Título: Lewis H. Morgan
Seção: The New Confederacy of the Iroquois
Background: Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 - December 17, 1881) was 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. Also interested in what leads to social change, he was a contemporary of the European social theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who were influenced by reading his work on social structure and material culture, the influence of technology on progress.

Conteúdo: After graduating in 1840, Morgan returned to Aurora to read the law with an established firm. In 1842 he was admitted to the bar in Rochester, where he went into partnership with a Union classmate, George F. Danforth, a future judge. They could find no clients, as the nation was in an economic depression, which had started with the Panic of 1837. Morgan wrote essays, which he had begun to do while studying law, and published some in The Knickerbocker under the pen name Aquarius.  On January 1, 1841, Morgan and some friends from Cayuga Academy formed a secret fraternal society which they called the Gordian Knot. As Morgan's earliest essays from that time had classical themes, the club may have been a kind of literary society, as was common then. In 1841 or 1842 the young men redefined the society, renaming it the Order of the Iroquois. Morgan referred to this event as cutting the knot. In 1843 they named it the Grand Order of the Iroquois, followed by the New Confederacy of the Iroquois. They made the group a research organization to collect information on the Iroquois, whose historical territory for centuries had included central and upstate New York west of the Hudson and the Finger Lakes region.  The men intended to resurrect the spirit of the Iroquois. They tried to learn the languages, assumed Iroquois names, and organized the group by the historic pattern of Iroquois tribes. In 1844 they received permission from the former Freemasons of Aurora to use the upper floor of t

user: What is the New Confederacy of the Iroquois?

assistant: In 1843 they named it the Grand Order of the Iroquois, followed by the New Confederacy of the Iroquois.

user: What was the purpose?

assistant: They made the group a research organization to collect information on the Iroquois, whose historical territory for centuries had included central and upstate New York west of

user: What did they do with this information?

assistant: The men intended to resurrect the spirit of the Iroquois.

user: Were they able to reach their goal?

assistant: They tried to learn the languages, assumed Iroquois names, and organized the group by the historic pattern of Iroquois tribes.

user: Who else was involved in this project?

assistant: Morgan and some friends from Cayuga Academy

user: Where did this study take place?

assistant: In 1844 they received permission from the former Freemasons of Aurora to use the upper floor of the Masonic temple as a meeting hall.