Morgan, Lewis Henry (1818-1881), was an American anthropologist known for his studies of Native Americans and others. Morgan observed the ways Native Americans living in New York classified relatives using different kinship terms. He is regarded as a founder of the scientific study of kinship for his book Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family (1871). Unlike other anthropologists of his time, Morgan learned many of his facts by traveling and by observing Indigenous (native) peoples where they lived.
Inspired by the work of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, Morgan argued that the history of human culture was a process of evolution (gradual development) from lower to higher forms. In his book Ancient Society (1877), Morgan theorized that people pass through three stages of development: (1) savagery, (2) barbarism, and (3) civilization. So-called primitive peoples, whose technology was less advanced than that of Western nations, supposedly represented the earlier phases of evolution. Anthropologists today reject this perspective.
Morgan was born on Nov. 21, 1818, near Aurora, New York, and became a lawyer. He began anthropological research after joining a club dedicated to studying Native American ways of life. Morgan died on Dec. 17, 1881.
