Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

According to Lester Ward (1883 , 1: 464–8), human society has passed through three stages of development, with a fourth stage not yet realized. In the first stage (the autarchic), human beings were savage and solitary creatures. With their higher mental powers in comparison to the lower animals, human beings gained mastery over most other creatures, yet what they required most was protection from their own kind. Even so, their relative security against external threats (save those of other tribes) meant that at some point human populations began to multiply. In this second, or anarchic, stage, human beings were forced into closer contact with greater numbers of others, but since they were ill adapted to association and social conditions – conditions in which ethics and virtues had not yet arisen – selfish passion continued to hold sway. As headships emerged to rule over human populations along tribal and communal lines, rules were created to regulate important forms of human association, including most importantly sexual relations. This establishment of the first rudimentary elements of government represents the third or politarchic stage. As population growth continued and as more tribes came into contact, the ancient pattern of conflicts fueled by ingroup/outgroup hostilities – ethnocentrism in Sumner's later terminology – gave way to cooperation and the enlargement of the spheres ... log in or subscribe to read full text