Abstract
IN a short compass this book gives an excellent bird's-eye view of a very wide territory. It begins with a discussion of the data available for the study of the evolution of human society. Even animal associations are not neglected, but, naturally, more space is devoted to the beliefs and customs of savage tribes. Our author decides wisely with regard to primitive man that much is to be learnt thus. But he deprecates rash inferences. The ancestors of civilised man, there is reason to believe, never ceased to make progress. The savages of the present day have stagnated, and may, in some cases, have retrograded. Still, when the theories that suggest themselves to the investigator of savages and their ways are modified and corrected by the study of the institutions, the beliefs, the folk-lore of civilised peoples, it is probable that the risk of serious error is reduced to very small proportions.
La Sociologie génétique.
By François Cosentini. Introduction by Maxime Kovalewsky. Pp. xviii + 205. (Paris: F. Alcan, 1905.) Price 3.75 francs.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
H., F. La Sociologie génétique . Nature 72, 482 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072482a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072482a0