Why do anthropologists no longer accept Lewis Henry Morgan's stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization?

Anthropologists no longer accept Lewis Henry Morgan’s stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization because his theory of unilinear cultural evolution is considered scientifically flawed and ethically problematic.1

Morgan’s framework relied on the assumption that all human societies follow a single, inevitable path of progress toward a Western ideal, ranking cultures in an artificial hierarchy of achievement. This approach is rejected for several key reasons:12

• Ethnocentrism and Bias: The theory was criticized as racist because it presumed that some peoples were more "evolved" than others, using contemporary industrial societies as the pinnacle of human development.34
• Cultural Particularism: Led by Franz Boas, anthropologists shifted toward cultural particularism, which emphasizes that each culture has a unique history and is equally capable of meeting the needs of its members.24
• Lack of Empirical Support: Rather than following a universal sequence, societies change unpredictably due to migration, borrowing, and local ecological adaptations.34

While Morgan’s insights into technological development remain historically significant, his rigid evolutionary stages are viewed as an obsolete attempt to impose a "natural order" on the diverse history of human societies.15