Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines

by Lewis Henry Morgan

When we attempt to understand the "Palace at Palenque" or the Governor's House at Uxmal, as the residences of Indian potentates, they are wholly unintelligible; but as communal joint-tenement houses, embodying the social, the defensive, and the communal principles, we can understand how they could have been created, and so elaborately and laboriously finished. It is evident that they were the work of the people, constructed for their own enjoyment and protection. Enforced labor never created them. On the contrary, it is the charm of all these edifices, roomy, and tasteful and remarkable as they are, that they were raised by the Indians for their own use, with willing hands, and occupied by them on terms of entire equality. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are emphatically the three great principles of the gens, and this architecture responds to these sentiments. And it is highly creditable to the Indian mind that while in the Middle Status of barbarism they had developed the capacity to plan, and the industry to rear, structures of such architectural design and imposing magnitude.

I have now submitted all I intended to present with respect to the house architecture of the American aborigines. It covers but a small part of a great subject. As a key to the interpretation of this architecture, two principles, the practice of hospitality and the practice of communism in living, have been employed. They seem to afford a satisfactory explanation of its peculiar features in entire harmony with Indian institutions. Should the general reader be able to acquiesce in this interpretation, it will lead to a reconstruction of our aboriginal history, now so imperatively demanded.

[Relocated Footnote: Whether the Indian tribes of any part of North America had learned to quarry stone to use for building purposes, is still a question. In New Mexico there is no evidence that they quarried stone. They picked up and used such stones as were found in broken masses at the base of cliffs, or as were found on the surface and could be easily removed from their bed. In Central America, if anywhere they must have quarried stone, in the strict sense of this term, but as yet there is no decisive evidence of the fact. It will be necessary to find the quarries from which the stones were taken, with such evidence of their having been worked as these quarries may exhibit. The stones used in the edifices in Yucatan and Central America are represented as a "soft coralline limestone," and, in some cases, as in that of the Copan Idols, so called, of a "soft grit stone." It requires the application of more than ordinary intelligence and skill to quarry stone, even of this character. The native tribes had no metals except native copper gold and silver, and these were without the harness requisite for a lever or chisel; and they had no explosives to use in blasting. Other agencies may have been used. We find the stone lintel for the doorway beyond their ability for ordinary use, and that for the want of it, they were unable to erect permanent structures in stone. The art of quarrying stone is gained by mankind before civilization is gained, but it must commence in rude form before more effective means are discovered through experience. If any of the American Indian tribes had advanced to this knowledge, and possessed the skill and ability to quarry stone, it is important that the fact should be established, and that they should have credit for the progress in knowledge implied by this skill and ability. Dressed stone from the walls at Uxmal, Palenque, and elsewhere in Yucatan and Central America should be proved by applying the square to find whether a level surface and a true angle were formed upon them. It should also be ascertained whether the walls are truly vertical, and also whether they had learned to make a mortar of quicklime and sand. Before our adventurous writers use in connection with our native tribes and their works such terms as "civilization, great cities, palaces, and temples," and apply such imposing titles as "king, prince, and lord" to Indian chiefs, they should be prepared to show that some at least of their tribes had learned the use of wells and how to dig them, and how to quarry stone, to prepare a mortar of lime and sand; to form a right angle and a level face upon a stone, and lay up vertical walls. These necessary acquisitions precede the first beginnings of civilization.]

INDEX.

A.

Abert, J. W., cited
Aboriginal history perverted
Acosta, J. de, cited
Adair, J., cited
Adobe houses, ruins of
mortar
Aleuts, communal dwellings
hospitality of the
Altars, Mound-Builders'
Amidas, P.
Ancient society, uniformity in the plan of
Anonymous Conqueror
Arroyo pueblo
Arickarees
Athenian tribes, coalescence of
Atolli
Aztec Confederacy
Aztecs, cremation among the
eating customs of the
extravagant accounts concerning the
governmental institutions of the
houses of the
social system of the

B.

Bachofen, Professor
Bancroft, H. H.
cited
Bandelier, A. F., cited
Barlow, Arthur
Bartram, John, cited
Brasseur de Bourbourg, C. E.

C.

Calpulli
Caribs, communal dwellings of the
houses of the
Carver, J., cited
Casa Cerrada or closed house
Castanyada, S. de N., cited
Catlin, G., cited
Champlain, S. de, cited
Chiapas, village of
Chickasas, gentes and phratries
Chilluckittequaw, hospitality of the
Chimneys, absence of
unknown in Yucatan and Central America
Chinooks, houses of the
Chocta, gentes and phratries
Chopunish, house of the
Cibola, Seven Cities of
site of the
Clahclellahs, houses of the
Clan, the Scottish
Clarke, J. S.
Clatsops, houses of the
Clavigero, F. S. cited
Columbus, Christopher
Communal dwellings
of tribes in Lower Status of barbarism
of tribes in savagery
of Village Indians of New Mexico
Communism among ancient Mexicans
in living
in relation to dwellings
Confederacies, origin of
Confederacy confined to a common language
Iroquois. See Iroquois Confederacy.
of the Aztecs
Creek
Dakota
Moki
Ottawa
the nearest analogue of nation
Copan grave posts
idols
Coronado, F. V., cited
Core used in the architecture of Yucatan
Cortez, F.
cited
Coues, E., cited
Creek Confederacy
Creek Indians, communal dwellings of the
Crees
Cremation among Mound-Builders
practice of, among the Aztecs
Mayas
Tlascalans
Crossman, Captain, cited
Culture periods
Curia, the Roman
Cutler, J. G.