Social Evolution & The Rise of Capitalism | featuring Lewis Henry Morgan | Anthro Theory #2

Social Evolution and the Rise of Capitalism | featuring Lewis Henry Morgan

In anthropology, Lewis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) is considered a “classical cultural evolutionist,” believing that cultures evolved from simple to complex forms; except, instead of focusing on religion like Edward Tylor, Morgan focused on explaining how marriage and family systems led to the development of modern sociopolitical organization. His work would be used by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who found in it support for their arguments about class-based societies. They even subtitled a book giving him this recognition.

Originally a lawyer, Morgan outlined specific stages of evolution in which we could see how cultures differed. This depended on: their types of technologies and inventions, governments, family organizations, and how they defined property, among others. By studying these different realms, we could see how cultures evolved through different “Ethnical Periods,” which are sub-stages of cultural development. Morgan organizes these into three main stages of (1) savagery, which includes hunting and gathering, (2) barbarism, such as when cultures domesticated plants and animals, and (3) civilization, when humans develop what we call, “the state.” Morgan argued that some cultures failed to evolve because certain conditions, for example: technologies, were not developed enough to facilitate their evolution from one stage to the next.

Morgan argues that we can clearly see where cultures are in this hierarchy by primarily looking at a culture’s technological advancements; but he also explains that because family and kinship systems were the first types of political organizations that humans ever developed, how kinship is defined is crucial to understanding the history of modern civilization; kind of like how the process of metallurgy is dependent on the establishment of fire before it. All complex systems, including capitalism, can only be established because cultures passed through those earlier stages. Again, we’re talking about a linear evolution.

Morgan defined two kinship systems: classificatory systems and descriptive systems. In classificatory systems, a culture does distinguish between generations, like parents and grandparents, as well as gender, like male and female cousins, but they use the same exact term for “father” and “father’s brother,” (what we would call an uncle) and “mother” and “mother’s sister” (what we would call an aunt). On the other hand, descriptive systems distinguish between all of these terms and relationships. Here in the U.S., we use this descriptive system. As you can imagine, this one is considered a characteristic of more advanced cultures. According to Morgan, these advanced cultures also have more complex forms of government that deal with people based on their territory and property instead of their kinship. This all sounds a bit unrelated and complicated, but Morgan explains that this is all connected for a few very important reasons....

lewis henry morgan anthropology, kinship anthropology, kinship and descent, unilineal cultural evolution
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This video uses data from THREE sources:
1.
Erickson, Paul A., and Liam D. Murphy. 2017. A History of Anthropological Theory, 5th ed. University of Toronto Press.
Find book here: https://amzn.to/2rv5JBQ
2.
Moore, Jerry D. 2012. Visions of Culture: An Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists. New York: Alta Mira Press.
Find book here: https://amzn.to/2I3JTfO
3.
Morgan, Lewis H. 1877. Ancient Society. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Company.
FREE access at: https://archive.org/details/ancientso...
Physical copy: https://amzn.to/2ruMd8h
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