Kinship Studies of Lewis Henry Morgan
Lewis Henry Morgans System of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family is a comparative anthropological study of kinship on scientific lines. Since the study of Emily Durkheim, a sociologist and a critic of systems, several scholars have been terming Morgans consanguinity as a biological explanation of the kinship on the basis of the Anglo American cultural assumptions of the blood relations. David Schneider argued that even anthropologists who acknowledged Durkheim alternative that kinship is a social or it is nothing (Feeley-Harnik 2001 54) still believed in the assumption of Morgan that kinship involved the socialization of the biological process, yet now it was hidden and unexamined. (Feeley-Harnik 2001 54) Schneider pressed anthropologists to study people on the vernacular lines and to study the kinship in relation to culture on the basis of the code of conduct people adopt and their natural substance.
In his study, Henry Morgan had gathered considerable amount of information and data on kinship and the terms used with this. With this data, he studied the basis on which different kinship systems have been classified. Morgan found that evolution of human society have passed through various stages-from primitive to civilized and these stages are recognized by the terminologies being used in kinship. For e.g. Primitive promiscuity is emphasized and explained by Hawaii kind of kinship. He also distinguished between the two main different kinds of kinship One is defined in classificatory terms incorporating maximum biological kin relationships and the other is descriptive terms having small number of kinship relations especially particular kind of relations. On the basis of this classification and incorporating it into his evolutionary concept, he arrived at the assumption that primitive systems come under classificatory terms while civilized systems come under descriptive but what he ignored was the degree of analysis of extension and the way to discover the semantic criteria on the basis of which people make divisions in their relationships.
In 1929, Kroeber criticized the very concept of this kind of classificationdescriptive distinction instead he viewed on the different principles on which relationship is divided. According to him, these principles are of eight kinds namely affinity, generation, sex of relative and collaterally. Among others are sex of speaker, relative age, bifurcation, and decadence. In this list of eight, Lowie added ninth i.e. polarity. He found different traits in each relationship that would enable to differentiate the kin for e.g. in English and American kinship terminology- father-in-law is different from father as father-in-law relationship developed on the virtue of marriage.
Kinship is considered as one of the most complex systems of culture with different human groups having a different kinship terminology. Our many aspects of life are affected by kinship and in many societies, the relationships have considerable influence with whom one can or cannot marry. To whom one should show the respect and with whom one should be frank and on whom one should rely in case of crisis - all depends on the relationship and kinship terminology developed. Morgan had a deep interest in the Native Americans of his locality and was made a member of the Seneca tribe. His League of the Ho-de-no-sau-nee or Iroquois was widely appreciated but his interest in social organization led him to form a theory relating to the kinship terminologies with the marriage and rules that were predominant among the society members on virtue of descent, marking on the concept that matriarchal patterns are far more dominant than the other forms of pattern.
Morgan was brought up in the New York City among the Iroquois Indians, with whom he came into close contact. Iroquois constituted group of five tribes who opposed the European invasions with great success since last two centuries. All the five tribes were made of clans having mythical ancestors known as totems, representing an animal or vegetable form. The members of the clan considered themselves as related to each other on virtue of their blood and were united on the basis of brotherhood. Morgan thought that it was especially on account of this specific feature that allowed Iroquois to oppose invasions both from neighboring tribes and Europeans. Morgan gave a deep study in their system and considered as a very peculiar however he later found that in almost all the American tribes, the kinship system was standing on the roots of the same principles. He also found that almost all the Tamil groups from South India were also depending on the same system. He got the same reports from Australia too. In the Iroquois and also with the Australian Aborigine kinship system, the method of classification differs from the European way.
The most dominant considered to be is the Eskimo system. As in Europe in parents generation, Europeans never distinguish the aunt if she is from fathers side or from mothers side. This is also there with the uncles, cousins, as well as grand parents. The other system he notified is the classical Australian system, whereby sister of father is called aunt and uncle is called to the brother of a mother, while the sister of mother is termed as mother only not an aunt and the brother of a father is yet again called father not uncle. The main concept in the classification process of the kin is known as bifurcate-merging and this system as described above is known as classificatory system of relationship. (Dousset 2002 Online) Above all, the systems of kinship in Australia are also universalistic in concept as each human being is involved in this system. In this classificatory kinship system, each person is in one way or the other related to each other. While maintaining the relationships, there are certain duties and obligations and the ways of maintaining relationships like showing respect towards fathers and mothers, and abiding close and reciprocal relationship for cousins etc. In other words, kinship defines the behavior and attitude to be adopted towards each other.
