L.H Morgan

Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social evolution, and his ethnography of the Iroquois. Interested in what holds societies together, he proposed the concept that the earliest human domestic institution was the matrilineal clan, not the patriarchal family; the idea was accepted by most pre-historians and anthropologists throughout the late nineteenth century.

In the years that followed, Morgan developed his theories. Combined with an exhaustive study of classic Greek and Roman sources, he crowned his work with his magnum opus Ancient Society(1877). Morgan elaborated upon his theory of social evolution. He introduced a critical link between social progress and technological progress. He emphasized the centrality of family and property relations. He traced the interplay between the evolution of technology, of family relations, of property relations, of the larger social structures and systems of governance, and intellectual development.

Looking across an expanded span of human existence, Morgan presented three major stages: savagery, barbarism, and civilization. He divided and defined the stages by technological inventions, such as use of fire, bow, pottery in the savage era; domestication of animals, agriculture, and metalworking in the barbarian era; and development of the alphabet and writing in the civilization era.

1. Savagery Stage:

According to the analysis of Morgan the initial stage of the evolution of human society and culture was savagery stage. Savagery society was nomadic and hunting nature. This stage has also been divided into three stages as:

a. Lower Savagery stage

b. Middle Savagery stage

c. Upper savagery stage

In the society of lower savagery stage the feeling of you and me was not developed. The life was fully nomadic and there was the trend of hunting through the use of naturally made weapons.Likewise, the period of middle savagery stage has some significance because of the invention of fire. The feeling of group protection had come within  the people. In the upper savagery stage, it is taken that family life started to develop because of which sexual relation become limited and started the stability of human life. According to Morgan the people of this stage developed bows.

2. Barbaric Stage:

Morgan mentioned that up to this stage some some socio-cultural development had began. In this stage the invention of mud utensils, stability of settlement, development of the concept about property, construction of weapons, farming system etc. were under formulation process, Morgan has divided this stage also into threee stages as:-

a. Lower barbaric stage

b. Middle barbaric stage

c. Upper barbaric stage

In lower barbaric stage, the art of to make mud utensils, stability of family and communal feeling rapidly developed. In the middle barbaric stage developed the the system of farming and the system of barter exchange. In upper barbaric stage, industrial development started to develop in human society. the discrimination between male and female and the division of labor started. Similarly, the development of small federal states also was done on this stage.

3. Civilization Stage:-

In the process of evolution of society and culture this stage has great significance. In this Stage, script, writing skills, literature and language developed. Morgan in the context of interpretation of his own evolutionary theory about how the evolution of family occured has mentioned his interpretation in different five stages as:

a. Consanguinal family

b. Punaluwa Family

c. Syndasmain family

d. Patriarchal family

e. Monogamous Family.

Strength:

Morgan has great contribution not only to the development of American anthropology but also to the development of anthropological theories in general. He became able to establish the value by explaining the fact that how evolution seems to the development of society and culture. He did the explanation of social organization/institution based on kinship system. More than this, his study helped to understand towards socio-cultural change. He used the study method of primary fact and field study in anthropological study.

Weakness:

The social and cultural organisation and characteristics found by him are not determined as these are of certain period of time. The method of comparative study has not been used. He is unable to study other aspect of culture,i.e religion. The question has been raised that what the cultures develops in all places on the same speeds mention by him?