从家屋社会到政治社会——评摩尔根《美洲土著的房屋和家庭生活》

Abstract

作为美国民族学的先驱之一,摩尔根的学术追求饱含着对美国民族学发展的期许。印第安人研究,是他学术研究的开端,也是他进化论的实践基础。正是基于对印第安社会的研究,摩尔根对人类社会的进化有了较为深入的认识。作为《古代社会》的最后一篇,《美洲土著的房屋和家庭生活》一书的主要思想仍与之一脉相承。在本书中,他不仅从建筑的角度又一次证明了自己的进化论,而且对人类政治制度的进化提出自己的观点。通过在社会进化脉络之下论述印第安人的家屋社会的变化,摩尔根对氏族社会阶段的民主原则给出了更为具体的说明。文章以印第安人、希腊、罗马的社会发展及印第安人的家屋变化为线索,对摩尔根论述的民主制度发展进程进行了梳理,并在此基础上对家屋社会在发展过程中表现出来的民主原则进行了说明。

As one of the forerunners of American ethnology, Morgan’ s academic goal is full of expectationto the development of American ethnology. The study of Indians is not only the beginning of his academiccareer, but also the practical basic of his theory about evolution of human. With the research of Indian society,he had a deep understanding about the evolution of human society. As the last section of Ancient Society, themain theme of Houses and House-life of the American Aborigine is a lot in accordance with it. In this book,he proves the evolution of human life from the perspective of architecture. What’ s more, he gives his pointabout the evolution of the political system. Morgan put Indian houses into different evolutionary stages ofhuman life, and describes the change of these houses. Based on this description, he shows us the democraticprinciples of clan society. This article will be based on the change of houses of Indians and the developmentof Indians society, Greece society, Rome society and American society. The aim of this article is to make theMorgan’ s idea about the development of democratic system clear, especially to make a description about thedemocratic principles of house society.