You simply note the characteristic make of each, and how it is placed in relation to the rest.

Regarded in this static way, the institutions appear as "forms of social organization." Afterwards, the machine is supposed to be set going, and you contemplate the parts in movement.

Regarded thus dynamically, the institutions appear as "customs." In this chapter, then, something will be said about the forms of social organization prevailing amongst peoples of the lower culture.

Our interest will be confined to the social morphology.

In subsequent chapters we shall go on to what might be called, by way of contrast, the physiology of social life.