IV THE POPULATION PROBLEM AMONG MEN

1. It has been shown in the last two chapters in what the population problem among species in a state of nature consists. With regard to the quantitative aspect in particular it has been shown that among such species mental evolution, greatly as the stage reached differs between the lowest and the highest forms, has not attained a point at which the essential features of the position have in consequence been affected. Enough has been said to show that in the case of the most primitive races of man now living mental evolution has reached a point in consequence of which the quantitative problem has assumed a totally different aspect.

With regard to the qualitative problem the question also arises as to how far mental evolution in man has affected the position. In one very important respect mental evolution has wholly altered the position of man as regards this aspect of the problem, as it has regarding the quantitative aspect. How this has come about may be considered after it has been observed that mental evolution has also been the cause of other changes which, while they do not alter the fundamental position of man as regards the qualitative aspect, yet are of great importance.

As we have seen among species in a state of nature change is founded upon germinal change. So, too, among men there is germinal change, and so far as history (using the term in the widest sense to include what is often rather meaninglessly called ‘pre-history’) is connected with germinal change, so far it is of essentially the same nature as change among other species. But both the direction and intensity of germinal change among men have been greatly influenced by mental evolution. Certain causes of elimination have been removed wholly or in part, others have been introduced. The facts are familiar; there is no need to labour the point. It is also worth noting that, should it be found that mutation frequently arises owing to alterations in the environment during the formation of the germ-cells, such a discovery 81might have considerable bearing upon the position in man. Owing to human activity under the guidance of reason, the environment has been profoundly changed in many directions, and without question in consequence of such changes the germ-cells of human beings are subject during their development to far more varied stimuli than are those of other species. This, however, is only a possibility. Nothing is known with certainty upon the subject. It may be that the great variety of foods, the absorption of alcohol and nicotine, the various occupations and customs, and many other factors, all ultimately traceable to reason, may, some of them in some way, tend to bring about mutation in man.

It is by making possible the development of tradition that the evolution of reason has fundamentally changed the nature of the qualitative problem among men. Into the nature and origin of tradition it will be necessary to go in another chapter. Here all that is required is an indication of its main features in order that its connexion with the problem of change may be understood. In the stage of conceptual thought reached by man, the formation of free ideas is the outstanding feature. With the development of conceptual thought went the development of language. By language ideas can be passed from one man to another and also from one generation to another. There are other ways in which the results of reasoning can be handed on, but they need not be considered at present. What is important is that they can be and are handed on. Let us consider for a moment the question of skill. Some improvement may be made in the methods of hunting or of fishing. It may, of course, be lost, but it may be, and perhaps usually is, transmitted to other men by the inventor and afterwards to succeeding generations. Tradition is, in fact, cumulative. Even among the most primitive races now existing there is a huge mass of tradition. Succeeding generations do not necessarily start at the beginning again. They start with the experience of the race behind them, so far as it has been preserved.

Among the higher animals there is a certain handing on of what has been learnt by experience; to this extent there is tradition also among them. We shall return to this point later. So relatively unimportant, however, is tradition among other animals, that we may for the moment regard tradition as something which is found among men only. It is clear that tradition has played some part in any case in producing the changes which we call history. 82We have only to think of the rise of Japan to the position of a great power in the last half of the nineteenth century. The rise of Japan was an outstanding fact in the history of that period and it was clearly in the main, if not wholly, a traditional and not a germinal change. It took the form of a rapid absorption of European tradition. The evolution of reason has thus introduced into the problem of the causes of human history a factor which is not present in the case of other species; it has also modified the course of selection, but this, as we have seen, has not made a fundamental difference between the position of man and that of species in a state of nature.

The problem before us is therefore as follows. Owing to the fact of reproduction the population problem in both its aspects exists for all species in a state of nature and further presents fundamentally the same features for all such species. The ancestors of man were at one time subject to the same conditions from which they have, step by step, moved away owing to the development of the faculty of reason. We have to trace the causes and results of this moving away—of the progressive modifications of the conditions existing among species in a state of nature.

