ABSTRACT
In preceding chapters we have spoken of culture as though it were a phenomenon apart from individuals. This, of course, is not true in the sense that it could arise or flourish without them. But it is apart from them in the sense that an account of culture phenomena need not refer to individuals. Linguistic form and change, for example, can be described without including biographical notes, and so can many culture phenomena—such as financial organization, newspaper circulation, political programs. It does not follow that the individual plays no important part in culture phenomena, nor that, since culture development is continuous, individuals are, therefore, not responsible for the culture continuum. It does signify, however, that individuals live in a specific culture which delimits activities and supplies stimuli. Hence,
the latest efforts of human invention are but a continuation of certain devices which were practiced in the earliest ages of the world, and in the rudest state of mankind. What the savage projects, or observes, in the forest, are the steps which led nations, more advanced, from the architecture of the cottage to that of the palace, and conducted the human mind from the perceptions of sense, to the general conclusions of science. 1
Vitruvius finds the rudiments of architecture in the form of a Scythian cottage. The armourer may find the first productions of his calling in the sling and the bow; and the shipwright of his in the canoe of the savage. Even the historian and the poet may find the original essays of their arts in the tale, and the song, which celebrate the wars, the loves, and the adventures of men in their rudest condition. 2
