history of human association. Thus assimilation begins its work at the dawn of social life. This unconscious or spontane- ous assimilation came into being simply through the working of the environment, through mere prolonged contact.

But since this study is concerned with assimilation as a social activity, consciously directed by the state in a word, with pur- posive assimilation it will deal only with societies that have pro- duced a civilization. Consideration of spontaneous assimilation in groups that have achieved nothing, that have contributed in no way to the world's fund of established knowledge, will not be undertaken. How, now, did these civilizations arise ? The proofs seem to be convincing enough to allow the answer : Through conquest, and the resulting amalgamation and assimila- tion of heterogeneous ethnic elements. Though Gumplowicz 3 and Ratzenhofer 4 are perhaps too sweeping in their statements that all race-contact was at first hostile and resulted in wars of extermination which were succeeded by wars of conquest, his- torical evidence supports the theory that civilized societies arose in consequence of conquest. In spite of the fact that Giddings designates Gumplowicz's Rassenkampf as his error 5 and says,

1 MAINE, Ancient Law, p. 1 17 ; Early Law and Custom, chap. 7. " Maine relied on the fact of male jealousy made much of by Darwin to prove that the primitive family was under paternal power, and that promiscuous sexual relations could never have been general." (GIDDINGS, Principles, p. 265.)

2 FUSTEL DE COULANGES, The Ancient City, chap. viii.

3 Der Rassenkampf, Part IV ; The Outlines of Sociology, Part III.

4 Die sociologische Erkenntnis, pp. 147-56. $ Principles, p. 298.