At a later stage of human development, when the foundations of society were more securely settled, circumstances seem to have permitted something in the nature of a relaxation of the restrictions on family ties and family affections, the exogamic rules becoming less strict or less far-reaching and the family becoming more firmly knit together; this change being perhaps made possible by the fact that the larger and more complex social groups of a more developed society no longer came into such direct conflict with the family as an alternative social unit--the larger group being now of sufficient size and strength to tolerate the co-existence of the smaller (or, more strictly speaking, to include the smaller within itself) without fear of competition or disruption. Thus, though the urgency of the pressure may very well have varied in different times and places, it would seem probable that the claims of social life have constantly exercised some influence in restricting the interests and affections which centre round the family and have therefore probably constituted one of the forces which have helped to bring about that inhibition of the incest tendencies for which we are here trying to account. [Sidenote: They conflict also with individual development] (8) There exists a very similar antagonism between a high degree of family attachment and the claims of individual development. We have seen in the earlier chapters the way in which the full unfolding of the individual's capacities--his ability to maintain himself by his own efforts, his power of self reliance, of initiative and of independent thought and action--demand a relaxation of the ties that bind him to his family. It is true that the relations of an individual to his family which are here in question are not primarily the erotic ones; still they are everywhere in contact with these erotic aspects of the family relationship and would seem to be highly correlated with them--so much so that it is often a matter of great difficulty to decide where the erotic elements end and the purely dependence relationships begin[262]. In virtue of this correlation it would seem that the incest tendencies, when developed or retained in a high degree, must be inimical to the free growth of individual capacity; in other words, that those communities in which the incest tendencies have flourished would, other things equal, consist of less energetic, self-reliant, and efficient individuals than those in which these tendencies had been kept within more moderate bounds. Natural selection would therefore, we might expect, ensure the continuation of those communities in which the incest tendencies were more repressed. Similarly, as regards the individuals themselves, it would seem likely that, in virtue of their greater efficiency, those would survive and prosper who were able to control and to sublimate their incest tendencies rather than those in whom these tendencies had free and unrestricted play.