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SPATIAL RELATIONS OF SOCIAL FORMS 147 
of social groups to their territory are therefore often the 
root and symbol of their structure.! 
Sociological Boundaries 
Another characteristic of space which is of significance 
for social structures is the fact that it can be divided into 
parts which appear as unities. These space unities are 
conceived of as framed by imaginary boundary lines. Not 
only the space filled by objects, but also the space occupied 
by the functional reciprocities of group elements, comes 
to be conceived of as a space unity framed by a border line. 
This space unity is on the one hand a spatial expression of 
the sociological unity of the group, while on the other hand 
the concept of its functional unity is reinforced by the 
unity of its spatial extension. 
This border line has for the group a significance similar 
to that which a frame has for a picture. It fulfils the dou- 
ble function of separating it from the outside world and 
of closing it within itself. The frame announces that within 
the border line there is a world subject to its own norms, 
entirely divorced from the world outside. It symbolizes 
the self-sufficiency of the picture. A group is similarly 
characterized as an internal unity if its spatial extension 
is conceived of as bordered bv a boundary line. On the 
other hand, the functional unitv resulting from the reci- 
procities between the elements finds its spatial expression 
in that surrounding frame. 
The existence of a boundary between two states is the 
spatial expression of such internal and external relations 
of the elements of the two groups. The spatial boundary is 
not the result of the fact that the territories, that is, the 
pieces of land, border upon each other, but it is due to the 
fact that the relationships between the elements involved 
{ Soz., pp. 617-24.