Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines | Page 2

inattentive to the plan
of domestic life revealed by the houses of the aboriginal period. Time
and the influences of civilization have told heavily upon their mode of
life until it has become so far modified, and in many cases entirely

overthrown, that it must be taken up as a new investigation upon the
general facts which remain. At the epoch of European discovery it was
in full vitality in North and South America; but the opportunities of
studying its principles and its results were neglected. As a scheme of
life under established institutions, it was a remarkable display of the
condition of mankind in two well marked ethnical periods, namely, the
Older Period and the Middle Period of barbarism, the first being
represented by the Iroquois and the second by the Aztecs, or ancient
Mexicans. In no part of the earth were these two conditions of human
progress so well represented as by the American Indian tribes. A
knowledge of the culture and of the state of the arts of life in these
periods is indispensable to a definite conception of the stages of human
progress. From the laws which govern this progress, from the
uniformity of their operation, and from the necessary limitations of the
principle of intelligence, we may conclude that our own remote
ancestors passed through a similar experience and possessed very
similar institutions. In studying the condition of the Indian tribes in
these periods we may recover some portion of the lost history of our
own race. This consideration lends incentive to the investigation.
The first chapter is a condensation of four in "Ancient Society," namely,
those on the gens, phratry, tribe, and confederacy of tribes. As they
formed a necessary part of that work, they become equally necessary to
this. A knowledge of these organizations is indispensable to an
understanding of the house life of the aborigines. These organizations
form the basis of American ethnology. Although the discussion falls
short of a complete explanation of their character and of their
prevalence, it will give the reader a general idea of the organization of
society among them.
We are too apt to look upon the condition of savage and of barbarous
tribes as standing on the same plane with respect to advancement. They
should be carefully distinguished as dissimilar conditions of progress.
Moreover, savagery shows stages of culture and of progress, and the
same is true of barbarism. It will greatly facilitate the study of the facts
relating to these two conditions, through which mankind have passed in
their progress to civilization, to discriminate between ethnical periods,
or stages of culture both in savagery and in barbarism. The progress of
mankind from their primitive condition to civilization has been marked

and eventful. Each great stage of progress is connected, more or less
directly, with some important invention or discovery which materially
influenced human progress, and inaugurated an improved condition.
For these reasons the period of savagery has been divided into three
subperiods, and that of barbarism also into three, the latter of which are
chiefly important in their relation to the condition of the Indian tribes.
The Older Period of barbarism, which commences with the
introduction of the art of pottery, and the Middle Period, which
commences with the use of adobe brick in the construction of houses,
and with the cultivation of maize and plants by irrigation, mark two
very different and very dissimilar conditions of life. The larger portion
of the Indian tribes fall within one or the other of these periods. A small
portion were in the Older Period of savagery, and none had reached the
Later Period of barbarism, which immediately precedes civilization. In
treating of the condition of the several tribes they will be assigned to
the particular period to which they severally belong under this
classification.
I regret to add that I have not been able, from failing health, to give to
this manuscript the continuous thought which a work of any kind
should receive from its author. But I could not resist the invitation of
my friend Major J. W. Powell, the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology,
to put these chapters together as well as I might be able, that they might
be published by that Bureau. As it will undoubtedly be my last work, I
part with it under some solicitude for the reason named; but submit it
cheerfully to the indulgence of my readers.
I am greatly indebted to my friend Mr. J. C. Pilling, of the same Bureau,
for his friendly labor and care in correcting the proof sheets, and for
supervising the illustrations. Such favors are very imperfectly repaid by
an author's thanks.
The late William W. Ely, M. D., LL. D., was, for a period of more than
twenty-five years, my cherished friend and