VII
The Individual and the Pattern of Culture
THE large corporate behaviour we have discussed is
nevertheless the behaviour of individuals. It is the world
with which each person is severally presented, the world
from which he must make his individual life. Accounts of
any civilization condensed into a few dozen pages must
necessarily throw into relief the group standards and de-
scribe individual behaviour as it exemplifies the motiva-
tions of that culture. The exigencies of the situation are
misleading only when this necessity is read off as implying
that he is submerged in an overpowering ocean.
There is no proper antagonism between the rĂ´le of
society and that of the individual. One of the most mis-
leading misconceptions due to this nineteenth-century
dualism was the idea that what was subtracted from
society was added to the individual and what was sub-
tracted from the individual was added to society. Philoso-
phies of freedom, political creeds of laissez faire, revolu-
tions that have unseated dynasties, have been built on
this dualism. The quarrel in anthropological theory be-
tween the importance of the culture pattern and of the
individual is only a small ripple from this fundamental
conception of the nature of society.
In reality, society and the individual are not antagonists.
His culture provides the raw material of which the indi-
vidual makes his life. If it is meagre, the individual suffers:
if it is rich, the individual has the chance to rise to his
opportunity. Every private interest of every man and
woman is served by the enrichment of the traditional
stores of his civilization. The richest musical sensitivity
can operate only within the equipment and standards of
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