Lewis Morgan

Lewis Henry Morgan was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist, recognized as one of the foremost social scientists of the nineteenth century in the United States. He is best known for his foundational work on kinship and social structure, his influential theories of social evolution, and his detailed ethnography of the Iroquois. His research into kinship systems led him to be an early proponent of the theory that the indigenous peoples of the Americas migrated from Asia in ancient times. Morgan's social theories profoundly influenced later Leftist thinkers, and he holds the unique distinction of being the only American social theorist cited by Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud.