According to the evolutionary theory of humanity, human history has always followed the same linear and progressive path. Analyzing some conditions understood as universal, it is possible to trace the path taken by man since its beginnings until today, showing a time difference between those who did not yet have certain stages developed.
Following the trend of some ethnologists, who were based on the century. XIX Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution of Species, Lewis Morgan determined that the basic conditions that can be analyzed in each stage of human history are, on the one hand, the inventions and discoveries and, on the other hand, the emergence of the first institutions. Thus, there are some facts that marked the gradual formation and development of certain passions, ideas and aspirations, common to humans at each stage. These facts are:
1. Subsistence;
2. The government;
3. The language;
4. The family;
5. The religion;
6. The architecture;
7. The property.
Each of these facts and their developments would characterize the formation of an ethnic period, allowing its identification and distinction from the others. Generally speaking, Morgan designated three great ethnic periods of humanity:
Savagery, Barbarism and Civilization. Let's see how they happened:- The savagery began with the emergence of the human race, acquiring a fish-based diet and also developing the knowledge and use of fire, eventually reaching the invention of the bow and arrow;
- Barbarism is the phase immediately after savagery, having as its distinguishing feature the invention of the art of ceramics. It is also characterized by the domestication of animals as well as the cultivation of plants through an irrigation system. The use of adobe bricks and stones in housing construction was also part of this period. Finally, the invention of the iron ore smelting process and the use of iron ore tools.
- Civilization, the period to which we belong, begins, according to Morgan, with the invention of the phonetic alphabet and the use of writing and extends, as said, until today.
This is how Morgan understands the meaning of human evolution. At each of these stages, the inventions underwent a process of progressive adaptation. It can be understood that civilized man, because he has more sophisticated weapons, instruments that require more technology advanced and more consolidated institutions, is the standard of reference for the judgment of men in the times before this status. But, is it that the Indian or the aborigine has no culture? Don't follow rules and don't have language too? This criticism can be raised, because the so-called civilization becomes its judge, this created what we know in history as Ethnocentrism, that is, one ethnicity at the center, judging the others on the basis of their own conditions.
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Therefore, this is how today's society talks about progress, evolution and institutionalization, as it follows the classical idea that humanity has the same origin in time, although in different spaces, but that those societies that free themselves from the conditions of previous stages, have reached the level of civility, while the others who have not freed themselves from these same conditions continue, whether in a stage of savagery or a stage of barbarism.
By João Francisco P. Cabral
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Uberlândia - UFU
Master's student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
CABRAL, João Francisco Pereira. "Cultural Evolutionism, According to Lewis Morgan"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/filosofia/evolucionismo-cultural-segundo-lewis-morgan.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.