Let us now take some ethnographical complex, for example, the wheeled vehicle, and follow its variations. The wheeled vehicle made its appearance in prehistoric time. At the beginning of the historic period it was found to be very simply constructed, but already well adapted for the needs of transportation and carried on by oxen and horses. We may suppose that it did not appear before man had learnt the skillful use of implements for working wood and before the draught animal had been domesticated. The vehicle, during the long time of its existence, was adapted for various needs and particularly for war as a chariot. The art of manufacturing chariots at a certain period attained its highest skill; but, with the change of methods of warfare, the chariot disappeared altogether. During the mediaeval period the wheeled vehicle went through a series of variations. At the end of the eighteenth century it attained its most complex and artful forms, which were possible because of the introduction of new material, such as iron, leather, painting, etc. The external forms, ornamentation and material, were used in accordance with prevailing tastes and technical possibilities. So different styles were created. The type dormeuse was gradually introduced in different countries, and everywhere it received some new elements in accordance with the local tastes for ornamentation and practical needs conditioned by distances, the state of the roads, the wealth of the owners, etc. Then different local types originated. No dormeuse was possible in the regions where there were no horses or where there were no roads, so these conditions put a limit to its spreading. In the nineteenth century, together with the extension of railways, the practical need of the dormeuse began to diminish, but it survived for a little while in some regions where the railway did not yet exist. At last it died out altogether, and is now preserved in the museums and in very rich families who keep their relics. When the horse began to give place to another motor power, — gasolene, — the material used for the vehicles adapted for a new motor power must be different — metals, leather, rubber, and very little wood. First, there was no spacious room for seats, but afterwards, with the reduction of the engine, the type of a spacious, comfortable vehicle again made its appearance and has received such great popularity that at the present time it may compete with the railway, at least for travelling at short distances. It has not yet received such a great variety of styles and types as with the dormeuse, but this may come later if the diversity of local ethnographical complexes requires it.
This is an instance of a varying ethnographical phenomenon which spread over the world during a relatively short period, gave hundreds of varieties adapted to the local ethnographical complexes, and died out before the new motor power was applied. However, the dormeuse could not make its appearance without the smith's skill, the skill of various other artisans, and without well-trained drivers, and also without the owner who needed a conveyance for long and comfortable travelling; So that the dormeuse was in a certain ethnographical complex in which not only the conditions of industry must not hinder the construction of it, but in which the social conditions must be as they were, including the idea of «lady,» who could not give herself the trouble of such uncomfortable vehicles as used by the farmers. However, the whole complex of the dormeuse was not migrating from one region to another, but only some of its elements, while other elements of an entirely different origin might be in simple agreement with the former ones. From a direct observation of ethnographical facts, we know that any element may be borrowed if it does not require the complete reconstruction of the whole complex, and that when there is need of some new element, it may be either invented or borrowed from the neighbours and even left with no modifications if it suits the complex. On the other hand, practical inutility, the need of a great readaptation of the element or the complex, and lastly a lack of familiarity with a new element may become a hindrance to the adoption of new elements. Yet we also know that the elements are always adapted to the complex; and since there are continuous changes in the complex, the elements may also go through the changes if their preservation in all forms comes into conflict with the complex. If it does not, the element may be preserved for thousands of years without change. The elements may also be borrowed without any evident practical impulse; as, for instance, a new form of dress, tie, etc. The only reason is that the other people who are worthy of imitation use a different form and the latter may be imitated. Yet it may lose its seeming utility and still be preserved, for it does no harm to the people and occupies a certain place in the complex, making a conventional distinction between the given element or the whole complex and other similar phenomena. We have seen that the wheeled vehicle was used as a war chariot and changed later into the dormeuse. So the elements may change their function as well. If we analyse any existing ethnographical complex, we may find that it consists of different elements and complexes well adjusted one to an ther. So, too, the socia. organization must respond to the needs of economical organization and function, the psycho-mental complex must satisfy the needs of technology, and functions of the social organization. If there are maladjustments of complexes, or if certain elements show overgrowth, e. g., owing to the temporary psycho-mental attitude (perhaps too great attention is paid to them), running over the limits of practical utility, or if some elements show an insufficient adaptation and a deficient quantitative value, the whole complex may begin to suffer from the lack of equilibrium, which may result in a harmful reduction of resistance on the part of the bearers of the given cultural complex. When the complex shows such a disequilibrium, it loses its value as a function of adaptation of the unit, and the latter will not care any more for its preservation as a whole or as elements. The cultural complex is thus a product of long adaptation of the unit. It consists of elements preserved from time immemorial, of elements borrowed from the neighbours and adapted with modifications or without modifications, and of elements created by the unit in the process of adaptation. Some of these elements may be of vital importance, some of them may be easily substituted at any moment, and, last of all, some of them may have only a secondary importance as an «ornamentation,» a completion of the complex. But, as a matter of fact, there is no element which is absolutely functionless in the system of equilibrium [18]. During the history of ethnical units, the complex is always in the process of change. At one period a group of elements and whole complexes may be numerous and important in the system of equilibrium, as it was, for instance, with sheep breeding in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth century, which was implied by the growing manufactures; while later it may give place to another manner of adaptation, and may disappear altogether, yet reappear again and again. So that although the complex shows its «continuity,» it is not the same at any subsequent moment.
18. When one applies a «rationalistic» point of view, one falls into an elementary methodological error; namely, one implies one's own ethnographic complex (the complex of rationalization is more or less characteristic, and in various degrees, of all ethnical groups, and it is especially common in the European complex) to an alien complex. The effect is not an analytical penetration into the mechanism of the investigated complex, but the effect is the unveiling of one's own reactions.