Review: [untitled] Author(s): Jacob Horak Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 5, No. 5 (Oct., 1940), pp.

792-794 Published by: American Sociological Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2083709 Accessed: 10/12/2010 07:43
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It is very difficult to determine the purpose of the book itself, excepting to make a report. It is not statistical nor are its conclusions conclusive. On reading through it one feels that the author had his conclusions pretty well in mind before he started on his journey of investigation. On the whole, there are relatively few facts that reveal the exact problems of the young people and why the agencies are not meeting the problems. Indeed, when the organizations engaged in youth activities are discussed with their varied programs, it appears that there are enough organizations to do everything needed. However, the assumption on which the book has been prepared was that there was much needed work to meet the situation. Hence, the book lacks in a critical appraisal of the organizations and fails to juxtapose the situation of the youth of the countries against what is being done for them. The report is not concisely and pointedly written. Since it lacks in positive conclusions, its value is far less than it should have been in the light of what apparently was the purpose motivating the initiation of such a fact-gathering program. Its value is very limited for the American wishing to wrestle with the youth problems in America because of its lack of critical appraisal of work being done by and for young people. Unfortunately, it frequently appears that the author copies in toto the notes taken when talking with the adults in charge of the youth agencies. So the reader is left feeling that these three countries certainly have enough organizations working with the young people, that such organizations have good programs, and that the programs are failing to do the work needed. But, at the same time, the unfortunate conclusion is that the author has little additional to offer. Division of Social Research, W.P./1. BRUCE L. MELVIN Anthropologyand Religion (The Terry Lectures). By PETER H. BUCK. New Haven: Yale University Press, I Pp. viii+96. $I.ll. The title is immodest. The Terry Lectures in print, this small book makes no pretensions to monographic treatment; it is an essay in, rather than on, Polynesian religion; and the richness of this, with its ethnographic and historical implications, is largely taken for granted. Rather, the book is the carefully set forth description of a process: the gradual rise and catastrophic fall of the Polynesian pantheon. The gods evolved slowly from heroic ancestors, and the complicated theology and ritual were closely adjusted to social organization and a somewhat precarious subsistence. These elements were so interdependent that when Christianity disestablished the gods of Polynesia it also unwittingly disestablished the delicate social and political structure, and, in all innocence, anaesthetized the spirit of a people. W. W. HOWELLS University of Wisconsin La Conception sociologique de l'oecumeniciti dans la pensle religieuse russe contemporaine.By CASIMIR SWIATLINSKI. Paris: Librarie Philosophique, J. Vrin, I 93 8. Pp. 163. 25 frs. Solitude and Society. By NiCOLAS BERDYAEV. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, I938. Pp. 203. $3.00. The ecumenical movement in contemporary Russian religious thought seeks to establish a union of all Christian sects and confessions on an idea-

