ABSTRACT
The function and distribution of functions so far described are to be discerned in the case of all groups; its most obvious demonstration is possibly the state or state-like structures. The several groups over which man distributes the exercise of his group function assume in his eyes different degrees of importance, due to the different nature of their categories. The inner importance of a group is the greater, the more invariant group characteristics it confers upon its members and the more essential are the factors of human personality which it does so confer. The invariant characteristics of the foreign group become the object of nostalgic admiration and of comical imitation, the variant characteristics are greedily adopted. The group ideology is a co-determinant of the rank taken by several groups within the consciousness of the individual which belongs to all of them.
