An Intensive Sociology: A Project

A community of five thousand persons was carefully observed with respect to collective life, collective behavior, and human consequences. The facts were observed with referenceto accuracy, numerical extent, and the concomitants. The object of study is to discover a tendency and to realize expectation. There are two major patterns of human aggregation, the inheriting and the inhabiting. The former is tribal; the latter is civil. The community is a natural society. Minor societies, unlike communities, are creations rather than growths and are (1) mob-minded regulators or vigilantes, (2) societies of lord or boss and his fealty-men, or (3) societies of unconstrained individuals in voluntary combination. In the populations of communities or commonwealths unlike-minded and like-minded elements are commingled. They must therefore try to bring about toleration and adjustment. The definitive trait of normal society is equilibrium which tends to be worked out between folk society and state. Intensive investigation...