Historical Development Blog Lewis Henry Morgan
Lewis Henry Morgan
Lewis Henry Morgan was a founder of scientific anthropology and is best known for studying kinship
systems and social evolution. Kinship terminology is blood relationships between people and their
labels. Lewis attempted to connect the evolution of kinship to technological changes and the evolution of
property forms. In the early 1840s he began to show interest in Native Americans and studied the impact
of colonialism and oppression on the Native Americans. He was adopted by the Seneca tribe in 1846 who
was his main tribe of interest. Lewis studied the Seneca way of designating relatives. He found that some
of their relatives were in Ojibwa in northern Michigan and also even in Asia. Lewis' study of kinship led
to his theory of cultural evolution which was one of the first major scientific accounts of the evolution of
civilization. Lewis advocated for changes in food production stating that hunting and gathering was
savagery, settled agriculture was barbarism, and urban society having advanced agriculture was
civilization. Lewis in some way disturbed the tribe he was studying by saying their way of food
production were "savage".For many years Lewis was the dean of American Anthropology and brought
lots of attention to factors of cultural and social evolution.
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