The forms of organization are (1) the private and the public, (2) the authorized and the un authorized, (3) the unincorporated and the in corporated, (4) the component, and (5) the con stituent. Authorized forms are institutions, and an institution may he defined as a social relation that is consciously permitted o• established by adequate and rightful authority, that is, in the last resort, by sovereignty. The social composi tion is that grouping of individuals by dwelling place which makes up the series of component societies named below. A chief characteristic of the social composition is the commingling in each group of both sexes and all ages, and the consequent ability of each component society to perpetuate itself and live an independent life if it were cut off from all the rest of the world.
Component societies are of two great types, the ethnic or tribal, and the civil or demotic. Ethnic societies are almost purely genetic aggregations. A real or fictitious blood relationship is their chief social bond. Civil societies are partly ge netic, hut also largely congregate associations.
Each consists of individuals hound together by ha bit fia I intercourse, mutual interests, and eoilper ati)m, emphasizing their mental and practical re semblance, and giving little heed to their blood relationships. Ethnic societies may be metro nymie or patronymic•. A metronymic group is one in which all relationships arc traced through mothers. A patronymic- group is one in which all relationships are traced in the male line through the fathers. The series of com ponent groups in ethnic society is: family, horde, tribe, confederation. The horde is a small aggregation of families, usually a wan dering camp, comprising twenty-five to a hundred persons in all. The tribe is a community ated by the consolidation of hordes, or by the growth and differentiation of a single horde, occu pying a defined territory, speaking one language or dialect, and conscious of its unity. The con federation is a number of tribes united for war or other purposes, but maintaining a social or ganization on the basis of kinship, and therefore not developed into a true civil State. In civil so ciety the composition series is: families, hamlets, villages or parishes, towns, communes or cities, counties or departments, kingdoms. republics or other commonwealths, federal States or empires.
The combination of small into large groups is made possible by the broadening consciousness of kind and the passion to perfect a mental and moral homogeneity throughout a widening area. This passion has both a sentimental and a prac tical aspect.. the latter being found in a rela tively greater security and the diminution of con flict through the extension of mental agreement.
The social constitution embraces all those spe einlized and con-elated associations which carry on diversified social activities. Each has a de
fined object in view, and its members are selected with reference to their interest in its purpose and their ability to contribute to its realization. The social constitution is made possible by the dif ferentiation of ideas and habits.
Constituent societies, like component, are eth nic o• civil. In tribal communities the constitu ent society is usually not entirely differentiated from the component. The family, or the tribe, o• a segment of one or the other, does duty in discharging some special function which, in civil society, might be performed by an association quite separate from the component group and spe cially organized for the purpose. The most, in teresting partially differentiated organization in tribal society is the clan. The elan is constituted of those persons who are descended from a com mon ancestor or ancestral group in a single line, through the mother or through the father. It is therefore only half of a natural group of con sangninii. Its functions are cultural, economic, and juridical. it preserves traditions, it owns common property. and enforces rights and obliga tions among its members, especially in matters of marriage and vengeance. The elan is known by various names in ethnology and in history. more familiarly by its Roman name yens (q.v.).
Often in tribal society is found a brotherhood of related clans which is called, from its Greek form. the phratry. The tribe, primarily a com ponent group. is a military organization. and the confederation is a political organization.
Besides these component-constituent groups there are in tribal society certain special asso nations, almost always secret in their organiza tion and functions. The most important are re ligious secret societies.
in civil society the household, the incorporated village, the municipality, the county, and the State are all romponent-eonstituent groups. They are purposive associations with definite functions, each approximately but not completely identical with a compound group. The State, for ex ample, the supreme political organization, is never precisely identical with the commonwealth or the nation regarded as a component society, since the latter always includes inhabitants who are neither voters nor even citizens in the State. As in ethnic, so in civil society, the associations which are completely differentiated from the so cial composition are voluntary organizations. They include cultural associations, the most im portant of which is the Church ; economic asso ciations, the most important of which are busi ness corporations; moral and juristic associa tions, the most important of which are philan thropic organizations, and voluntary boards of arbitration: and political associations. the most important of which are the great political parties.