Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/747



SOCIAL DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION 727

great drainage systems. We may imagine two members of the two terminal groups that, under these natural conditions, chanced to occupy the opposite adjacent slopes accidentally to meet in the forest. What would be the result ? If they should speak to each other, it would be in a language that neither could under- stand. There would arise in the breasts of both a mingled assem- blage of crude savage feelings. Fear, wonder, hate, and rapacity would be among the blended emotions and motives to action. The result of such a first encounter would depend upon too many conditions to admit of prediction. But the repetition of such encounters, and especially the accidental meeting of bands from such different tribes, would lead to consequences that can be readily foreseen. When such encounters became frequent, as they could not fail ultimately to do, nothing could prevent hos- tility and war. Each group would look upon the other as some- thing utterly foreign and unassimilable. There would be no "consciousness of kind." The possession of the human form might cause the existence of somewhat different sentiments from those aroused by encountering a tiger or a bear, but that there should arise any sentiment of humanity or any desire to cultivate closer relationships, is wholly out of the question. The com- bined effect of all the sentiments excited would be the desire to kill and destroy this new-found beast that could only be con- ceived as a natural enemy.

The more frequently such races were brought into contact, the more bitter would grow the animosity. The more they learned of each other, the more intense would be the mutual hatred. The first thing to strike each would be the utter dis- similarity, and everything that one race did or possessed that the other did not do or have would intensify the feeling of contempt. When it was found that not only were their languages different, but that their practices, customs, ceremonies, cults, and fetishes were all strange and unknown, the degree of mutual detestation would be without limit.

The period of social differentiation was a prolonged one. It saw the transition in man from a frugivorous to a largely carniv- orous animal. The food-supply came to be in large part flesh,