Literary notes about aggregation (AI summary)
In literature, the term aggregation is often employed to denote the process of bringing together disparate elements into a collective whole, whether in a physical, biological, or social context. It is used to describe tangible collections, such as the aggregation of mineral particles forming a rock or a statue made of marble particles that, despite their contact, do not constitute a true unity [1][2]. Equally, authors apply the concept to living systems—referring to the aggregation of cells into a functioning organism or the clustering of protoplasm into structures that define life [3][4][5]. Beyond the physical and biological realms, aggregation also captures the notion of social and abstract collections, as in the aggregation of families forming a clan or of individuals whose collective presence redefines a community or audience [6][7][8]. This multifaceted use of aggregation underscores its role as a metaphor for the unification of small, otherwise individual parts into complex and sometimes more structured wholes [9][10].
- THE ROCKS Rocks record three distinct methods which nature employs in the aggregation of minerals.
— from The Flow of Time in the Connecticut Valley: Geological Imprints by Howard A. (Howard Augustus) Meyerhoff - A statue is an aggregation of particles of marble, but as such it has no unity.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - Before the child is born, therefore, the placenta, which is an aggregation of villi, acts as its stomach, intestines, lungs, and kidneys.
— from The Prospective Mother, a Handbook for Women During Pregnancy by J. Morris (Josiah Morris) Slemons - Thus, we have the second grade of structural complication in living creatures—namely, the aggregation of cells into a loosely joined mass.
— from The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, October 1879 by Various - This change, which Mr. Darwin discovered, and turns to much account in his researches, he terms "aggregation of the protoplasm."
— from Darwiniana; Essays and Reviews Pertaining to Darwinism by Asa Gray - In fact, and in the view of the men who composed it, it was an aggregation of families .
— from Ancient Law: Its Connection to the History of Early Society by Maine, Henry Sumner, Sir - The aggregation of Families forms the Gens or House.
— from Lion and Dragon in Northern China by Johnston, Reginald Fleming, Sir - Why then does the public, as an aggregation of individuals, allow itself to become suspicious of the medical profession, an aggregation of physicians?
— from Proceedings of the Second National Conservation Congress at Saint Paul, September 5-8, 1910 by United States. National Conservation Congress - But certainly the aggregation of the evidence produced a very striking effect on my mind.
— from Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Charles Darwin - Europe consists of the densest aggregation of population in the history of the world.
— from The Economic Consequences of the Peace by John Maynard Keynes