There seem to be various special reasons why
adaptive non-material culture is slow to adjust
to changed material conditions. The purpose of
this essay, however, is not so much to ascertain
causes, as to establish the fact of maladjustments
between material culture and the adaptive non-
material culture due to lags in the adaptive cul-
ture. The consideration of causes was primarily
for the purpose of seeing whether they were of
such a general nature as to make the phenomena
widespread. Of coucse, the phenomenon of lag
[264]



would be found only in a situation of cultural
change. Since it is in recent times that cultural
changes are so frequent, the lags in adaptive
culture are expected to be a problem of only
modern times. In very early times changes were
not sufficiently numerous and frequent to give rise
often to any very significant problem of this na-
ture, though the Hebrews after migrating to the
"promised land" had difficulty, as recorded in the
Old Testament, in giving up mores of the old no-
madic life and adjusting to the new agricultural
conditions.
THE CORRELATION BETWEEN PARTS OF
CULTURE

The problem of a harmonious adjustment be-
tween the material culture and the adaptive cul-
ture appears to be a part of a larger problem,
namely, the harmonious adjustment of all parts of
a culture in a period of change. This problem
may be stated in the form of certain questions.
