The Material Culture and Social Institutions of the Simpler Peoples - An Essay in Correlation #231441

I. The chief danger in forming any social classification is that of over rigidity in definition. Customs and institutions vary continuously, and the lines of demarcation which any classification must draw are apt to be artificial and unreal. Moreover what is on the surface the same institu tion may have a different content at different stages of social development. A certain elasticity of interpretation must therefore be allowed in order to adapt any scheme of classification to the facts without forming them into unreal categories.