VAID'S ICS – Best UPSC Anthropology Coaching in Delhi Since 1985

Comprehensive Classroom Course · Admissions openRegister now
+91 93113 37737
  • +91-93113 37737, +91-99999 46748
  • 73(FF), Old Rajender Nagar Market, Delhi - 110060
  • MON to SUN 9.00 am - 6.00 pm
Facebook Youtube Instagram
Menu
Enquire Now
Home/Anthropology/Mains PYQ/2015/Paper I/Anthropological Theories
UPSC MainsAnthropology Optional Paper I 2015 20 Marks Model Answer Available

Morgan on the Evolution of Marriage, Family and Socio-Political Organization — 2015 Paper I

Question · 2015 · Paper I · 20 Marks

How did Morgan explain the evolution of marriage, family and Socio-Political organization, and how did other evolutionists disagree with his explanation?

Model Answer

VAID ICS

Approach

  • Demand of Question: Explain Morgan’s evolutionary reconstruction of marriage, family and political organization and compare it with alternative evolutionary schemes.
  • Structuring the Response: Present Morgan’s general evolutionary framework, trace family and socio-political stages, then contrast him with Bachofen, McLennan and Maine.
  • Key Dimensions to Cover: Ancient Society, savagery-barbarism-civilization, consanguine/punaluan family, gens, societas-civitas, Bachofen, McLennan and Henry Maine.

Model Answer

Introduction: Lewis Henry Morgan, a major nineteenth-century unilinear evolutionist, attempted to reconstruct the development of human institutions in Ancient Society (1877). He argued that changes in technology, marriage, family, property and political organization followed broadly progressive evolutionary stages.

Morgan’s general evolutionary scheme

Morgan divided human cultural evolution into:

Savagery → Barbarism → Civilization

Savagery and barbarism were further divided into lower, middle and upper stages using technological criteria such as:

  • fire;
  • bow and arrow;
  • pottery;
  • agriculture;
  • metallurgy;
  • writing.

Institutional development accompanied these technological changes.

Evolution of marriage and family

Morgan reconstructed family evolution from comparatively undifferentiated sexual relations toward monogamy.

  1. Consanguine family

The earliest reconstructed form involved marriage or sexual relations within a broad generational category.

Brothers and sisters, according to Morgan’s speculative reconstruction, were not initially excluded as later kinship rules would require.

  1. Punaluan family

The next stage introduced prohibition of sexual relations between brothers and sisters.

Groups of brothers could be associated with groups of wives and vice versa, producing a form of group marriage.

Thus:

Consanguine family → Incest restriction → Punaluan family

  1. Pairing or Syndyasmian family

A relatively stable union developed between one man and one woman, although:

  • marriage was easily dissolved;
  • exclusive monogamy was not fully institutionalized.
  1. Patriarchal family

Morgan recognized forms characterized by strong male authority and, in certain cases, polygyny.

  1. Monogamian family

Civilization culminated in the monogamous family, linked increasingly with:

  • private property;
  • inheritance;
  • legitimate descent.

Morgan therefore perceived:

Group relations → Pair marriage → Monogamy

Descent and kinship

Morgan distinguished between:

  • classificatory kinship, characteristic of many non-Western societies;
  • descriptive kinship, associated in his scheme with more individualized family relations.

He also gave considerable importance to matrilineal descent, regarding mother-right as historically important before widespread patrilineal organization.

Evolution of socio-political organization

Morgan distinguished two broad forms:

  1. Societas

Early society was organized primarily through kinship.

Its progressively larger units were:

Gens → Phratry → Tribe → Confederacy

The gens was particularly important—a unilineal descent group possessing common social and political functions.

Political authority remained relatively decentralized.

  1. Civitas

With growth of:

  • population;
  • private property;
  • territorial settlement;
  • economic differentiation,

kin-based organization gave way to territorial-political organization.

Thus:

Kinship-based Societas → Territory/property-based Civitas → State

For Morgan, the emergence of the state was therefore connected with the decline of purely gentile organization.

How other evolutionists differed

Morgan’s reconstruction was influential, but other nineteenth-century evolutionists proposed different sequences.

  1. J.J. Bachofen

In Das Mutterrecht (1861), Bachofen proposed a movement broadly from:

Hetaerism → Mother-right → Patriarchy

He gave greater importance to religious ideas and the historical transition from matriarchal/mother-right institutions to patriarchal authority.

