Ancient society

From the Foreword to the First Indian Edition

An eternal being created human society as it is today and submission to ‘superiors’ and ‘authority’ is imposed on the ‘lower’ classes by ‘divine will’ this doctrine preached and propagated from the pulpit, has hypnotised the minds of men and proves to be one of the strongest pillars of exploitation in the Eastern countries even now. Scientific investigation, however, has revealed long before that human society is not cast in a stereotyped mould. Just as organic life on earth - the outcome of a succession of evolutionary changes - assumes different shapes so also the group life of human beings develops different social institutions as a result of the increasing control over environment, especially of production of food, clothing and shelter. This is the message which the works of men like Morgan, Marx, Darwin and others has brought to the humankind.

Preface by the Author

The great antiquity of mankind upon the earth has been conclusively established. It seems singular that the proofs should have been discovered as recently as within the last thirty years, and that the present generation should be the first called upon to recognize so important a fact.

Mankind are now known to have existed in Europe in the glacial period, and even back of its commencement, with every probability of their origination in a prior geological age. They have survived many races of animals with whom they were contemporaneous, and passed through a process of development, in the several branches of the human family, as remarkable in its courses as in its progress.

Since the probable length of their career is connected with geological periods, a limited measure of time is excluded. One hundred or two hundred thousand years would be an un-extravagant estimate of the period from the disappearance of the glaciers in the northern hemisphere to the present time. Whatever doubts may attend any estimate of a period, the actual duration of which is unknown, the existence of mankind extends backward immeasurably, and loses itself in a vast and profound antiquity.

This knowledge changes materially the views which have prevailed respecting the relations of savages, to barbarians and of barbarians to civilized men. It can now be asserted upon convincing evidence that savagery preceded barbarism in all the tribes of mankind, as barbarism is known to have preceded civilization. The history of the human race is one in source, one in experience, one in progress.

It is both a natural and a proper desire to learn, if possible, how all these ages upon ages of past time have been expended by mankind; bow savages, advancing by slow, almost imperceptible steps, attained the higher condition of barbarians; how barbarians, by similar progressive advancement, finally attained to civilization; and why other tribes and nations have been left behind in the race of progress - some in civilization, some in barbarism, others in savagery. It is not too much to expect that ultimately these several questions will be answered.

Inventions and discoveries stand in serial relations along the lines of human progress, and register its successive stages; while social and civil institutions, in virtue of their connection with perpetual human wants, have been developed from a few primary germs of thought. They exhibit a similar register of progress. These institutions, inventions and discoveries have embodied and preserved the principal facts now remaining illustrative of this experience. When collated and compared they tend to show the unity of origin of mankind, the similarity of human wants in the same stages of advancement, and the uniformity of the operations of the human mind in similar conditions of society.

Throughout the latter part of the period of savagery and the entire period of barbarism, mankind in general were organized in gentes, phratries and tribes. These organizations prevailed throughout the entire ancient world upon all the continents, and were the instrumentalities by means of which ancient society was organized and held together. Their structure, and relations, as members of an organic series, and the rights, privileges and obligations of the member of the gens, and of the members of the phratry and tribe illustrate the growth of the idea of government in the human mind. The principal institutions of mankind originated in savagery, were developed in barbarism, and are maturing in civilization.

In like manner, the family has passed through successive forms, and created great systems of consanguinity and affinity which have remained to the present time. These systems, which record the relationships existing in the family of the period, when each system respectively was formed, contain an instructive record of the experience of mankind while the family was advancing from the consanguine, through intermediate forms, to the monogamian.

The idea of property has undergone a similar growth and development. Commencing at zero in savagery, the passion for the possession of property, as the representative of accumulated, subsistence, has now become dominant over the human mind in civilized races.

The, four classes of facts above indicated, and which extend themselves in parallel lines along the pathways of human progress from savagery to civilization, form the principal subjects of discussion in this volume.

