The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-16
PRIMITIVE PEOPLE.
Prot. Chamberlain Traces Human Races
from savagery to Civilization.

| HoW odNdSeTy TO ONlllZatIon'
Prof. Chamberlain spoke on the sub
Ject From savagery to civilization,
and said, in substance: In the frs
place, we must picture mankind Ions
before civilization appeared, as scat
tered all over the earth Maj Powell
says with the exception of the ice zone.
all the earth was filed with little group!
of people. Every little tribe had it.
own language and something to dis
tinsuish it. They were perhaps with.
out art, most We're perhaps little stocked
with language, most, perhaps all, spen
their time in simple sports, games o.
chance and such.
What had these primitive people? II
the first place, they had the family
there is no reason to believe otherwise
They also had fire, and, in a certain
sense, all that fire meant. They haG
the hearth, from which sprang the
nome; they cooked food. With the dis
covery Of fire it might be said thai
man rose into the social scale.
AT a very early period men had come
to be, in a way, Independent of nature
This is one of the cornerstones or
which was built all the edifces of civil.
| lization.
The association of people in the prim.
ltlVe colonies was factor in civiliza-
ton.
! 1t has been argued by some that the
f1rst grand binder together of civiliza-
ton was territory, not blood. A num-
Der of primitive peoples have named
| themselves after their countries, anG
not their fathers. However, DR.
Brinton thinks the early family of prim.
tive social life was that of blood
1t was at this period that the mother
began to color the ideas of the prime
val man. So later on, the father came
to be the great factor in the social life
but not until the family, the hearth
the mother, had developed Taking ad-
vantage of these the man became a
ruler, taking to himself the chiefship
of the tribe. Then he goes out to bat
tie and captures other tribes. When
the father feels his power wane, an
other idea, that of the people them
selves comes in, and the rule of the
democracy comes into vogue. Many
distinctions have been made as to civ
ilization and nom civilization. Vier-
kert attempted to sum UP the change
from savagery to civilization as a
| change from play to organization. This
| seems to be narrow view. Ferraro
says work is the great conquest of
mankind. In mythology and in all re-
ligions work is spoken of as a punish
ment. Today there are whole classes
who do not work, save in the most
primitive, adolescent FORMS We fol-
low, even the best of us, the law of
least effort.
The moral quality which distin-
guishes the primitive man from the
man of the 10Th century is violence of
character, says Ferraro They have
not that organized character for work
Ferraro sums up the influence which
caused civilization thus: Work sub
dued him and made him tired, and he
was civilized only in that second
breath. DR. Karl Buecher SAYS that
from work came all the beautiful things
in the world. From work has sprung
song, poetry, dance, music. Work done
in concert is the mother of all rhythm.
Man was civilized, according to Bue-
cher, by the development caused by
work, not because he became tired
Children repeat the history of the race
says Buecher.
The earlier writer's of the last half CEN
fury agree in recognizing the three pc
riods of hunting, the DEMONSTRATING of
animals and of agriculture. Some few
writers have said that hunting, domes-
| ticating and agriculture have by nc
means developed in this order. 1t can
not be said that hunting or domesti-
eating or agricultural race is higher
than an agricultural or a hunting or a
demonstrating race. Hunting and agri.
culture have developed side by side, the
one in the man and the second in the
woman.