ОНАР. VII Bootage of Phenome na of Nature Valhalla where those who die in battle continue to fight for Odin, will naturally depend on what that particular people regards as the acme of happiness; and this in turn will depend upon the special kinds of discomfort, privation, unhappiness, want, and suffering to which that people is subjected — in short the adverse elements of its environment." 3 Both Greek and Norse mythologies sprang from old Aryan gies in the sky worship. But Greek mythology turned on the recurrence of day and night, while in Norway, where the contrast of the seasons is far more dramatic than in Greece, the mythology turned on the alternation of winter and summer. When the Aryans, a pastoral people, entered India their chief deity was Dyaus (sky); Indra, his son, the rain-giver, was of minor rank. But after they turned farmers and became vitally interested in rainfall, Dyaus shrank to a secondary deity and Indra took the highest place. No wonder Keary concludes "the creed of a people is always greatly dependent upon their position on this earth, upon the scenery amid which their life is passed and the natural phenomena to which they become habituated; that the religion of men who live in woods will not be the same as that of the dwellers in wide open plains; nor the creed of those who live under an inclement sky, the sport of storms and floods, the same as the religion of men who pass their lives in sunshine and calm air.” 4 Bizarre and Unnatural Types of Sex Relation Develop ment. SEX RELATIONS AND ENVIRONMENT Sex relations bear witness at times to the power of the environThe inhabitants of an infertile mountain mass or plateau are ever threatened by overpopulation. Fear of this may establish the custom of late marriage or send a large part of the Among the adults into monasteries, as we find in Thibet. The institution of polyandry, so repugnant to the jealous instincts of the male, Mountains nevertheless appears quite frequently among mountain peoples as a means of avoiding the further division of plots so small that already each barely supports a family. Denizens of Inhospitable and of Small Remote Islands On islets (e.g., Polynesia) there is soon no more room and the necessity of arresting human increase is obvious to all. Hence infanticide becomes prevalent and in some cases is even 3 Whitbeck, op. cit., p. 321. 4" Outlines of Primitive Belief," p. 325. enforced by law. Marriage takes the form of polyandry or perhaps an elaborate system of prostitution springs up. The result is a breaking down of sex morals and a decay of the finer sentiments of the family. Moreover, the constant dread of overpopulation causes a low value to be set on human life manifesting itself in neglect of the aged, cannibalism, human sacrifice, slaughter in warfare and a free use of capital punishment. NATURE AND GOVERNMENT СНАР. vu A Strong Central ment De velops Tilled Plain, but all, in a Nature is no mean factor in determining the political destiny of a people. The creation and maintenance of irrigation canals calls for cooperation and for this reason high political organization first appears along rivers traversing deserts like the Nile, Early in a the Euphrates and the Riobamba. Along the Hoang-Ho in Open China the necessity of controlling the flood waters seems to have Late, if at forced an early development of the state. Among agricultural very people in an open plain, a strong government soon develops Mountainous partly because the people desire protection from hungry swooping Country hill tribes, partly because the law-breaker has no safe refuge to fly to, and there is no natural barrier to shelter local resistance. On the other hand, in mountain country like the Scottish Highlands, Corsica, Albania, Macedonia, the Caucasus, and Afghanistan, natural barriers split up the people into petty groups each independent of the others. Only late, and generally in consequence of subjugation by an outside power, do highlanders emerge from a condition of chronic intestinal warfare, brigandage, and lawlessness. Switzerland is one of the rare instances of mountain dwellers attaining political unity of their own free will. IS THE POWER OF ENVIRONMENT GROWING? As society progresses does man become less dependent on his geographical environment or more dependent? Some hold for the latter. The roving tribe is hardly more attached to the land than the tumble weed of the prairie. But civilized men strike rot deep into the earth. They clear, level, drain, fence, plant, bige, cut roads, sink shafts, canalize streams, build levees, dam rvers, and in a thousand ways entwine themselves with a partular land, from which they cannot be dislodged save by a Cataclysm. If it be held that at least steam