There is one field of labour in which, as Americans, we have special interest as well as a special duty. Rich as the American continent is known to be in material wealth, it is also the richest of all the continents in ethnological, philosophical and archaeological materials, illustrative of the great period of barbarism. Since mankind were one in origin, their career has been essentially one, running in different channels upon all continents, and very similarly in all the tribes and nations of mankind down to the same status of advancement. It follows that the history and experience of American Indian tribes represent, or less nearly, the history and experience of our own remote ancestors when in corresponding conditions. Forming a part of the human record, their institutions, arts, inventions and practical experience possess a high and special value reaching far beyond the Indian race itself.

When discovered, the American Indian tribes represented three distinct ethnical periods and more completely than they were elsewhere then represented upon the earth. Materials for ethnology, philology and archaeology were offered in unparalleled abundance; but as these sciences scarcely existed until the present century, and are but feebly prosecuted among us at the present time, the workmen have been unequal to the work. Moreover, while fossil remains buried in the earth will keep for the future student, the remains of Indian arts, languages and institutions will not. They are perishing daily, and have been perishing for upwards of three centuries. The ethnic life of the Indian tribes is declining under the influence of American civilization, their arts and languages are disappearing, and their institutions are dissolving. After a few more years, facts that may now be gathered with ease will become impossible of discovery. These circumstances appeal strongly to Americans to enter this great field and gather its abundant harvest.

ROCHESTER, New Yong, March, 1877.

Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881) was born near Aurora, New York, on the 21^st of November 1818. He graduated in 1840 at Union College, then studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised his profession with success at Rochester, New York. Soon after leaving college Morgan went among the Iroquois, living as far as he could their life and studying their social organization. In October 1847, he was formally adopted into the Hawk gens of the Seneca tribe, and received the name “ta-ya-da-wah-kugh.” The fruit of his researches was “The League of the Iroquois” (1851; new ed. 1904) which was the first scientific account of an Indian tribe ever given to the world. The success of the book encouraged him to further research, resulting in his “Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family” (1869). In 1877 he added to his reputation by publishing “Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism, to Civilization.”

Morgan was a member of the New York assembly in 1861 and of the New York senate in 1868-1869. In 1880 he was president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He died in Rochester, New York, on the 17^th of December 1881. In addition to the works above mentioned and many magazine articles, he published “The American Beaver and his Works (1868) and Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines (1881). Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Table of Contents

Part I

Growth of Intelligence through Inventions and Discoveries

Chapter I. Ethnical Periods

Progress of Mankind from, the Bottom of the Scale. - Illustrated by, Inventions, Discoveries and Institutions. - Two Plans of Government - one Gentile and Social, giving a Society (Societas); the other Political, giving a State (Civitas). - The former founded upon Persons and Gentilism; the Latter upon Territory and Property. - The First, the Plan of Government of Ancient Society. - The Second, that of Modern or Civilized Society. - Uniformity of Human Experience. - Proposed Ethnical Periods - I. Lower Status of Savagery; II. Middle Status of Savagery; III. Upper Status of Savagery; IV. Lower Status of Barbarism; V. Middle Status of Barbarism VI. Upper Status of Barbarism; VII. Status of Civilization.

Chapter II. Arts of Subsistence

Supremacy of Mankind over the Earth. - Control over Subsistence the Condition. - Mankind alone gained that Control. - Successive Arts of Subsistence - I. Natural Subsistence; II. Fish Subsistence; III. Farinaceous Subsistence; IV. Meat and Milk Subsistence; V. Unlimited Subsistence through Field Agriculture. - Long Intervals of Time between them.

Chapter III. Ratio of Human Progress

Retrospect on the Lines of Human Progress. - Principal Contributions of Modern Civilization. - Of Ancient Civilization. - Of Later Period of Barbarism. - Of Middle Period, - Of Older Period - Of Period of Savagery. - Humble Condition of Primitive Man. - Human Progress in a Geometrical Ratio. - Relative Length of Ethnical Periods. - Appearance of Semitic and Aryan Families.

Part II

Growth of the Idea of Government

Chapter I. Organization of Society upon the Basis of Sex

Australian Classes. - Organized upon Sex. - Archaic Character of the Organization. - Australian Gentes. - The Eight Classes. - Rule of Marriage. - Descent in the Female Line. - Stupendous Conjugal Systems - Two Male and Two Female Classes in each Gens. - Innovations upon the Classes. - Gens still Rudimentary.

