its
life. It must learn to get on with its physical environment and with
other social groups with which it comes into relation. The methods of
adaptation are conflict and co-operation. The primitive savage and his
wife learned to work together, and his family and hers very likely
kept the peace, until through the increase of population they felt the
pinch of hunger when the supply did not equal the demand. Then came
conflict. Conflict is an essential element in all progress. There is
conflict between the lower and higher impulses in the human mind,
conflict between selfish ambition and the welfare of the group,
conflict among individuals and races for a place in the sun. It is
conceivable that the baser impulses that provoke much social conflict
may give way to more rational and altruistic purpose, but it is
difficult to see how all friction can be avoided in social relations.
It is certainly to be reckoned with in the history of group life.

The story of human progress shows that in the social conflict those
groups survive which have become best adapted to life conditions and
so are fitted to cope with their enemies. In the story of the family
male leadership proved most useful and was perpetuated, but the
practice of polygyny and polyandry proved in the long run to be
hurtful to success in the sturdy struggle for existence.

37. =Ancestor-Worship.=--When a practice or institution is seen to
work well it soon becomes indorsed by social custom, law, or religion.
The patriarchal system became fortified by ancestor-worship, which
helped to keep the family subordinate to its male head. Even the dead
hand of the patriarch ruled. The paternal ancestors of the family were
believed to have the power to bless or curse their descendants, and
they were faithfully placated with gifts and veneration, as has
continued to be the custom in China. Among the Romans the household
gods were cherished at the hearth long before Jupiter became king of
heaven; AEneas must save his ancestral-images if he lost all else in
the fall of Troy. At Rome the worship of a common ancestor was the
strongest family bond. The marriage ceremony consisted of a solemn
transfer of the bride from her duties to her own ancestors over to the
adoption of her husband's gods. This transfer of allegiance helped to
perpetuate the patriarchal system, and the sanction of religion
greatly strengthened the wedded relation, so that divorce and polygyny
were unknown in th