The Indian Journals 1859-62

by Lewis Henry Morgan

Considered the father of modern anthropology, Morgan left rich, detailed records of his researches among the tribes of Kansas and Nebraska — kinship systems, social organization, dances and ceremonies, customs, much else; also invaluable data on climate, flora and fauna, topography, natural resources, many other topics. 20 black-and-white illustrations.

Genres: Memoir

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Lewis Henry Morgan was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist, and one of the greatest social scientists of the nineteenth century in the United States. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social evolution, and his ethnography of the Iroquois. Due to his study of kinship, Morgan was an early proponent of the theory that the indigenous peoples of the Americas had migrated from Asia in ancient times. His social theories influenced later Leftist theorists. Morgan is the only American social theorist to be cited by Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud.

Reviews

[Dan Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb primary source about American social science and the closing of the frontier in the Civil War Era. Morgan is, in some ways, a product of his time — he thinks that it is good for Native American children to attend boarding schools; he has sympathies with what would later be deemed eugenics. His idiosyncrasies make him an unclassifiable figure in American thought. Morgan believed that intermarriage between whites and Native Americans would produce a stronger (white) American race, while lifting Natives to a higher level of civilization; he wanted to allocate more land to Native Americans and get rid of the corrupt bureaucrats who managed Native affairs; he had a genuine interest in documenting Native religious and material culture; he had a strange fondness for beavers, hoping to get one as a pet; and he believed that, by studying how Native Americans organized their family structures, he could unlock the secrets of human prehistory. The illustrations and footnotes make this volume a handsome one, and an informative read.

It is unfortunate that Morgan is not better known, for his account of Native life on reservations contains a wealth of historical information. Morgan's racial views are deeply problematic, but one does not have to agree with a person's beliefs to recognize that person's historic significance. Note: It is also unfortunate that editor Leslie White, writing in 1959, is fond of using the phrase "half breed."

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sympathetic to the Indians, Morgan traveled among them in the West to learn more about their kinship relations. He had realized their system of naming relatives was markedly different from that of the Europeans, and saw it as insight to their culture. This led to the system of "classificatory" and "descriptive" as a means of identifying how cultures name kin.

The journal is a work in progress - his thinking as he collects data, as well as his observations on country and peoples new to him; the Indian agency and trader system, which he accurately saw as deeply corrupt and flawed; the many Indian peoples struggling to survive on new reservations; the dislocation of peoples in the West, with a flood of new immigrants arriving. The sense is of movement and change.

[Cookbookjj · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read. Personally, I wish that too much was edited out (like the long descriptions of scenery, etc.). I suppose from a scholar's point of view you can get that anywhere and the focus here is on the anthropological.