Abstract
PROGRESS AND DECAY IN CIVILISATIONS.—A suggestive application of anthropological theory to the problems' of history and sociology is made, by Mr. Christopher Dawson in an attempt to account for the phenomena of progress and decay in ancient and modern civilisations which appears in the January number of the Sociological Review. He adopts the view to which the late Dr. Rivers was led by his observation in Melanesia, that the introduction of new racial or cultural elements is essential to progress, and suggests further that the cycle of approximately ten centuries, which has been observed in cases where such an introduction has taken place, may represent the period which elapses before the stimulus is completely exhausted. On the other hand, Hellenic and Roman culture both perished when apparently at the height of their power. This arose from the neglect and extinction of the fundamental cultural type. Rome, which was essentially an agrarian state, beeame commercial and urban and exhausted itself in attempting to live by war and plunder.
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Research Items. Nature 113, 250–251 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/113250a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/113250a0