Morgan had an ardent belief that classification system represents a type of social culture where it was impossible to differentiate fathers from uncles, brothers from the cousins and sons from nephews. Society formulated rules of the marriage still the older form of terminology was existent, but as the civilizations continued to increase and ownership of the private property began as a norm, there on the scene witnessed vast differences in ones family and one that of the relatives for establishing the inheritance norm. Anthropologists of today do not believe that at any stage in the development of the family, there were any loose ties.
Another most important aspect of Morgan was the consideration of the social organization, which itself directly or indirectly is subjected to the structure of kinship. This concept made him evolutionary anthropologist. He showed to the world that the different kinds of cultural norms observed were to certain extent mirrors of the different stages of the human social organization. (Dousset 2002 Online) In other words, kinship was considered as an epicenter of the social organization of the primitive society and considered as less important in the modern society. Morgans approach for kinship was based on his understanding of the primitive society which was associated with each other on virtue of their blood relation. This view became most popular among the anthropologists till 1970. Morgans approach also became a constituent part of the anthropological studies of kinship for many decades - like importance on kinship terminology as well as the division of kinship as a study in many constitutive blocks like marriage, descent, inheritance, post-marital residence etc.
Morgan also showed in his Ancient Society how and in what stages culture was evolved He found three stages through which culture evolved and got its shape. These are savagery, barbarism, and civilization with savagery and barbarism classified into lower, middle, and upper stages on the basis of the technological inventions during the respected eras. Savagery was the phase of pre-agriculture whereas barbarism originated with the invention of pottery and agriculture and then came the civilized society when writing started. In short, Morgan viewed the cultural development as a single movement from the stage of primitiveness towards the utmost civilization. (Ferraro 2008 68) His theory on cultural and kinship inspired the theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Yet another group of anthropologists while giving their concept on kinship concentrated more attention on the family contending that there is a logical and psychological tie among the members of the family following the lineage and line of extension. Their understanding was similar to the functional understanding and analysis of the family and kinship relations. Claude Levi-Strauss formulated yet another method on the system of the structural principle studying the nature of relationships among groups, rather than focusing upon groups rules of composition. (Mckellin Online) On the other hand, seminal Elementary Structures of Kinship in 1969 by Levi-Straus studied the importance of the group exogamy, in other words, practice of getting married outside the group, establishing the boundary lines.
Morgans System of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family chalked a map of the kinship systems of the whole human family and a classification system of contemporary science yet inspite of the claim that it had touched the globe, many of the nations remained left out of his study (Gardner 2008 137) Though Morgans concept was challenged on several grounds yet the theory of kinship development attained much wider acceptance and importance with the writings of Friedrich Engels and became especially important for giving place to the Australian Aborigines in his evolutionary scheme. Trautmann too said that Morgans legal training in the Roman system of kinship led him to the profound appreciation of the alterity of the matrilineal Iroquois who not only follow the female--rather than the male line of the Roman system--but also positioned the children as separate from the lather through kinship classes that determined marriage partners.
In the overall study of Morgan, the two most important discoveries were made with the most important being primitive society as the collective egalitarian system, which did not have any inequalities of the modern society which is based on the patriarchy system of family, and private property. It was like a matriarchy society where women were held in high esteem and enjoyed the position of leaders in the overall productive as well as social life. These studies caused controversies leading to the further divisions amidst the anthropological circle. In the early twentieth century, Boas and Radcliffe-Brown discarded their ancestors approach and instead adopted empirical and descriptive study of the primitive people living in the different parts of the world. They also rejected the Morgans concept of three stages of social evolution, emphasizing on the fact that it was not necessary in this era. One of the British anthropologists in Times Literary Supplement wrote in his state of anthropology that, Evolutionism was succeeded by diffusionism, which was supplanted by functionalism, and this in turn was superseded by structuralism but after all these academic shifts and turns the state of secure understanding of man and his works has remained disappointingly static.... with increasing specialization and professionalism, social anthropology has actually become steadily duller and more trivial. (Reed 1978 Online) During the course of the period, the study of anthropology became a subject of less importance and the history of ascendancy of women virtually came to a standstill. Students of the anthropology were made to believe that Morgan and his contemporaries were out dated and old fashioned, and matriarchy as a subject too ruled out. This was due to the insufficient documents to prove any sign of the prevalence of the system of matriarchy but their controversies were not based on solid grounds, as still many of the regions have the presence of matrilineal decent.