Though the problem has two aspects, they are closely interwoven. Changes which affect numbers also influence the quality of population. The discussion has hitherto taken the form of an introduction to the problem as a whole, and the two next chapters, the subject-matter of which will be indicated in what follows, will also be devoted to certain problems which equally bear upon both aspects of the question. From the seventh chapter onwards the two aspects are treated independently; we deal first with the quantitative and then with the qualitative aspect. Nevertheless we shall, when dealing with the quantitative problem, present evidence which we shall consider again later when treating of the qualitative problem. The book thus falls into three parts; the first six chapters are introductory to the problem as a whole, the next six chapters are concerned with problems of quantity (though many of the facts brought forward will be found also to bear later upon quality), and the following nine chapters with problems of quality. The last chapter sums up our conclusions as to the whole problem.

2. We may next ask what data are required in order that we may look into the changes away from the conditions under which 83the pre-human ancestor lived towards the conditions which now exist. In order that we may consider the quantitative aspect of the problem, it is evident that we require some knowledge regarding fecundity and as full details as possible regarding the factors which bear upon fertility and elimination. It is only when we are provided with such information that we can hope to be able to determine how it is that numbers are regulated among men.

In addition to such information, it will be desirable to have information regarding various social customs and the general conditions of life. As regards the inquiry into the qualitative part of the problem, it is clear that facts regarding fertility and elimination are again of value inasmuch as they throw light upon the nature and intensity of selection. For the second part of the problem it is also necessary to have in mind the main facts regarding the changes which are summed up as history into the causes of which we have to inquire; and in addition it will be necessary, in order that we may attempt some estimate of the relative importance of change in the germinal constitution on the one hand and of the other factor or factors of the nature indicated above on the other hand, to make some inquiry into the conditions which determine the nature of these latter factors. This will involve a reference to certain elementary facts of psychology together with some discussion of the origin, formation, preservation, and so on, of tradition.

If we first ask how far the data desired are available, we may afterwards go on to discuss how the facts are best presented. Our information is obviously very incomplete as regards the history of social habits and customs. Historical records do not take us farther back than at the most six thousand years, and the information available with respect to social customs, except for the latter part of the period, is very inadequate. If we take a broad view of history, written records have reference only to relatively modern times. There are two other sources of evidence upon which we have to rely and they are as follows.

Some indication of the bare outline of the course which history has taken can be gathered from a study of the fossil and cultural remains of man. The fossil remains are in the form of skeletons or portions of skeletons and the cultural remains in the shape of tools, weapons, and other traces of his mode of life that man has 84left behind him. It is interesting to observe that an attempt can be made to date these remains. They occur in certain strata, and estimates can be made of the length of time which has elapsed since these strata were deposited. Though a very large measure of doubt must surround any such estimates, nevertheless there is a certain measure of agreement concerning the facts which is of great interest. It is, therefore, possible to draw up a table showing these strata, together with what we should perhaps call guesses at the dates at which they began to be laid down. It can also be shown in the table what fossil and cultural remains are found in the respective strata.

The information, however, which we thus gain is very meagre. A study of fossil remains can only provide us with an outline of the facts connected with the evolution of the skeleton. More can be gathered from a study of the cultural remains, and certain deductions of considerable interest can be made especially in connexion with our present purpose so far as the evolution of skill is concerned. But, of course, we can in this manner gather nothing as to the nature of the social customs and institutions belonging to the races which practised these skilled methods. The question we have to face is whether this very bare outline of the facts of history can in any manner be filled in.

3. There is a further source of evidence which we have to consider. There has come under the observation of civilized man a large number of races in a low stage of culture. The evolution of culture or of control over the surroundings took place more quickly among certain races than among others. Some races got left out of the main stream of evolution, and finally in relatively recent years the more advanced races arrived at a stage where they were in a position completely to dominate the latter. The more primitive races were unable to offer any serious resistance to the civilized races. It was, therefore, possible to regard these primitive races dispassionately and scientifically; this study has led to the collection of a vast amount of information regarding these primitive races. These data are for many reasons often of a very unsatisfactory nature; of this the chief cause is that, before an accurate study was begun, contact with civilized races had often had a considerable influence upon the former mode of life of the primitive races. What we require and what is difficult to obtain is information as to the conditions under which these races lived 85before they came into contact with Europeans. With regard to the unsatisfactory nature of the evidence there will be more to say later.