Chapter II. The Iroquois Gens

The Gentile Organization. - Its Wide Prevalence. - Definition of a Gens. - Descent in the Female Line the Archaic Rule. - Rights, Privileges and Obligations of Members of a Gens. - Right of Electing and Deposing its Sachem and Chiefs. - Obligations not to marry in the Gens. - Mutual Rights of Inheritance of the Property of deceased Members. - Reciprocal Obligations or Help, Defence and Redress of injuries - Right of Naming its Members - Rights of Adopting Strangers into the Gens - Common Religious Rites, Query. - A Common Burial Place. - Council of the Gens - Gentes named after Animals. - Number of Persons in a Gens.

Chapter III. The Iroquois Phratry

Definition of a Phratry - Kindred Gentes Reunited in a Higher Organization. - Phratry of the Iroquois Tribes. - Its Composition. Its Uses and Functions. - Social arid Religious. - Illustrations. - The Analogue of the Grecian Phratry; but in its Archaic Form. Phratries of the Choctas. - Of the Chickasas. - Of the Mohegans. - Of the Thlinkeets. - Their Probable Universality in the Tribes of the American Aborigines.

Chapter IV. The Iroquois Tribes

The Tribe as an Organization - Composed of Gentes Speaking the same Dialect. - Separation in Area tea to Divergence of Speech, and Segmentation. - The Tribe a Natural Growth. - Illustrations. - Attributes of a Tribe - A Territory and Name, - An Exclusive Dialect - The Right to Invest and Depose ifs Sachems and Chiefs. - A Religious Faith and Worship. - A Council of Chiefs - A Head-Chief of Tribe in some Instances. - Three successive Forms of Gentile Government; First, a Government of One Power; Second, of Two Powers; Third, of Three Powers.

Chapter V. The Iroquois Confederacy

Confederacies Natural Growths. - Founded upon Common Gentes, and a Common Language. - The Iroquois Tribes. - Their Settlement in New York - Formation of the Confederacy. - Its Structure and Principles. - Fifty Sachemships Created - Made Hereditary in certain Gentes. - Number assigned to each Tribe. - These Sachems formed the Council of the Confederacy. - The Civil, Council. - Its Mode of Transacting Business. Unanimity Necessary to its Action. - The Mourning Council. - Mode of Raising up Sachems. - General Military Commanders. - This Office the Germ of that of a Chief Executive Magistrate, - Intellectual Capacity of the Iroquois.

Chapter VI. Gentes in Other Tribes of the Ganowanian Family

Divisions of American Aborigines. - Gentes in Indian Tribes; with their Rules of Descent and Inheritance - 1, Hodenosaunian Tribes. - 2, Dakotian - 3, Gulf 4, Pawnee - 5, Algonlcin - 6, Athapasco-Apache - 7, Tribes of Northwest Coast - Eskimos a Distinct Family - 8, Salish, Sahaptin, and Kootenay Tribes. - 9, Shoshonee. - 10, Village Indians of New Mexico, Mexico and Central America. - 11, South American Indian Tribes. - Probable Universality of the Organization in Gentes in the Ganowanian Family.

Chapter VII. The Aztec Confederacy.

Misconception of Aztec Society. - Condition of Advancement. - Nahuatiac Tribes. - Their Settlement in Mexico. - Pueblo of Mexico founded, A.D. 13.25. - Aztec Confederacy established A.D. 1426. - Extent of Territorial Domination. - Probable Number of the People. - Whether or not the Aztec were organized in Gentes and Phratries. - The Council of Chiefs. - Its probable Functions. - Office held by Montezuma. - Elective in Tenure. - Deposition of Montezuma. - Probable Functions of the Office. - Aztec Institutions essentially Democratical. - The Government a Military Democracy.

Chapter VIII. The Grecian Gens

Early Condition of Grecian Tribes. - Organized into Gentes. - Changes in the Character of the Gens. - Necessity for a Political System. - Problem to be Solved. - The Formation of a State - Grote's Description of the Grecian Gentes. - Of their Phratries and Tribes. - Rights, Privileges and Obligations of the Members of the Gens. - Similar to those of the Iroquois Gens. - The Office of Chief of the Gens - Whether Elective or Hereditary. - The Gens die Basis of the Social System, - Antiquity of the Gentile Lineage. - Inheritance of Property. - Archaic and Final Rule. - Relationships between the Members of a Gens. - The Gens the Centre of Social and Religious Influence.

