Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/616

 598 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

unable to stand alone, and the cactus and mesquite combine their armature of thorns for mutual protection. The wind-grown grass seeds lodge about the roots, and grasses grow and seed beneath the sheltering branches ; and next small mammals seek the same protection and dig their holes beneath the roots, giving channels for the water of the ensuing rain and fertilizing the spot with rejectamenta. Meantime the annual and semiannual plants which maintain a precarious existence in the desert take root in the sheltered and fertilized soil beneath the growing cactus and mesquite, and in season it becomes a miniature garden of foliage and bloomage. Then certain ants come for seeds, and certain flies and wasps for the nectar, and certain birds to nest in the branches. In this way a community is developed in which each participant retains individuality, yet in which each contributes to the general welfare. 1

Among mammalian forms, however, an instinctive, if not reflective, appreciation of the presence and personality of others is seen in the fact of gregariousness, and here already a defi- nite meaning is attached to signs of personality. In fact, a certain grade of memory is all that is essential to antipathy or affection. In mankind various practices show a growing "con- sciousness of kind," there is resort to symbolism to secure and increase the feeling of solidarity, and finally a dependence of emotional states on this symbolism.

Fighting and hunting operations soon make it plain that undertakings otherwise impossible can be accomplished by com- bining with one's fellows, and that life and safety often depend on friendly aid. A definite and interesting expression of this principle is seen in the widespread rite of blood-brotherhood. Taught by experience the value of a friend in time of danger, man mingles his blood and joins his fortunes with this friend, thus making over into himself a portion of his environment. This rite which may be regarded as a concrete aid to the savage's unpracticed power of abstraction, is in some parts of the world the only sure way of securing the friendship of the natives. Stanley recognized its value fully, and went through the cere- mony with above fifty African chiefs. In the universal practice of feud we have another evidence that men engaged in co-opera- tive life come to set the same value on their fellows as on them-

1 W. J. McGEE, " The Beginnings of Agriculture," American Anthropologist, Vol. VIII, p. 350.