THE EARLY SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE
THE EARLY SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE
VOLUME I
Old World Traits Transplanted
Robert E. Park and Herbert A. Miller
VOLUME II
The Taxi-Dance Hall: A Sociological Study on Commercialized Recreation and City Life
Paul G. Cressy
VOLUME III
The Mind and Society
: Non-Logical Conflict
Vilfredo Pareto
VOLUME IV
The Mind and Society
: Analysis of Sentiment
Vilfredo Pareto
VOLUME V
The Mind and Society
: Sentiment in Thinking
Vilfredo Pareto
VOLUME VI
The Mind and Society
Part Four: The General Form of Society
Vilfredo Pareto
VOLUME VII
The Elements of Folk Psychology: Outlines of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
Wilhelm Wundt
VOLUME VIII
Culture and Progress
Wilson D. Wallis
First published 1930 by the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
This edition published 2003 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
Transferred to Digital Printing 2007
Copyright 1930 by the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
Editorial Matter and Selection 2003 Kenneth Thompson.
Typeset in Times New Roman by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.
ISBN 0415279739 (Set)
ISBN 041527981X (Volume VIII)
Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original book may be apparent.
THE MAKING OF SOCIOLOGY
Founding editor: Bryan S. Turner, University of Cambridge
Series editor: Kenneth Thompson, Open University
THE EARLY SOCIOLOGY OF CLASS
Edited with a new introduction by Bryan S. Turner
8 volume set
THE EARLY SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
Edited with a new introduction by Bryan S. Turner
9 volume set
SOCIAL THEORIES OF THE CITY
Edited with a new introduction by Bryan S. Turner
THE EARLY SOCIOLOGY OF THE FAMILY
Edited with a new introduction by Bryan S. Turner
10 volume set
ORIENTALISM: EARLY SOURCES
Edited with a new introduction by Bryan S. Turner
12 volume set
THE EARLY SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH AND ILLNESS
Edited with a new introduction by Kevin White
6 volume set
THE EARLY SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE
Edited with a new introduction by Kenneth Thompson
8 volume set
THE EARLY SOCIOLOGY OF MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATIONS
Edited with a new introduction by Kenneth Thompson
8 volume set
CULTURE AND PROGRESS
by
WILSON D. WALLIS
PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
WHITTLESEY HOUSE
McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC.
NEW YORK 1930
To
EDGAR A. SINGER
The measure of mans coperation with man measures progress.
Of all vulgar modes of escaping from the consideration of the effect of social and moral influences on the human mind, the most vulgar is that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character to inherent natural differences. John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, I, 390.
Within the flickering inconsequential acts of our separate selves dwells a sense of the whole which claims and dignifies them. In its presence we put off mortality and live in the universal. The life of the community in which we live and have our being is the fit symbol of this relationship.John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct, 331332.
Man is a tame or civilized animal; nevertheless, he requires proper instruction and a fortunate nature, and then of all animals he becomes the most divine and most civilized; but if he be insufficiently or ill educated he is the most savage of earthly creatures.Plato, Laws, Bk. VI, 766.
But I think men can help themselves. And I hate men who let things drift, and then, when trouble comes, say that the gods have forsaken them. Elmer Davis, Giant-Killer, 106.
Nous devons contempler le pass pour nous en nourrir, le prsent pour y vivre et le transformer, 1avenir pour y marcher sans nous y prcipiterPierre Leroux.
Ten thousand changes go on, and no one knows where they will end or when they have begun.Chuan-tze (Chinese philosopher, born 330 B. C.).
Preface
WESTERN civilization is a phase of human culture and can be understood only when viewed in historical and cultural perspective.
The present study deals with human culture, and confines itself neither to contemporary life nor to Western European civilization, although other civilizations and times are utilized mainly as a means of reflecting light upon our own time and civilization. Ones own culture, however, must be analyzed as objectively as are other cultures. In interpreting the methods of those who have attempted theoretical reconstructions of culture I have endeavored to be fair and frank. There has been a tendency in this country to compromise with those who are of ones own school, and there has been singularly little incisive criticism of the methods of fellow-workers. This may show generosity, but certainly, in the end, it benumbs the critical faculty. Vested interests warp the judgment in science as in other fields, and here, too, tradition is stultifying. It seems incredible that no one has challenged the verbal pretensions of those who call themselves adherents of the historical school and base their claim on the fact that they proceed without historyif history be taken to mean either chronologically recorded data or a knowledge of the order in which things actually happened. They wish to set themselves apart from, perhaps above, the evolution school; hence the verbal tag. But the evolution school was depicting presumed history, and the historical school is depicting presumed evolution. The two schools have the same ambition, namely, an account of the order in which changes actually took place; and they differ little in fundamental procedure. Each uses principles of interpretation which have not been empirically justified, which are useful only if they are true, and which have not been shown to be true. In the main, therefore, their interpretations are but exercises in logic. Some of their alleged principles may be true, but as yet it has not been shown that they are even probably true, and they remain assumptions. If the present work demonstrates the inadequacy of the methods which have been used in interpreting culture and progress, and the necessity of reexamining most of the problems involved, it will, we believe, be justified. Social science may be on the threshold of important findings in these fields, but at the present time the task has been only begun.
