Reading Morgan, Lewis Henry 1851 League of the Iroquois or Ho-de-no-sau-nee (See esp PDF

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Summary of anthropological forefather Lewis Henry Morgan's theories of kinship and “blood” in his book League of the Iroquois (1851)....

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Reading: Morgan, Lewis Henry 1851 League of the Iroquois or Ho-de-no-sau-nee (See esp. Preface; Book I Chapter IV starting “Division into Tribes”.) -1871. Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family. Smithsonian. A pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social evolution, and his ethnography of the Iroquois. Interested in what holds societies together, he proposed the concept that the earliest human domestic institution was the matrilineal clan, not the patriarchal family. Preface: ● ●

Wishes to study ‘our’ duty concerning the Iroquois Native Americans: ‘Can the residue or the Iroquois be reclaimed, and finally raised to the position of citizens of the State?’ p.x L-H Morgan’s experience with Iroquois: ○ ‘Circumstances in early life… brought the author in frequent intercourse with the descendants of the Iroquois, and led to his adoption as a Seneca.’ ■ Gave opportunity to study their social organization, structure and principles of the ancient League ■ Inscribed to Ely S. Parker, Ha-sa-no-an’-da - educated Seneca Indian

Book I Chapter IV Division into Tribes: ● I.T Tribes = ‘most simple organization of society’ p.78 ○ Tribe = familial like connection - the ties binding the members are indispensable (until they become unnecessary by the adoption of government) ○ ‘When a people have long remained in the tribal state, it becomes extremely difficult to remove all traces of such organic divisions by the substitution of new institutions.’ p.78 ● Descent in Iroquois followed the female line ● Iroquois tribal relationships/ political system: ○ ‘In each nation there were eight tribes, which were arranged in two divisions, and named as follows:’ p.79

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Wolf

Bear

Beaver

Turtle

Deer

Snipe

Heron

Hawk

‘Tradition declares that the Bear and the Deer were the original tribes, and that the residue were subdivisions.’ p.80 Each tribe was subdivided into five parts, for the five nations. ‘Between those of the same name… there existed a tie of brotherhood, which linked the nations together with indissoluble bonds...bound to each other by the ties of consanguinity.’ p.81 ‘This cross-relationship between the tribes of the same name, and which was stronger, if possible, than the chain of brotherhood between the several tribes of

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the same nation, is still preserved in all of its original strength.’ p.82 ■ Cross cutting ties. ■ ‘The Confederacy was in effect a League of Tribes’ p.82 ■ ‘In this manner was constructed the League of the Ho-de’-no-sau-nee, in itself an extraordinary specimen of Indian legislation. Simple in its foundation upon the family relationships, effective in the lasting vigor inherent in the ties of kindred, and perfect in its success, in achieving a permanent and harmonious union of the nations’ p.83 Marriage law: ○ Top row cannot intermarry one another. Bottom row cannot intermarry one another. However any of the top can marry any of the bottom; vice versa. ○ Over time this relaxed; to the point that the only limit was not to marry within your own tribe ○ ‘Under the original as well as modern regulation, the husband and wife were of different tribes. The children always followed the tribe of the mother.’ p.83 Property law/ Matrilineal descent: ○ ‘The transmission of all titles, rights and property [were confined] in the female line to the exclusion of the male’ p.84 ○ Keeps titles within the tribe ○ The validity of the ruling sachem was always ensured: ‘the certainty of descent in the tribe, was secured by a rule infallible; for the child must be the son of its mother, although not necessarily of its mother’s husband’ p.84-5 ○ ‘By the mode of the Iroquois, none of the collaterals were lost by remoteness of degree. The number of those linked together by the nearer family ties was largely multiplied by preventing, in this manner, the subdivision of a family into collateral branches. These relationships… lay at the foundation of their political, as well as social organisation.’ p.86-7 Leadership: ○ Although the titles are hereditary, there was no way to discern the hierarchy of hereditation. ‘Between a brother and a nephew of the deceased, there was no law which established a preference; neither between several brothers, on the one hand, and sons of several sisters on the other, was there any law of primogeniture; nor, finally, was there any positive law, that the choice should be confined to the brothers of the deceased ruler, and the descendants of his sisters in the female line, until all these should fail, before a selection could be made from the tribe at large. Hence, it appears, so far as positive enactments were concerned, that the office of sachem was hereditary in the particular tribe in which it ran; while it was elective, as between the male members of the tribe itself.’ p.87-8 ○ This was decided, in the death of a sachem, by a tribal council - preference given to near relatives due to respect for his memory. ○ When the new sachem is chosen, there was a council of all the sachems of the League to invest the new sachem into office ■ Sachems could just as easily be deposed, and a new leader selected.

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Naming: ○ ‘Soon after the birth of an infant, the near relatives of the same tribe select a name. At the first subsequent council of the nation, the birth and name were publicly announced, together with the name and tribe of the father, and the name and tribe of the mother.’ p.89 ○ ‘When an individual was was raised up as a sachem, his original name was laid aside, and that of the sachemship itself assumed.’ p.89-90 ■ The same occured with the raising up of a new chief of the nation. ‘Each tribe in the nation thus formed a species of separate community.’ p.90 Evolutionist? ‘As two tribes were necessarily joined in each family, there was a perfect diffusion of tribes throughout the nation, and throughout the League. In this manner the race of the Iroquois… was blended into one people. The League was in effect established, and rested for its stability, upon the natural faith of kindred.’ p.90 Two tribes represented by every family Descent from a common mother ‘In the formation of an Iroquois tribe, a portion was taken from many households, and bound together by tribal bond.’ p.91 ‘Herein was a bond of union between the several tribes of the same nation, corresponding, in some degree, with the cross-relationship founded upon consanguinity, which bound together the tribes of the same emblem in the different nations.’ p.91 Iroquois claim to be the originators of the division of people into tribes to bind together people more firmly - instigated in the Cherokees and other Indian nations. However suggests it may have an older tie to Azdec descent Marvels at the ability for the Iroquois’ ability to construct a confederacy that eliminated almost all of the previous inter-nation warfare by creating cross-cutting ties by tribal system. By its ability to grow as a ‘progressive confederacy’ and absorb neighboring nations into one family, the system could have grown to encompass all Indian peoples. This does not seem an evolutionist perspective, as he does not see the system as needing to develop (rather he sees it as exceptionally successful), but a system that would have expanded in size.) Inequalities: ○ Unequal distribution of sachemships -> unequal distribution of power ○ ‘Custody of the “Council Brand”, and also of the “Wampum,” into which the laws of the League “had been talked,” was given by hereditary grant to the Onondagas… which made the council-fire in the Onondaga valley, in effect, the seat of government of the League.’ p.94 ○ The title of To-do-da’-ho was also held by the Onondaga ○ Two highest military chieftains given to the Senecas - however this is due to the political edifice of the Iroquois, the Long House, having its door open to the west, thus needing heavier protection in this direction (where the Senecas are). ○ Mohawks received tributes from subjugated nations ○ Plus others Uses some evolutionist terminology (the academic language of his age), however does

seem to view the Iroquois system of government as a well designed system. ○ ‘The office of sachem was surrounded by impassable barriers against those who were without the immediate family of the sachem, and the tribe in which the title was hereditary.’ p.103...