Chapter IX. The Grecian Phratry, Tribe and Nation

The Athenian Phratry - How Formed. - Definition of Dikaearchus. - Objects chiefly Religious. - The Phratriarch. - The Tribe. - Composed of Three Phratries - The Phylo-Basileus. - The Nation - Composed of Four Tribes. - Boule, or Council of Chiefs, - Agora, or Assembly of the People. - The Basileus. - Tenure of die Office. Military and Priestly Functions. - Civil Functions not shown. - Governments of the Heroic Age, Military Democracies. - Aristotle's Definition of a Basileus. - Later Athenian Democracy. - Inherited from the Gentes. - Its Powerful Influence upon Athenian Development.

Chapter X. The Institution of Grecian Political Society

Failure of the Gentes as a Basis of Government. - Legislation of Theseus. - Attempted Substitution of Classes. - Its Failure. - Abolition of the Office of Basileus. - The Archonship, - Naucraries and Trittyes. - Legislation of Solon. - The Property Classes. - Partial Transfer of Civil Power from the Gentes to the Classes. - Persons unattached to any Gens. - Made Citizens. - The Senate. - The Ecclesia. - Political Society partially attained, - Legislation of Cleisthenes. - Institution of Political Society. - The Attic Deme or Township. - Its Organization and Powers. - Its Local Self-government - The Local Tribe or District. - The Attic Common-wealth. - Athenian Democracy.

Chapter XI. The Roman Gens

Italian Tribes Organized in Gentes. - founding of Rome. - Tribes Organized into a Military Democracy - The Roman Gens. - Definition of a Gentilis by Cicero. - By Festus. - By Varro. Descent in Male Line. - Marrying out of the Gens. - Rights, Privileges and Obligations of the Members of a Gens - Democratic Constitution of Ancient Latin Society. - Number of Persons in a Gens.

Chapter XII. The Roman Curia, Tribe and Populus

Roman Gentile Society. - Four Stages of Organization. - 1, The Gens; 2, The Curia, consisting of Ten Gentes; 3, The Tribe composed of Ten Curia; 4, The Populus Romanus, composed of Three Tribes. - Numerical Proportions. - How Produced. - Concentration of Gentes at Rome. - The Roman Senate. - Its Functions. - The Assembly of the People. - Its Powers, - The People Sovereign, - Office of Military Commander (Rex). - Its Powers and Functions. - Roman Gentile Institutions essentially Democratical.

Chapter XIII. The Institution of Roman Political Society

The Populus - The Plebeians. - The Clients. - The Patricians. - Limits of the Order. - Legislation of Servius Tullius. - Institution of Property Classes. - Of the Centuries - Unequal Suffrage - Comitia Curiata. - Supersedes Comitia Curiata. - Classes supersede the Gentes. - The Census. - Plebeians made Citizens. - Institution of City Wards - Of Country Townships. - Tribes increased to Four. - Made Local instead of Consanguine, - Character of New Political System. - Decline and Disappearance of Gentile Organization. - The Work it Accomplished.

Chapter XIV. Change of Descent from the Female to the Male Line

How the Change might have been made. - Inheritance of Property the Motive. - Descent in the Female Line among the Lycians. - The Cretans. - The Etruscans - Probably among the Athenians in the time of Cecrops. - The Hundred Families of the Locrians. - Evidence from Marriages, - Turanian System of Consanguinity among Grecian Tribes. - Legend of the Danaidae.

Chapter XV. Gentes in Other Tribes of the Human Family

The Scottish Clan - The Irish Sept. - Germanic Tribes. - Traces of a prior Gentile System, - Gentes in Southern Asiatic Tribes. - In Northern. - In Uralian Tribes. - Hundred Families of Chinese. - Hebrew Tribes. - Composed of Gentes and Phratries Apparently. - Gentes in African Tribes. - In Australian Tribes. - Subdivisions of Fejees and Rewas. - Wide Distribution of Gentile Organization.

