Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines

Houses and House-Life of the
American Aborigines

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Title: Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines
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CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
VOLUME IV

HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES
BY LEWIS H. MORGAN

PREFACE.
The following work substantially formed the Fifth Part of the original
manuscript of "Ancient Society," under the title "Growth of the Idea of
House Architecture." As the manuscript exceeded the limits of a single
volume, this portion (Part V) was removed, and having then no
intention to publish it separately, the greater part of it found its way
into print in detached articles. A summary was given 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, in April, 1876. Another
chapter, that on the "Houses of the Mound Builders," 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 from the same materials an article
entitled "A Study of the Houses and House Life of the Indian Tribes,"
with a scheme for the exploration of the ruins in New Mexico, Arizona,

the San Juan region, Yucatan, and Central America.
With some additions and reductions the facts are now presented in their
original form, and as they will now have a wider distribution than the
articles named have had, they will be new to most of my readers. The
facts and suggestions made will also have the advantage of being
presented in their proper connection. Thus additional strength is given
to the argument as a whole. All the forms of this architecture sprang
from a common mind, and exhibit, as a consequence, different stages of
development of the same conceptions, operating upon similar
necessities. They also represent these several conditions of Indian life
with reasonable completeness. Their houses will be seen to form one
system of works, from the Long House of the Iroquois to the Joint
Tenement houses of adobe and of stone in New Mexico, Yucatan,
Chiapas, and Guatemala, with such diversities as the different degrees
of advancement of these several tribes would naturally produce.
Studied as one system, springing from a common experience, and
similar wants, and under institutions of the same general character, they
are seen to indicate a plan of life at once novel, original, and
distinctive.
The principal fact, which all these structures alike show, from the
smallest to the greatest, is that the family through these stages of
progress was too weak an organization to face alone the struggle of life,
and sought a shelter for itself in large households composed of several
families. The house for a single family was exceptional throughout
aboriginal America, while the house large enough to accommodate
several families was the rule. Moreover, they were occupied as joint
tenement houses. There was also a tendency to form these households
on the principle of gentile kin, the mothers with their children being of
the same gens or clan.
If we enter upon the great problem of Indian life with a determination
to make it intelligible, their house life and domestic institutions must
furnish the key to its explanation. These pages are designed as a
commencement of that work. It is a fruitful, and, at present, but
partially explored field. We have been singularly