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How did Johann Jakob Bachofen and Lewis Henry Morgan study marriage and kinship?

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A Hindu couple in elaborate gold headdresses and traditional attire is blessed by a priest during their wedding ceremony in Bali, Indonesia, with ceremonial offerings on the table. — Marriage A Hindu couple being blessed by a priest during their wedding ceremony, Bali, Indonesia.

Johann Jakob Bachofen and Lewis Henry Morgan were 19th-century theorists who pioneered the comparative study of kinship and cultural evolution. Both scholars sought to trace the historical development of family forms from "primitive" origins to the "civilized" monogamous family.12

Johann Jakob Bachofen

A Swiss jurist, Bachofen analyzed ancient Roman law and the symbolism of classical tombs to study early human life. In his influential work Das Mutterrecht (1861), he proposed that matriarchy—or "mother right"—historically preceded "father right". His research emphasized the role of religion and symbolism in shaping early social institutions.31

Lewis Henry Morgan

An American ethnologist, Morgan utilized fieldwork among the Iroquois to study kinship. He categorized kinship terminology into "descriptive" and "classificatory" systems, arguing that the latter reflected earlier stages of group marriage. In Ancient Society (1877), he linked the evolution of family structures to technological advancements and the development of property ownership.12

While their specific evolutionary stages—such as "primitive promiscuity"—are now considered obsolete, their work established the study of kinship as a central pillar of anthropology and highlighted the fundamental distinction between the social recognition of motherhood and fatherhood.12