Part III

Growth of the Idea of the Family

Chapter I

Five successive Forms of the Family - First the Consanguine Family. - IT created the Malayan System of Consanguinity and Affinity. - - Second, the Punaluan. - It created the Turanian and Ganowanian System- - Third, the Monogamian. - It created the Aryan, Semitic, and Uralian system. - The Syndyasmian and Patriarchal Families Intermediate - Both failed to create a System of Consanguinity, - These Systems Natural Growths. - Two Ultimate Forms. - One Classificatory the other Descriptive. - General Principles of these Systems - Their Persistent Maintenance.

Chapter II. The Consanguine Family

Former Existence of this Family. - Proved by Malayan System of Consanguinity. - Hawaiian System used as Typical. - Five Grades of Relations. - Details of System. - Explained in its origin by the Intermarriage of Brothers and Sisters in a Group. - Early State of Society in the Sandwich Islands. - Nine Grades of Relations of the Chinese. - Identical in Principle with the Hawaiian. - Five Grade of Relations in Ideal Republic of Plato. - Table of Malayan System of Consanguinity and Affinity.

Chapter III. The Punaluan Family.

The Punaluan Family supervened upon the Consanguine. - Transition, how Produced. - Hawaiian Custom of Punalua. - Its probable ancient Prevalence over wide Areas. - The Gentes originated probably in Punaluan Groups. - The Turanian System of Consanguinity. - Created by the Punaluan Family. - It proves the Existence of this Family when the System was formed. - Details of System. - Explanation of its Relationships in their Origin. - Table of Turanian and Ganowanian Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity.

Chapter IV. The Syndyasmian and the Patriarchal Families

The Syndyasmian Family. - How Constituted- - Its Characteristics. - Influence upon it of the Gentile Organization. - Propensity to Pair a late Development. - Ancient Society should be Studied where the highest Exemplifications are found. - The Patriarchal Family. - Paternal Power its Essential Characteristic. - Polygamy subordinate. - The Roman Family similar - Paternal Power unknown in previous Families.

Chapter V. Monogamian Family

This family comparatively Modern. - The term Familia. - Family of Ancient Germans - Of Homeric Greeks. - Of Civilized Greeks. - Seclusion of Wives. - Obligations of Monogamy not respected by the males. - The Roman Family. - Wives under Power. - Aryan System of Consanguinity. - It came in under Monogamy. - Previous System probably Turanian. - Transition from Turanian into Aryan. Roman and Arabic Systems of Consanguinity. - Details of the Former. - Present Monogamian Family. - Table of Roman And Arabic Systems.

Chapter VI. Sequence of Institutions Connected with the Family

Sequence in part Hypothetical. - Relation of these Institutions in the Order of their Origination. - Evidence of their Origination in the Order named. - Hypothesis of Degradation Considered. - The Antiquity of Mankind.

Part IV

Growth of the Idea of Property

Chapter I. The Three Rules of Inheritance.

Property in the Status of Savagery. - Slow Rate of Progress. - First Rule of Inheritance. - Property Distributed among the Gentiles. - Property in the Lower Status of Barbarism. - Germ of Second Rule of Inheritance. - Distributed among Agnatic Kindred. - Improved Character of Man. - Property in Middle Status. - Rule of Inheritance imperfectly Known. - Agnatic Inheritance probable.

Chapter II. Three Rules of Inheritance - Continued

Property in the Upper status of Barbarism. - Slavery. - Tenure of Lands in Grecian Tribes. - Culture of the Period. - Its Brilliancy. - Third Rule of Inheritance. - Exclusively in Children. - Hebrew Tribes. - Rule of Inheritance. - Daughters of Zelophehad. - Property remained in the phratry and probably in the Gens. - The Reversion. - Athenian Inheritance. - Exclusively in Children. - The Reversion - Inheritance remained in the Gens. - Heiresses. - Wills. - Roman Inheritance. - The Reversion. - Property remained in the Gens. - Appearance of Aristocracy. - Property Career of Human Race. - Unity of Origin of Mankind.