From J. F. McLennan 30 November 1880
Hayes Common
Novr. 30 1880.
My dear Mr. Darwin,
I have not seen the work you mention & will be much obliged by your lending it to me.1
I know both writers however; Fison from Morgan’s paper; & Hewitt from a paper in Smyth’s “Aborigines of Victoria” I had hoped I had written my last word on Australian Kinship on which I prepared about three years ago a chapter of some length for my book. But I had better see all they have to say. It is a deplorable instance of the helplessness of the human mind when speculating on false facts; & nearly all the so called facts about the Kamilaroi, Baralong &c, are obvious mistakes of observation. Besides this these excellent men are under the guidance of Mr. Morgan whose system, I say it deliberately, turns on a falsehood without uttering which he could not have moved. “When addressing a person who is not a relative they say my friend”.2 Lafilaū, from whom he mainly took his account of the Iroquois (without acknowledgement) says expressly the contrary & so without exception do all the Jesuit fathers.3 Where ever you find “the classificatory” system you find all strangers addressed by terms of relationship indicative of the respect sought to be paid to them. “My father” “My uncle” “My brother” &c..
I have been very ill since Thursday last.4 This afternoon I feel better. My diet is now milk & lime water!
Thank Dr. Frank for the copies of Nature & with kindest regards from my wife5 & self to you & Mrs. Darwin I am always | Yours sincerely J. F McLennan
Footnotes
Bibliography
Fison, Lorimer and Howitt, Alfred William. 1880. Kamilaroi and Kurnai: group-marriage and relationship, and marriage by elopement, drawn chiefly from the usage of the Australian aborigines. Also the Kurnai tribe, their customs in peace and war. Melbourne: G. Robertson.
Lafitau, Joseph François. 1724. Mœurs des sauvages ameriquains comparées aux mœurs des premiers temps. 2 vols. Paris: Saugrain l’aîné and Charles Estienne Hochereau.
Morgan, Lewis Henry. 1851. League of the Ho-de’-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois. Rochester: Sage & Brother.
Morgan, Lewis Henry. 1872. Australian kinship. [Read 12 March 1872.] Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 8 (1868–73): 412–38.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Smyth, Robert Brough. 1878. The aborigines of Victoria: with notes relating to the habits of the natives of other parts of Australia and Tasmania. Melbourne: John Ferres.
Summary
Thanks for reference [to Lorimer Fison and A. W. Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai (1880)].
Irate against L. H. Morgan.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12877
- From
- John Ferguson McLennan
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Hayes Common Kent
- Source of text
- DAR 171: 26
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12877,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12877.xml