Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 24.pdf/478

 Reviews of Books a long period — "decadent" is hardly the word — sharing the same unusual combination of traits, represent an anom alous phase of development. But as the tendencies analyzed, disentangled from one another, are broadly distributed throughout the country, parallels more or less remote to numerous other places are suggested. The book is striking as a portrayal of the unyielding survival of an "ideoemotronal" type of mind, which was transmitted from the religious enthusi asts who were the original settlers, and has steadily persisted as the dominant characteristic of the inhabitants. In this we find the explanation of the attachment of the village to dogmatic religion, narrow political partisanship, and a severe morality which frowns upon worldly amusements, and it also ex plains the irrational pride of the citizens in their village as superior to every other, and their inability to enter with intelligence and success into industrial enterprises led by outsiders. Even the establishment of a college in Aton has not visibly altered this habit of mind, nor brought the place into closer com munication with the intellectual move ments of the times. The type has per sisted because of the isolation and quiescence of the place, its uneventful, monotonous existence, and the absence of anything to occasion economic de velopment and a large influx of popu lation. The economic interests of the place have been mainly agricultural, the soil not being especially fertile, and there has also been some manufacturing. No one has amassed wealth, everyone being satisfied with a simple livelihood on a limited income. All the citizens asso ciate on a basis of social equality, which is the consequence of any sharp differen tiation into economic classes. Moreover,

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the village belongs to that primitive stage of economic development marked by little subdivision of labor and organi zation of industry, in which each in habitant relies more upon his own labor than upon associative effort to provide himself with the means of subsistence. Little capacity for teamwork is shown, and even among the youth of the village athletic games calling for teamwork were till recently unpopular. The author lays stress on the manner in which these conditions are supposed to develop indi viduality, and emphasizes the self-reli ance and versatility of the townspeople, but in view of the confusion commonly attending the use of the word "indi vidualism," it might be better to avoid a term which suggests a tendency to oppose the will of the individual to that of the society. In those matters which make for real individualism the indi vidual here is clearly in a relation of servile imitation to the social group, and one would look long to find a place where individual action is more com pletely socialized in the group sense. What does need emphasizing is the economic system which makes every citizen an independent worker though at the same time lacking in personal force. Considered as a scientific study, the book is well enough so far as it goes, but one cannot help feeling that a more thoroughgoing and instructive study might have been made of the interest ing facts collected. The economic side of the community might have received fuller attention. Sociological conclu sions might also have been worked out in a manner doing fuller justice to the complexities which a subject of this kind presents, and treating the subjectmatter with less of broad generalization and with more attention to the func tions of sub-groups and family units.