Morgan, by contrast, emphasized kinship terminology, technology and the gens rather than Bachofen’s mythological-religious reconstruction.

  1. J.F. McLennan

McLennan, in Primitive Marriage (1865), explained early marriage through:

  • female infanticide;
  • scarcity of women;
  • polyandry;
  • marriage by capture;
  • exogamy.

His model proposed:

Scarcity of women → Polyandry → Female descent + Exogamy

Morgan rejected the idea that exogamy and marriage institutions could be adequately explained through female infanticide and wife capture. He instead emphasized the gradual prohibition of marriage among increasingly defined categories of kin.

  1. Henry Maine

Sir Henry Maine, in Ancient Law (1861), took almost the opposite position from Morgan on the earliest family.

Maine regarded the patriarchal family under paternal authority (patria potestas) as the foundational social unit.

Thus:

Maine → Patriarchal family as early/basic

whereas Morgan proposed earlier stages involving group marriage and mother-right before developed patriarchal-monogamous organization.

Maine also described legal development as:

Status → Contract

rather than using Morgan’s kinship-based evolutionary sequence.

Comparative view

Thinker Major explanation
Morgan Group marriage → pairing → monogamy; gens → state
Bachofen Mother-right preceding patriarchy
McLennan Female scarcity → polyandry, capture and exogamy
Maine Patriarchal family as earliest basic institution

Critical assessment

These nineteenth-century reconstructions suffered from:

  • inadequate field data;
  • speculative sequences;
  • assumption of universal stages;
  • treating contemporary societies as survivals of earlier stages.

Later anthropologists, especially Boas and functionalists, rejected such speculative universal histories.

Nevertheless, Morgan’s detailed comparative study of kinship terminology and social organization made an enduring contribution to anthropology.

Conclusion

Morgan explained institutional evolution as a movement from group-based marriage to monogamy and from kinship-based gens to territorial state organization. Bachofen emphasized mother-right, McLennan polyandry and exogamy, while Maine placed the patriarchal family at the beginning. Their disagreements reveal that nineteenth-century evolutionism was not one uniform theory but a set of competing reconstructions of human institutional history.

2026 How is the theory of structuralism helpful in understanding the concepts of caste and gender? 2026 Critically discuss how culture determines human behaviour in the light of Leslie White's theory. 2026 Compare Edmund Leach's structuralism with interpretive anthropology of Clifford Geertz. 2026 Discuss, with appropriate examples, how basic personality types may lead towards building up of national character.

Want feedback on your answer?

Join the Anthropology workshop or get structured answer-writing guidance from VAID ICS.

Join Workshop Contact VAID ICS

UPSC Anthropology Optional 2015 — Paper I

28 questions

1(a) Archaeological Anthropology.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.3 Main branches of Anthropology > Archaeological Anthropology
2015Paper IFoundations of AnthropologyModel answer available

5(e) DNA technology in Medicine.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 12. Applications of Anthropology > DNA technology in diseases and medicine
2015Paper IApplied & Forensic AnthropologyModel answer available

5(b) Down's Syndrome.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 9.4(c) Autosomal aberrations > Down syndrome
2015Paper IHuman Genetics & Human BiologyModel answer available

1(e) Historical Particularism.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 6. Anthropological Theories > Historical Particularism (Boas)
2015Paper IAnthropological TheoriesModel answer available

1(d) Horticulture.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 3. Economic Organization > Modes of subsistence > Horticulture
2015Paper IEconomic & Political AnthropologyModel answer available

1(c) Incest Taboos.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 2.3 Marriage > Rules of marriage > Incest taboo
2015Paper IMarriage & FamilyModel answer available

5(c) Longitudinal method of studying growth.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 10. Human growth and development > Methodologies for growth studies > Longitudinal method
2015Paper IHuman Genetics & Human BiologyModel answer available

5(d) Menopause and its impact.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 11.1 Relevance of menarche, menopause and other bio-events to fertility
2015Paper IHuman Genetics & Human BiologyModel answer available

5(a) Palaeolithic culture.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 1.8(b) Cultural Evolution: broad outlines of prehistoric cultures > Palaeolithic
2015Paper IPrehistoric ArchaeologyModel answer available

1(b) Society and Culture.

10 Marks150 words
Syllabus: Paper I > 2.2 The Nature of Society > Society and culture
2015Paper ICulture & SocietyModel answer available