It is of primary importance to observe that these races are not to be regarded as actual representatives of certain stages through which civilized races have passed. We know that in the evolution of control over nature civilized races have passed through certain stages of culture; the first stage was marked by the use of unpolished stone implements and the obtaining of food by hunting and fishing only; the second stage was marked by the use of polished stone implements and the obtaining of food by agriculture and the domestication of animals.^[103] These two broad divisions—the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic—may be subdivided. But no primitive race can be regarded as representing any definite stage in exact detail, whether in the first or in the second of the two broad divisions through which civilized races have passed. While the culture of the ancestors of civilized man was evolving from that of the Palaeolithic stage to that of the present day, the culture of certain other races did not progress as far even as the Neolithic stage. But the culture of these races did not remain unmodified; it followed in each case a line of evolution of its own. These races are therefore to be regarded as specialized representatives of the earlier stages of culture through which the civilized races passed. Nevertheless, specialized though their culture may be, the general conditions of their existence are certainly similar to the general conditions which must have characterized the corresponding stage in the evolution of the culture of civilized races. That is to say, the broad features which characterize the conditions found among hunting and fishing races must also have 86characterized the conditions under which our Palaeolithic ancestors lived.

There is here obviously suggested a method whereby the framework of history arrived at by the evidence of fossil and cultural remains may be filled in. The broad conclusions drawn from a study of hunting and fishing races may be applied to Palaeolithic races. But this method must be used with great caution; it has undoubtedly been pressed too far. It is possible to divide hunting and fishing races into groups and to compare these groups with stages in the evolution of Palaeolithic culture. How far it is in any way valid to attribute in this fashion particular social institutions which characterize lower, middle, and upper hunting races to lower, middle, and upper Palaeolithic races respectively is very doubtful. It is not proposed here to attempt to carry the method as far as this. For one thing, so far as the subject has been worked out, there is no clear correlation between different factors affecting fertility and elimination on the one hand and stages in culture among hunting races on the other hand. Thus, as it happens, any attempt to carry this method into more detail is not productive of results, and therefore it is not worth while to inquire whether results would be valid or not. All that it is proposed to do here is to examine the evidence regarding the prevalence of certain customs, habits, and so on, among hunting races, and to apply the broad conclusions founded on this evidence to the ancestors of civilized races who supported themselves by hunting. In this manner only is it at all possible to fill in the framework of history provided by the remains of culture and by fossils, and thus to arrive at any conclusions regarding the course of the movement away from the conditions found in the pre-human ancestor to those found among civilized races.

4. With regard to the question as to the way in which this evidence may be most conveniently set out, it is proposed to proceed in the following manner. Before we come to the evidence regarding fertility and elimination, something has to be said regarding fecundity in man, and that will be the subject of the fifth chapter. In the following chapter the evidence regarding fossil and cultural remains will be very briefly discussed, just so far as, in the first place, provides the necessary historical facts to form a basis for the discussion of the qualitative problem and as, in the second place, provides the framework into which we can fit 87the conclusions which we shall draw from a study of primitive races. In the seventh chapter the evidence drawn from a study of hunting races will be reviewed in so far as it throws light upon fertility and elimination. In the eighth chapter the evidence bearing upon these problems, so far as the agricultural races are concerned, will be similarly set out. In the ninth chapter the evidence will be discussed in its bearing upon the quantitative problem among these races—all reference to the qualitative problem being left for later chapters. In the tenth chapter the evidence for the historical races will be similarly reviewed, and in the eleventh chapter similarly discussed. The twelfth chapter will be devoted to a discussion of certain problems connected with the quantitative problem at the present day. The twelfth chapter therefore will complete the treatment of the first or quantitative aspect of the problem, and in the remaining chapters will be discussed the second or qualitative problem. Already there will have been presented a large part of the evidence necessary for the discussion of the second problem—namely, the evidence connected with the outline of the facts of history and that connected with fertility and elimination. What other evidence is necessary can be given as and when required.

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