competition.

Status is not an active process, as competition is; it is simply a rule
of conservation, a makeshift to avoid the inconveniences of continual
readjustment in the social structure. Competition or selection is the
only constructive principle, and everything worthy the name of
organization had at some time or other a competitive origin. At the
present day the eldest son of a peer may succeed to a seat in the House
of Lords simply by right of birth; but his ancestor got the seat by
competition, by some exercise of personal qualities that made him valued
or loved or feared by a king or a minister.

Sir Henry Maine has pointed out that the increase of competition is a
characteristic trait of modern life, and that the powerful ancient
societies of the old world were for the most part non-competitive in
their structure. While this is true, it would be a mistake to draw the
inference that status is a peculiarly natural or primitive principle of
organization and competition a comparatively recent discovery. On the
contrary the spontaneous relations among men, as we see in the case of
children, and as we may infer from the life of the lower animals, are
highly competitive, personal prowess and ascendency being everything and
little regard being paid to descent simply as such. The regime of
inherited status, on the other hand, is a comparatively complex and
artificial product, necessarily of later growth, whose very general
prevalence among the successful societies of the old world is doubtless
to be explained by the stability and consequently the power which it was
calculated to give to the social system. It survived because under
certain conditions it was the fittest. It was not and is not
universally predominant among savages or barbarous peoples. With the
American Indians, for example, the definiteness and authority of status
were comparatively small, personal prowess and initiative being
correspondingly important. The interesting monograph on Omaha sociology,
by Dorsey, published by the United States Bureau of Ethnology, contains
many facts showing that the life of this people was highly competitive.
When the tribe was at war any brave could organize an expedition against
the enemy, if he could induce enough others to join him, and this
organizer usually assumed the command. In a similar way the managers of
the hunt were chosen because of personal skill; and, in general, "any
man can win a name and rank in the s