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The following work substantially formed the Fifth Part of theoriginal manuscript of "Ancient Society," under the title "Growth ofthe Idea of House Architecture." As the manuscript exceeded thelimits of a single volume, this portion (Part V) was removed, andhaving then no intention to publish it separately, the greater partof it found its way into print in detached articles. A summary wasgiven to Johnson's New Universal Cyclopedia in the article on the"Architecture of the American Aborigines." The chapter on the"Houses of the Aztecs" formed the basis of the article entitled"Montezuma's Dinner," published in the North American Review, inApril, 1876. Another chapter, that on the "Houses of the MoundBuilders," was published in the same Review in July, 1876. Finally,the present year, at the request of the executive committee of the"Archaeological Institute of America," at Cambridge, I prepared fromthe same materials an article entitled "A Study of the Houses andHouse Life of the Indian Tribes," with a scheme for the explorationof the ruins in New Mexico, Arizona, the San Juan region, Yucatan,and Central America.
With some additions and reductions the facts are now presented intheir original form, and as they will now have a wider distributionthan the articles named have had, they will be new to most of myreaders. The facts and suggestions made will also have the advantageof being presented in their proper connection. Thus additionalstrength is given to the argument as a whole. All the forms of thisarchitecture sprang from a common mind, and exhibit, as a consequence,different stages of development of the same conceptions, operatingupon similar necessities. They also represent these severalconditions of Indian life with reasonable completeness. Their houseswill be seen to form one system of works, from the Long House of theIroquois to the Joint Tenement houses of adobe and of stone in NewMexico, Yucatan, Chiapas, and Guatemala, with such diversities asthe different degrees of advancement of these several tribes wouldnaturally produce. Studied as one system, springing from a commonexperience, and similar wants, and under institutions of the samegeneral character, they are seen to indicate a plan of life at oncenovel, original, and distinctive.
The principal fact, which all these structures alike show, from thesmallest to the greatest, is that the family through these stages ofprogress was too weak an organization to face alone the struggle oflife, and sought a shelter for itself in large households composedof several families. The house for a single family was exceptionalthroughout aboriginal America, while the house large enough toaccommodate several families was the rule. Moreover, they wereoccupied as joint tenement houses. There was also a tendency to formthese households on the principle of gentile kin, the mothers withtheir children being of the same gens or clan.
If we enter upon the great problem of Indian life with adetermination to make it intelligible, their house life and domesticinstitutions must furnish the key to its explanation. These pagesare designed as a commencement of that work. It is a fruitful, and,at present, but partially explored field. We have been singularlyinattentive to the plan of domestic life revealed by the houses ofthe aborigi