The Cause of Variation (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1882 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. Communities. A community is a congregation of individuals associated together for the purpose of securing immunity from interference in the arrangement, and government, of the lesser intelligences composing their own structures. The distinction between the individual members of a community, arising from their being engaged in different occupations, has caused them to be likened to the different members of the structure of a human being. The progress of a community from barbarism to civilization, which is characterized by a change from simple to complex labor, has been likened to the change in the structure of animals, which are assigned to a high or low order accordingly as their structures are simple or complex. At first the animal was all stomach, but this simple structure has gradually changed to one more complex, and which is so arranged that the labor performed by one member is usually separate and distinct from that performed by any other. In a community of human beings, while in a savage state, the labor performed is very simple, and consists chiefly of such movements as are indispensible for the procurement of food. All progress toward a higher civilization is marked by a greater complexity of labor. The simple movements required in the occupation of hunter, or shepherd, give place to the complicated labor required in agriculture, manufactures, and arts, with their multitudinous subdivisions. Here the comparison between individuals and communities ends. A division of labor among the different members of the structure of an individual results in the advancement of the individual, but an ultimate division of labor among the different members of a community results in the degradation of the community. In all civilized communities the divis...