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Ancient Society

OR

RESEARCHES IN THE LINES OF HUMAN PROGRESSFROM SAVAGERY, THROUGH BARBARISMTO CIVILIZATION

BY

LEWIS H. MORGAN, LL.D.

Member of the National Academy of Sciences. Author of “The League of the Iroquois,”“The American Beaver and his Works,” “Systems of Consanguinity andAffinity of the Human Family,” Etc.

Nescit vox missa reverti.
Nescit vox missa reverti. HORACE.

NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1877

Copyright, 1877,
By HENRY HOLT.

TO THE REVEREND

J. H. McILVAINE, D.D.,

LATE PROFESSOR OF BELLES-LETTRES IN PRINCETON COLLEGE,

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,

IN RECOGNITION OF HIS GENIUS AND LEARNING,

AND IN APPRECIATION OF HIS FRIENDSHIP.

“Modern science claims to be proving, by the most careful and exhaustive study of manand his works, that our race began its existence on earth at the bottom of the scale, instead of atthe top, and has been gradually working upward; that human powers have had a history ofdevelopment; that all the elements of culture—as the arts of life, art, science, language, religion,philosophy—have been wrought out by slow and painful efforts, in the conflict between thesoul and the mind of man on the one hand, and external nature on the other.”—Whitney’sOriental and Linguistic Studies, p. 341.

“These communities reflect the spiritual conduct of our ancestors thousands of timesremoved. We have passed through the same stages of development, physical and moral, andare what we are to-day because they lived, toiled, and endeavored. Our wondrous civilizationis the result of the silent efforts of millions of unknown men, as the chalk cliffs of England areformed by contributions of myriads of foraminifera.”—Dr. J. Kaines, A