Introduction to the Science of Sociology

by Robert Ezra Park; E. W. Burgess

[114] From William Z. Ripley, The Races of Europe, pp. 515-30. (D. Appleton & Co., 1899.)

[115] Adapted from Ellen C. Semple, Influences of Geographic Environment, pp. 132-33. (Henry Holt & Co., 1911.)

[116] Fishberg, op. cit., p. 555.

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CHAPTER V

SOCIAL CONTACTS

I. INTRODUCTION

1. Preliminary Notions of Social Contact

The fundamental social process is that of interaction. This interaction is (a) of persons with persons, and (b) of groups with groups. The simplest aspect of interaction, or its primary phase, is contact. Contact may be considered as the initial stage of interaction, and preparatory to the later stages. The phenomena of social contact require analysis before proceeding to the more difficult study of the mechanism of social interaction.