Morgan proved to the greatest scholar of anthropology in 19th century. He went on inventing the study of kinship, got into print kinship terminologies of varied nations, visited many Indian nations and wrote The American Beaver. According to the historical evidence, it was also said anthropology was dominated by the German immigrant Franz Boas (1858-1942) and his students and one of his students was Margaret Mead who laid emphasis on the deep individual cultures. On the other hand, when Boas and his students were spreading the culture of relationship in the United States, Morgan was increasingly dominating his position towards Europe. Both the British as well as the French anthropologists accepted Morgans thoughts laying emphasis on the social orders which were common for all societies. Though the rift between European and American anthropology got never healed yet Europeans backed by Morgans thoughts turned out to be more powerful. Subsequently more of the American anthropologists continued to take considerable interest in the marriage and kinship.
Ideas on kinship do not just mean biological relationship among individuals but close associations between the individuals. This concept was founded by Malinowski who did the ethnographic study in 1929 on the sexual behavior of the Trobriand Islands noting on the fact that these islanders did not believe that sexual intercourse caused pregnancy and also rejected the fact that there was any kind of physiological relationship between the child and the father. But on the contrary though paternity was not known in the full biological sense yet a woman having a child without a husband was not socially accepted. Thus, though the natives are ignorant of any physiological need for a male in the constitution of the family, they regard him as indispensable socially. (Malinowski 2002172)
To solve the problem of the kinship systems, George P Murdock in 1949 compiled the data to formulate the theory on the universality of human kinship. This data served as a guide for many researchers for cross culture study resulting in making a social science as a separate discipline emphasizing on the family structures consisting of parents and children.
However Radcliff Brown emphasized inheritance and descent in defining corporate kinship groups and toward defining such groups as the basis for human kinship systems (Houseman White 1988 59) while Edmund Leech through his study of Pul Eliyan Society in Sri Lanka pinpointed that kinship as a means of organizing cooperative labor, and demonstrated empirically that kinship is structured by the organization of property rights linked to land and water in irrigation agriculture, and by the procedures by which they are inherited. (Houseman White 1988 59) He believed that the local and cooperative links formed on economic basis determine pattern of kinship groups and their behavior.
Overall the anthropologists studies had led to many contradictory opinions and views regarding the kinship among human beings. It has most important space in the anthropological study and research especially in the areas around Australia and other societies. During certain period, anthropologists even believed that there is uniqueness in kinship traits in almost all the cultures of the world but with certain local and cultural specialties. By the end of the nineteenth as well as beginning of the twentieth century, the interest in kinship began to lose ground as anthropologists realized they had been more focusing on the Euro-American concept of kinship, which was quite contradictory to the perception of the primitive societies. Later, anthropologists again began to have more interest in the subject but now with all new analytical skills and their methods of studying kinship across the cultures or groups of the different nations, they have also realized that kinship can be interpreted and explained in varying ways. Though several studies have been undertaken and several assumptions and theories formulated to understand the system of kinship yet it was Lewis Henry Morgan, a unilineal evolutionist whose studies had a great influence on anthropology. First he just gave the outline on the importance the study of kinship systems can have for understanding social organizations, secondly he deeply studied the various cultures of the world to understand the origination of kinship and lastly organized data and also created a theory explaining that kinship is a contraption whose roots are embedded in the way relations were established in the Euro-American societies. Understanding kinship is deeply important for anthropologists in their discussions and study of issue, gender, social or other forms of organizations and social formations.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment