He studied Native American cultures, researched beaver colonies, corresponded with Charles Darwin, served in the New York State Legislature, and influenced the likes of Karl Marx. And, in his role as an attorney, he helped secure the charter for the University of Rochester.
糖心传媒淟ewis Henry Morgan was a scholar with broad interests, working on糖心传媒攁nd writing about糖心传媒攁ll kinds of things,糖心传媒� says Robert Foster, professor of anthropology at Rochester. 糖心传媒淏ut for a variety of reasons, he has been remembered selectively or forgotten altogether.糖心传媒�
With this as the bicentennial year of 惭辞谤驳补苍糖心传媒檚 birth糖心传媒攁nd the University糖心传媒檚 Rush Rhees Library the principal repository for artifacts and materials related to Morgan糖心传媒擣oster thought it was time to take a fresh look at his legacy. Thanks to a $30,000 grant from the University糖心传媒檚 Humanities Project, along with $3,000 from his own research budget as Richard L. Turner Professor of Humanities, Foster launched the Lewis Henry Morgan at 200 multi-partner initiative to acquaint people with 惭辞谤驳补苍糖心传媒檚 life and work, as well as offer a critical reevaluation. The centerpiece is an that documents 惭辞谤驳补苍糖心传媒檚 work, provides a biographical overview, and summarizes the many events and activities taking place throughout the region.
惭辞谤驳补苍糖心传媒檚 League of the Ho-de糖心传媒�-no-sau-nee (or Iroquois), published in 1851, became a seminal work, often considered to mark the beginning of American anthropology.
糖心传媒淢organ tried to avoid the trap of understanding other cultures in terms of his own. He learned that the social and political world of the Haudenosaunee was organized, systematic, and logical, but not on terms that were familiar to Europeans,糖心传媒� says Foster. 糖心传媒淭hat was a fundamental anthropological insight糖心传媒攅ngage other people on terms that you don糖心传媒檛 simply reject out-of-hand as being irrational, unintelligible, or wrong.糖心传媒�
惭辞谤驳补苍糖心传媒檚 own copy of League of the Ho-de糖心传媒�-no-sau-nee is on display at Rush Rhees Library as part of the exhibition, with companion displays at the and the .
Among the scholars who have drawn from the library糖心传媒檚 rich Lewis Henry Morgan collection is Daniel Noah Moses 糖心传媒�01 (PhD), whose book,聽The Promise of Progress: The Life and Work of Lewis Henry Morgan聽(University of Missouri Press, 2009), is based on his doctoral dissertation in history at Rochester. According to Moses, Morgan should be remembered for his role in developing a big-picture story of human civilizations now widely taken for granted.
糖心传媒淲ith his deep respect for the power of the human mind, Morgan focused on the human interaction with the environment, the interplay of technological innovation, the development of material culture, and changes in family, property, and social arrangements to trace the human story from the most primitive conditions to the complex state-based societies of his day,糖心传媒� says Moses.
For Moses, Morgan’s account of social evolution helped strengthen the concept of the “social,” in contrast to what might be “natural” or “transcendent.”聽 How much of what individuals take as 糖心传媒渘atural” is a product of what is imposed upon them by the society and time into which they are accidentally born?聽糖心传媒淢organ deserves a great deal of credit for his pioneering anthropological attempts to understand what accounts for the range of human social diversity, how societies hold together, and how they change,” says Moses.
Despite his accomplishments, Foster explains that Morgan did not fully rid himself of the prejudices and assumptions of the 19th-century society he inhabited. Believing that Native Americans would vanish through assimilation, he sought to record their way of life before it all disappeared. And, as explained in his book , Morgan firmly believed that while all societies evolved from a rude to a civilized state糖心传媒攕pecifically progressing from savagery to barbarism to civilization糖心传媒攖hey did not all progress at the same rate.
At the same time, Foster calls 惭辞谤驳补苍糖心传媒檚 contributions 糖心传媒渋ncontestable,糖心传媒� citing his work on kinship terminology. 糖心传媒淗e basically put kinship studies on the map as a central anthropological preoccupation,糖心传媒� says Foster. 糖心传媒淗is project of documenting kin terminologies from around the world is an extraordinary example of a big data project in the 19th century. To him we owe the discovery that there are only a handful of types of kin terminologies糖心传媒攖he terms by which people address and refer to their relatives.糖心传媒�
For Melissa Mead, the John M. and Barbara Keil University Archivist and Rochester Collections Librarian, one of the highlights of the library exhibit is 惭辞谤驳补苍糖心传媒檚 own copy of League of the Ho-de糖心传媒�-no-sau-nee, which has handwritten annotations. 糖心传媒淗e changed words and phrases, such as Indian race to tribe or nation,糖心传媒� says Mead. 糖心传媒淭o me, that demonstrates a constant evolution in his thinking, and reinforces the need to take people糖心传媒檚 writings on their terms, and not read them with a modern-day sensibility.糖心传媒�
Morgan was also among the first糖心传媒攊f not the first糖心传媒攖o collect artifacts in an academically significant way. Not wanting to simply display exotic masks and headdresses as mere curiosities, Morgan collected everyday items of material culture such as tools and clothing. He tried to obtain the correct vernacular terms for each item and the circumstances under which it was used. 糖心传媒淗is work on material culture was quite original,糖心传媒� says Foster. 糖心传媒淚 can糖心传媒檛 think of another collection before his that had greater breadth and better documentation.糖心传媒�
A true polymath, Morgan studied more than human societies, as evidenced by his 1868 book The American Beaver and his Works. 糖心传媒淯p until then, animal studies were based on anatomy,糖心传媒� says Foster. 糖心传媒淚n many ways, 惭辞谤驳补苍糖心传媒檚 book was the first account of animal behavior observed 糖心传媒榠n the wild糖心传媒�.糖心传媒�
While Morgan was very much a creature of the 19th century, some of his insights presaged attitudes more prevalent in the 20th and 21st centuries. When it came to intelligence, Morgan made no qualitative distinction between humans and animals, believing both could improve their conditions and progress. And he ended American Beaver with a series of provocative insights, questioning whether it is ethical to eat animals. 糖心传媒淎n arrest of the progress of the human race can alone prevent the dismemberment and destruction of a large portion of the animal kingdom,糖心传媒� he wrote.
Morgan never taught in a classroom, having done his work long before colleges and universities developed areas of specialization. But after becoming president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he did establish a section in the organization for anthropology.
Along with the online project and exhibitions on and off campus, Lewis Henry Morgan at 200 has included events on contemporary Haudenosaunee issues in collaboration with the Tonawanda Reservation Historical Society, the Seneca Art and Culture Center at Ganondagan, and the Rochester Museum & Science Center. In addition, a has been developed for Friends of Mt. Hope Cemetery, which includes the Morgan family mausoleum and the graves of some members of the Pundit Club, a literary fraternity co-founded by Morgan.