transportation and commerce CHAP. More and More It Is Rather ical Bar riers, that Hold Peo emancipate men from their local environment, it may be demurred that locality never left a sharper impress on economic life than it does to-day. Formerly a community had to diversify its production in order to provide for its wants. But cheap carriage sets a community free to import everything it requires and to concentrate its labor upon the one industry in which its locality has the greatest advantage. Whatever be its best profitmaker raising cranberries, oyster-tonging, celery growing, turpentine gathering or digging iron ore - it gives itself up to it. And since occupations leave their own stamp on character, e.g., horse-trading, vine-growing, gold-mining, etc.- the dominant industry marks the whole life of the community, so that more than formerly it is moulded by its immediate environment. As consumers, on the other hand, men free themselves from the limitations of their locality and draw upon the whole world. Amid Alaskan snows the miner enjoys tropical fruits, tea from China, coffee from Brazil, sugar from Cuba. Besides, if he likes, he may read poetry inspired by palm trees and coral islands, listen to music that takes its motif from shepherd's pipe or temple bells, and enter imaginatively into the life and thoughts of any group of men on the globe. MAN'S SLOW EMANCIPATION FROM GEOGRAPHY Whatever be the conclusion as to the economic life, there can be no doubt that as man advances in civilization he withdraws himself more and more from the lordship of geography. Man than Phys- has pierced, dug, hewn, dredged, and blasted away not a few of the natural features which divide him from other men. Of ples Apart water barriers he has made liquid highways. On the wide seas he goes about at will in defiance of wave, trade wind, current, tempest, and icefloe. He rushes the desert in a few hours with an iron camel which easily carries fifty times the fodder it consumes. Now that he is leaping into aerial highways, he disdains the rivers, mountain chains, wastes, jungles, swamps, and tundras which once shut communities in so many cells. More and more, the obstacles to the fellowship and mutual aid of peoples and races are found in the human mind rather than in Nature. A religion springs up bearing a deep impress from a particular scene. Elsewhere one springs up with a different stamp. Here one is born with a pastoral twist, and there one with an agri to CHAP. VII In Order Universal, a Religion Must Reflect Nature than External Nature cultural slant. When these religions meet, as they are bound to do in time, what will happen? Obviously a people will be slow to take up with a religion of an utterly alien climate and scene. Hence many will disappear while others will fuse or develop in such a way as to lose the sharp impress of their birth place. Thus as tribal cults give way to universal religions the geo- Human graphic stamp grows fainter, for the winning faiths are not Rather those adapted to external Nature - which is various - but human nature which is everywhere much the same. The marriage customs of nature peoples have obviously been The moulded by locality — the aging effect of the climate on women, Customs the comparative value of men and women in the chief occupa- Advanced tions, the food possibilities, etc. But in the course of social Peoples evolution the institution of monogamous marriage develops, gains prestige, and begins its triumphal march. Finally it is able to pull communities in the most diverse climates and situations into one plane of practice, to exert a hydraulic even pressure without heed to geographic or climatic differences. Marriage of the Are Not Adapted to Climatic or Geo graphic ences, but Differ to the Psychology of the Crowded and anxious on their little islands in the South Seas, Sexes the Polynesians resorted to practices which nauseate healthy human nature infanticide, abortion, man-eating, the sanctioned murder of the aged and infirm. In the same strait, however, civilized islanders hold to their standards and ease the strain by such innocent means as postponing marriage or emigrating. The Thibetans solve their problem of population increase by polyandry; but Christian mountaineers accept no such dietate from their hospitable environment. With them the marriage institution is granite, whereas with nature peoples it is wax. Thus, as civilization develops, social institutions are moulded more by the products of human thought and less by impressions from Nature. Ideas play a greater rôle, climate and scene a lesser role. Man becomes a citizen of the world rather than a parish and psychology rather than geography provides the keys to social evolution, |