Social Organization and Land Use Pattern.

Abstract

The various theories on the interaction of heredity and environment in the development of the individual are fairly well known and have received considerable publicity. Much less attention has been paid to the question of possible influences of hereditary and environmental factors in the development of a society as an organic unit, and further, on the action and reaction of society in a given environment in developing or evolving a social and land-use pattern appropriate for the circumstances. Another way of describing this situation would be in terms of social challenge. A society is faced with a challenge in the form of a certain physical environmental pattern-how does it respond to this challenge? Does it try to adjust its way of life to the environment or is it trying to adhere to its customary way of life within the possibilities presented by environmental factors? Or is it trying to develop and utilize its environment according to its social pattern.