of mankind
into three main epochs:--savagery, barbarism and civilization. Each of
the two first ones he again divides into an under, a middle and an upper
period, each distinguishing itself from the other by certain innovations
and improvements, predicated in each instance upon the control over
subsistence. Morgan, accordingly, exactly in the sense of the
materialist conception of history, as established by Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels,--perceives the leading characteristics in the
development of society to be the changes that, in given epochs, the
conditions of life are molded into; and he perceives the changes to be
due to the progress made in the process of production, that is to say,
in the procurement of subsistence. Summed up in a few words, the lower
period of savagery constitutes the infancy of the human race, during
which the race, partly living in trees, is mainly nourished by fruits
and roots, and during which articulate language takes its inception. The
middle period of savagery commences with the acquisition of a fish
subsistence, and the use of fire. The construction of weapons begins; at
first the club and spear, fashioned out of wood and stone. Thereby also
begins the chase, and probably also war with contiguous hordes for the
sources of food, for domiciles and hunting grounds. At this stage
appears also cannibalism, still practiced to-day by some tribes and
peoples of Africa, Australia and Polynesia. The upper period of savagery
is characterized by the perfection of weapons to the point of the bow
and arrow; finger weaving, the making of baskets out of filaments of
bark, the fashioning of sharpened stone tools have here their start, and
thereby begins also the preparation of wood for the building of boats
and huts. The form of life has accordingly, become many-sided. The
existing tools and implements, needed for the control of a plentiful
food supply, make possible the subsistance of larger communities.

The lower period of barbarism Morgan starts with the invention of the
art of pottery. The taming and domestication of animals, and, along with
that, the production of meat and milk, and the preparation of hides,
horns and hair for various purposes of use, have here their start. Hand
in hand therewith begins the cultivation of plants,--in the West of
maize, in the East of almost all known cereals, maize excepted. The
middle period of barbarism shows us, in the East, the ever more
extensive domesticati