148 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
a very prominent part in the physiological modification of the African race. All along the east coast of Africa immigration from India is taking place. Both coast and inland regions are very well adapted to settlement by the Hindus, and no race- antipathy exists between them and the negroes. We may in the near future look for a great inpouring of Indian coolies, trades- men, and settlers, who, together with the Arab and Hamite ele- ments coming from the north, will leaven the mass of the African population.
While physiologically the transition from the negro to the white race is a gradual one, the distinctive type of negro civiliza- tion is yet very different from that which we call European. The last few years have witnessed a great change of mind in matters of humanitarianism ; the absolute unity of human life in all parts of the globe, as well as the idea of the practical equality of human individuals wherever they may be found, has been quite generally abandoned. Without going into the question of origins, it is clear that conditions of environment and historical forces have com- bined in producing certain great types of humanity which are essentially different in their characteristics. To treat these as if they were all alike, to subject them to the same methods of gov- ernment, to force them into the same institutions, was a mistake of the nineteenth century which has not been carried over into our own. But, after all, it is difficult to say which is the more surprising whether the remarkable recurrence of similar cus- toms and ideas, similar ways of looking at things, in the remotest parts of the world, and in most distant epochs, 1 or whether it is the existence of clearly marked, almost unchangeable psycho- logical types differing radically from each other. Thus when we study the negro race we encounter many characteristics and cus- toms which bear witness to the common unity of mankind, and which can be accounted for only by assuming the same funda- mental instincts, or the transmission of ideas and institutions through tradition ; on the other hand, we find many psychological characteristics which distinguish the negro race sharply and
1 E. g., the almost universal recurrence among the aboriginal peoples of the ordeal, animistic beliefs, marriage by purchase, etc.
