The LJ '4300 maximum word count' necessitated this 2nd. Posting.
--- quote --- "I often hear than Morgan is considered "disproved" but the evidence that has been presented is very flimsy indeed."
Flimsy Indeed?.. when one must consider that the study of human culture began in ancient times, but anthropology did not become a separate area of study until the mid-1800's. Early anthropologists concentrated on applying the then new darling Darwinian theory of evolution to their studies. They viewed the history of human culture as a process of evolution from lower to higher forms. According to these early anthropologists, this process climaxed with the cultures of Europe and North America. So-called "primitive" peoples, whose technology was less advanced than that of the Western nations, supposedly represented earlier stages of development. For example, the American anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan studied patterns of marriage in various societies. He concluded that marriage had evolved through the centuries from group marriage to the Western form of marriage to one partner... rather demeaning (especially to women) don't you think in the light of archeological evidence to the contrary. One may conclude that this concoction was based on a hind-brain testosterone-like construction more synoptic to "Male Chauvinism" than anything else. By the late 1800's, many anthropologists began to criticize the evolutionary theories of Morgan and others. These later scientists emphasized the discovery and recording of human differences, rather than the formulation of patterns of development. They also felt that information about various groups should be gathered before the cultures of those groups were transformed by contact with the West. Such anthropologists as Adolf Bastian of Germany, Franz Boas of the United States, and William H. R. Rivers of the United Kingdom organized expeditions to observe the cultures of other societies firsthand. An approach called 'functionalism' coupled with the politically based need to to discover universal human patterns had become an important goal of social-anthropology my the mid-1900s, and is fraught with systemic problems much beyond the DNA programed and hard wired 1st. and 2nd. prime motivations that humankind shares with other species on this planet, whether they be considered sentient or not.
Re: "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific", and "The Origins of Family, Private Property and the State
--- quote ---
"I often hear than Morgan is considered "disproved" but the evidence that has been presented is very flimsy indeed."
Flimsy Indeed?.. when one must consider that the study of human culture began in ancient times, but anthropology did not become a separate area of study until the mid-1800's. Early anthropologists concentrated on applying the then new darling Darwinian theory of evolution to their studies. They viewed the history of human culture as a process of evolution from lower to higher forms. According to these early anthropologists, this process climaxed with the cultures of Europe and North America. So-called "primitive" peoples, whose technology was less advanced than that of the Western nations, supposedly represented earlier stages of development. For example, the American anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan studied patterns of marriage in various societies. He concluded that marriage had evolved through the centuries from group marriage to the Western form of marriage to one partner... rather demeaning (especially to women) don't you think in the light of archeological evidence to the contrary. One may conclude that this concoction was based on a hind-brain testosterone-like construction more synoptic to "Male Chauvinism" than anything else.
By the late 1800's, many anthropologists began to criticize the evolutionary theories of Morgan and others. These later scientists emphasized the discovery and recording of human differences, rather than the formulation of patterns of development. They also felt that information about various groups should be gathered before the cultures of those groups were transformed by contact with the West. Such anthropologists as Adolf Bastian of Germany, Franz Boas of the United States, and William H. R. Rivers of the United Kingdom organized expeditions to observe the cultures of other societies firsthand.
An approach called 'functionalism' coupled with the politically based need to to discover universal human patterns had become an important goal of social-anthropology my the mid-1900s, and is fraught with systemic problems much beyond the DNA programed and hard wired 1st. and 2nd. prime motivations that humankind shares with other species on this planet, whether they be considered sentient or not.