An introduction to the study of social evolution; the prehistoric period . of grandeur are fear and rever-ence, This continued response becomes habit in theindividual and custom in the group. As the usage isintegrated, all those who do not respond to the terriblemanifestations of nature with the customary degree offear and reverence are regarded with suspicion. Thatis, the confident and the skeptical are constrained. Anyattitude of curiosity or criticism is discouraged as es-sentially unrighteous and endangering the safety of thegroup. For this reason the primitive man persecutesany member of
An introduction to the study of social evolution; the prehistoric period . of grandeur are fear and rever-ence, This continued response becomes habit in theindividual and custom in the group. As the usage isintegrated, all those who do not respond to the terriblemanifestations of nature with the customary degree offear and reverence are regarded with suspicion. Thatis, the confident and the skeptical are constrained. Anyattitude of curiosity or criticism is discouraged as es-sentially unrighteous and endangering the safety of thegroup. For this reason the primitive man persecutesany member of his tribe who, because of a confident orcritical turn of mind, deviates too far from the pathsprescribed by the established usages of the group. Thusdoes physical environment set the limits to human habita-tion, guide the movements of aimless migrations, stimu-late or retard the development of civilizations; some-times facilitating the easy communication of ideas andthe exchange of goods, and other times impressing theminds of a people with a sense of its grandeur which. INFLUENCES OF ENVIRONMENT 169 finds ultimate expression in rigid usages or grotesquemytliologies. One final influence of physical environment upon tliemind of man is suggested by Oscar Pescliel.^ Thefounders of the great monotheistic religions of the world,Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Christ, and Mohammed, be-long to the subtropical zone. This zone is one which eon •tains many vast deserts. Every traveler who hascrossed the deserts of Arabia and Asia Minor speaks en-thusiastically of their beauties; all praise their atmos-phere and brightness, and tell of a feeling of invigorationand a perceptible increase of intellectual elasticity; hencebetween the arched heavens and the unbounded expanseof plain a monotheistic frame of mind necessarily stealsupon the children of the desert,^* Forest scenery dis-tracts the attention to a thousand forms and sounds, thesunbeams play through the openings in the trees on thetrembl
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectsociolo, bookyear1913
