PRIMITIVE DWELLINGS OF TO-DAY: HOUSE-BOATS AT CANTON
Not only are there lake-dwellers to-day, as we have seen, but even large communities, as at Canton, in China, live in boats.
Mankind “Settling” Down
Only fixed, domestic peoples are able to create great and lasting institutions, to store up the results of civilisation for distant later races, and to establish a developed, well-organised commercial and civil life. The transition from nomadism to life in permanent residences has, therefore, been one of the greatest steps in the development of humanity. At the time of the beginnings of agriculture, however, man was still a periodic wanderer. According to the field-grass system of cultivation, seed is sown in hastily-cleared ground, which soon becomes exhausted and is then abandoned. A migration follows and new land is cleared. This system continues until men learn to cultivate part of the land in a district, allowing the remainder to lie fallow for a time in order that the soil may recover; thus they remain fixed in their chosen district. Various circumstances—for example, the danger of enemies from without, and the difficulties attending migration—must have led to this change, the transition to the system of alternation of crops. The wanderings are confined to less extensive regions, the same fields are returned to after a few years, until finally the relation of patches under cultivation to fallow land is reduced to a system, and the time of wandering is past.
THE BEGINNINGS OF COMMERCE: PRIMITIVE PEOPLE BARTERING IVORY TUSKS AND BULL-HIDES
LARGER IMAGE
The coming of the Craftsman
With fixed residence the forms of communities alter. The group settles in a certain district, homes are built close to one another, and the patriarchal organisation gives place to the village, which, with its definite boundaries, is thenceforth the nucleus of the social aggregate. Often several village communities have fields and forests in common, and a common ownership of dams and canals; Nature takes care that they do not become isolated, but unite together in close contact for common defence and protection. With agriculture is associated the working up of raw products. These are fashioned into materials for the support of life and for enjoyment; furniture for dwellings, clothing, tools, utensils, and weapons are made. For, however much agriculture favours a life of peace, so rarely does man live in friendship with his fellows that agricultural peoples also find it necessary to arm themselves for war.
At first manufacture is not separated from farming; the agriculturist himself prepares the natural products, assisted by the members of his family. Later, it is easily seen that some individuals are more skilled than others; it is also recognised that skill may be developed by practice and that employments must be learned. Therefore it is requisite that special individuals of the community should prepare themselves for particular activities in the working up of raw products and pursue these activities in consistency with the needs of the society—trade or craft. The craftsman at first labours for the community; in every village the tailor, cobbler, smith, barber, and schoolmaster is supported by society at large. The craftsman receives his appointed income—that is, his portion of the common supply of food; and, in addition, every one for whom he expends his labour gives him something in compensation, or finds him food while employed about his house, until, finally, a systematic method of exchange is established; and with this another advance—an epoch for civilisation—is arrived at.