Overcrowding by men or livestock, on the other hand, puts a strain upon the social bond.

When Abraham and Lot, typical nomads, returned from Egypt to Canaan with their large flocks and herds, rivalry for the pastures occasioned conflicts among their shepherds, so the two sheiks decided to separate.

Abraham took the hill pastures of Judea, and Lot the plains of Jordan near the settled district of Sodom.[103] [Sidenote: Geographical mark of low-type societies.] The larger the amount of territory necessary for the support of a given number of people, whether the proportion be due to permanent poverty of natural resources as in the Eskimo country, or to retarded economic development as among the Indians of primitive America or the present Sudanese, the looser is the connection between land and people, and the lower the type of social organization.

For such groups the organic theory of society finds an apt description.

To quote Spencer, "The original clusters, animal and social, are not only small, but they lack density.