User:Marshallsumter/Dominant group/Origin

The origin of the theoretical term "dominant group" is likely to have been from Charles Robert Darwin in his book On the origin of the species by means of natural selection: or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life as noted below. But, an examination of early works may prove insightful.

Dominant and group
The two words "dominant" and "group" have far earlier origins. From JSTOR, url=http://www.jstor.org, the earliest occurrence of each is "dominant" 1672 and "group" ~1739.

"Dominant" as an adjective has its origin in Middle French (MF) or Latin (L), from L dominant-, dominans, present participle (prp.) of dominari. From the Wikipedia article Middle French, Middle French "is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from (roughly) 1340 to 1611."

"Group" is from French groupe, in turn from Italian gruppo, of Germanic (Gmc) origin. From the Wikipedia article History of French: "Following a period of unification, regulation and purification or latinization, the French of the 17th to the 18th centuries is sometimes referred to as Classical French (français classique), although many linguists simply refer to French language from the 17th century to today as Modern French (français moderne)."

Association
In the following excerpt, the two words are associated by the author toward the same or similar objects.

"[Tien-ti-huih] has been called by the Chinese, the three united, from being composed of the members of a sacred triad; viz. heaven, earth, and man, to whom equal adoration is offered, being all considered of equal dignity and rank; but to man, only after death, under the name of ancestors. Heaven and earth are worshipped as the father and mother of mankind. They are styled the three dominant powers, and supposed to exist in perfect harmony. There appears to be some mystic importance attached to the number three by the Chinese; it is related in the Peach Garden Record, that Chang-Shan afterwards entered the society, and made the fourth brother; still his name is rarely, if ever adduced. Three is the number also of the officials, or elder brethren, of the drops of blood shed during the inaugural rites, of their days of meeting during the month, and of the prescribed prostrations before the idol, viz. pae, kwei, and kow, bowing, kneeling, and placing the forehead in the dust; the last in some ceremonies is thrice repeated. The grand day is the ninth of the moon, equal to three times three. The secret manual signs are made with three fingers. The characters on some of the secret seals are grouped in triads. One of the smaller seals a, is in the form of a triangle. The symbol in the small seal b, appears to have been selected for its triune character, resembling the trisula of the Hindus, and three is generally the number of the personages forming the group in the picture worshipped by almost every Chinese."

Darwin's dominant groups
The term “dominant group” does not appear in Darwin’s 1859 book, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”. But the plural term “dominant groups” appears thirteen times. The earliest use of the phrase is on page 343, “The dominant species of the larger dominant groups tend to leave many modified descendants, and thus new sub-groups and groups are formed.”

"In 1831, ... [Darwin] had just completed his BA degree at Cambridge University in England. ... The voyage [on the Beagle] lasted from December 1831 to October 1836". "Darwin had been much impressed by Paley’s Natural Theology while a student at Cambridge; and his greatest achievement ultimately lay in providing a different explanation for the apparent design of all living beings." "He traveled with a copy of Charles Lyell’s pathbreaking summary of a new way of thinking about geological processes, Principles of Geology, published in 1830–1833. This book influenced Darwin greatly." In Lyell's book is the phrase "dominant influence", but "dominant group" does not appear.

Def. “[u]nder the many conditions of life which this world affords, any group which is numerous in individuals and species and is widely distributed, may properly be called dominant" [a dominant group]. [Letter 110. To W.H. Harvey, August, 1860]

Early dominant group
"The Ants and the Staphylini have been supposed to represent each other in the tropical and temperate zones. In the temperate zone, and especially in our own country, the Staphylini are a dominant group, and the ants a secondary one."

“The fact that a group is egoistic and dominant proves that it is well formed and that it approaches the make-up of a man.”