Anthropology by R. R. (Robert Ranulph) Marett
page 20 of 212 (09%)
page 20 of 212 (09%)
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for the signs, and the effects, of personal initiative. Freedom of
choice, of course, is limited by what there is to choose from; so that the development of what may be termed social opportunity should be concurrently reviewed. Again, it is the aim of every moral system so to educate each man that his directive self may be as far as possible identified with his social self. Even suicide is not a man's own affair, according to the voice of society which speaks in the moral code. Nevertheless, lest the important truth be overlooked that social control implies a will that must meet the control half-way, it is well for the student of man to pay separate and special attention to the individual agent. The last word in anthropology is: Know thyself. CHAPTER II ANTIQUITY OF MAN History, in the narrower sense of the word, depends on written records. As we follow back history to the point at which our written records grow hazy, and the immediate ancestors or predecessors of the peoples who appear in history are disclosed in legend that needs much eking out by the help of the spade, we pass into proto-history. At the back of that, again, beyond the point at which written records are of any avail at all, comes pre-history. How, then, you may well inquire, does the pre-historian get to work? What is his method of linking facts together? And what are the sources of his information? |
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