Lewis H. Morgan (1818-1881) - American ethnographer and historian. Ancient Society (1877) - the main work of the great American ethnologist, laid the foundation for a systematic study of the history of primitive society. "His book is one of the few works of our time that make up the era," Friedrich Engels said of Morgan's book. Morgan proceeded from the fact that the basis of the original human society was childbirth. Describing the original society as ancestral, Morgan sharply contrasted it with class society, or, as he called it, & # 96; political & # 96;. These, according to the scientist, are two different types of social organization. Family society is characterized by collective property, political - private property.