ABSTRACT
With the uniformity of his climate and natural conditions, and the uniformity of his history, in the course of which there were continual interminglings of races, all of them exposed to the working of the same civilizing forces, there is a corresponding uniformity of type of Levantine man in spite of all differentiations. His character has been determined by two different elements: the inborn qualities of the man of the Mediterranean and the man of the Near East, and the typical way of life of the man of the pre-capitalistic economic epoch. The Mediterranean man and the man of the Near East still live in some degree in the pre-capitalistic world; they are only at the threshold of industrial capitalism. The changing economic conditions will affect the character of these men, will change some of their distinguishing features, and will train them in a new general outlook. For human characteristics are not determined only by race and environment but also by history and social development. The process of economic restratification will result in changes similar to those which took place in Europe some centuries ago in men's way of living, in their general attitude and in their outlook on the world, and which in recent years, with the bringing of the whole planet into a uniform and world-wide machine economy, has taken place alike in Russia and in the Far East, in South America and India.