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tional foundation. Opposed to authoritarianism and individualism, it stresses the universal aspects of Christianity which constitute the essential elements of Western culture. Officially, the movement was never approved by the Orthodox Church. The works of its leaders had to be published abroad. Swietlinski tries to analyze and critically evaluate the sociological aspects of the movement, which are more significant than the theological aspects, as he correctly observes. Philosophically, he finds them related to idealism and pragmatism. The theories of the four principal representatives of the ecumenical school, Khomiakov, Soloviev, Boulgakov, and Berdyaev, are considered in relation to the Platonic church fathers and to sociologists from Comte to Durkheim and T6nnies. The point of departure in the author's analysis is the concept of group consciousness, which he traces from biological sociology to contemporary social thought showing analogies between them and the ecumenical school. Swietlinski's criticism of both systems of thought is that the criteria of truth and of moral values cannot be found in collective consciousness and, therefore, neither in socialization nor spiritualization. Eventually it becomes a critique of the whole idealistic philosophy by a realist who rejects the idea of a Christian community as a group sui generic as being a totalitarian fiction. The stand that collective consciousness would necessitate the disappearance of individual consciousness does not seem to offer a satisfying solution of the problem of individuum versuscollectivum. In Solitude and Society, Berdyaev offers a theory of metaphysics of sociology. He applies the principles of Christian dialectic to the study of spiritual solitude, which to him is the central problem of modern times. His analysis of the spiritual unrest manifested in Western civilization indicates a conflict between the objectified world of sensory experience and the inner world of spiritual life. Although Berdyaev stands on metaphysical ground and his interest is philosophical, he draws heavily upon psychology and sociology and shows temperamental and logical affinity to such men as Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, and Dostojevski. Taking the position of personalist philosophy, he poses as his task the discovery of authentic reality as a means of overcoming human isolation by transcending "the immediate frontiers of the individuality." One is reminded of George H. Mead's discussions on the development of personality through the growth of social consciousness. The existential personalism of Berdyaev in some respects runs parallel to that of this American pragmatist. The problem of metaphysical sociology emerges in the discussion of the ego and its relationship to society. "Existence is revealed in the Thou and the We, as well as in the Ego, but never in the object," says Berdyaev. Penetration of primary reality involves participation rather than communication. Society fails to solve the problem of solitude because it interprets it from without, from the standpoint of naturalism rather than from within, from the existential standpoint. In the light of positivist philosophy the personality is merely a minute part of society; from the existential standpoint, society is a part, a qualitative content acquired by personality in the process of its self-realization, but not wholly identifiable with it. The distinction between communication,

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which to Berdyaev is objective and impersonal, and communion, which alone involves participation of the Ego with the Thou in an extra-natural order, will make many wonder whether Berdyaev is a sociologist or theologian. It is also questionable whether one could disregard the functional character of communication with reference to the transfer of the meaning and social interaction, which involve reciprocity and condition collective existence. To the scientifically minded sociologist who becomes tired of statistical tables and mechanistic constructs, this stimulating volume may offer, despite its metaphysical frame of reference, many a moment of refreshing relaxation from the often empty shelves of conceptual categories and of sterile definitions.
JACOB HORAK

Heidelberg College
id

Tribe in Transition. By D. N. MAJUMDAR. New York: Longmans, Green $4.00. We have too little data on the aboriginal tribes of India, so a study of one of them is welcome. This book describes the life of the Ho, one of the Munda-speaking tribes of Northern India. The environment of the Munda culture as a whole is the Chota Nagpur plateau; the Hos live in Kolhan, a series of fertile plains divided and surrounded by hills. The theme of the book may be described in the author's own words: "We shall describe in the body of the book how a particular tribe, within this area, viz., the Ho, has preserved its pattern and how it has reacted to changes. Primitive culture is dynamic, and changes and modification are natural; but how these changes occur, who are responsible for introducing them, and what are the chances of survival of these introduced traits, we attempt to discuss in the pages that follow." The study therefore comes under the category of acculturation. It consists of twenty-two rather brief chapters dealing factually with all the conventional categories, such as economic life, social organization, family, sex and marriage, religion, food, clothing, disease, death, culture contact, etc. The author conscientiously endeavors to point out the aboriginal elements in the Ho culture and the changes wrought by contact with other tribes and peoples. Yet, as a whole the results are disappointing. First, there is the lack of any theoretical theme underlying the study. This is particularly disappointing, because in his Introduction, the author briefly discusses the various theoretical approaches of Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, and Benedict and so one expects to find some theoretical basis in the body of the book. But it is as if the author diligently studied the works of these anthropologists without digesting them sufficiently to use them. Neither are any generalizations made, tentatively or otherwise, about the nature of social change under the conditions of contacts between different peoples and cultures. At times, interesting comparisons might have been made with other people undergoing similar experiences. For instance, in discussing the labor of the Ho in the mines, significant comparative material from South Africa might have been used. The same lack of awareness of acculturation processes in other areas is shown in the treatment of religion, the missions, education,

and Co., I937. Pp. xi+2I6.