ABSTRACT
A distinction is to be drawn between social adaptations and social understandings. An individual may be fluent in his use of language and utterly lacking in knowledge of either the origin of language or its importance as a means of uniting people into communities. One may know that there are laws and may obey them without understanding the theory of legal control or the social machinery by which laws are enacted. For long ages men have been perfecting social adaptations; it is only in recent times that the effort has been made to develop sciences which explain society.
