GOLDENWEISER] A NEW APPROACH TO HISTORY 33
latter district is flanked by two nuclei of migrations, the Malay and the Polynesian, which in extent and, in case of the latter, also in complexity, can scarcely be matched by any other migrations in human history. That primitive peoples, navigating what after all were crude and flimsy vessels, should have succeeded in linking by a continuous chain of migrations the shores of Easter island with those of Madagascar, must be pronounced as truly remarkable; and it seems obvious that changes of climate had nothing whatever to do with these movements. Also, if it is objected that the numbers involved at any given time were small, one may well reply that the means of transportation available precluded the simultaneous movement of larger numbers, that, in proportion to the probable density of populations among those peoples, the few were not so few, and, finally, that where the few moved the many might have moved also.
Before the causal link "migration-political organization" can be discussed, we must turn to the opening paragraph of the chapter on "The Human Factor in History," in which the author's conception of political organization receives more precise formula- tion. "Political organization is a comparatively recent phenome- non" ... (p. 79) reads the first sentence. Again: "Political organization is an exceptional thing, characteristic only of certain groups" (ibid.). Now, strictly speaking, statements such as these must be declared wholly erroneous. For political organization, as an expression of the integrating tendency in society, as contrasted with the differentiating tendency finding expression in social or- ganization (in the narrower sense), is as old as the latter, and, in a sense, as old as society itself. As far as the student's eye can reach, it seems, man recognized, unconsciously though it may have been, the sovereignty of the group, speaking a common language (or dialect), occupying a more or less definitely circumscribed territory, having within that territory certain privileges (denied to outsiders) and sharing together certain locally particularized customs and traditions. This sovereignty often expresses itself in the prestige and influence wielded by the tribal old men, or by a chief or chiefs. In later periods the territorial expanse, the numerical strength and
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