The Fallacy of Primitive Communism

Extract

It has been suggested by writers of note that the next few decades will see an advance in the social sciences comparable to the advance which has already been made in our knowledge of the material sciences. In spite of the more pessimistic view, that prejudice and class interests must necessarily render a sane solution of our social problems impossible, there is a general tendency towards a co-ordination of the work of social scientists, and from the chaos of extravagant theories certain general principles are slowly but surely gaining acceptance by the majority of students in the fields of psychology, sociology, and economics.

Nowhere is this tendency more apparent than in social anthropology, the science which studies the social structure of primitive societies with a view to understanding the motives which actuate human beings reared in an environment totally different from our own. These studies are proving of great value in the solution of social problems, and the savage, instead of being dragged in as an afterthought to justify preconceived theories, is being studied for his own sake, and the results applied to more advanced societies.