John Wesley Powell:

The Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory paradigm,

Native Americans, and Westward Expansion

March 12, 2001

“A friend of the Paiutes and of Presidents”(Miller, 89)

John Wesley Powell was born into humble circumstances and rose to become a founding contributor to the evolving science of Archaeology in America. Powell shaped future generations of archaeologists, national policy on Western expansion, and helped form one of the early theoretical paradigms of the discipline: Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory. Through his philosophy on human evolution and technological advancement, Powell framed the divisions of human progress into 3 stages and termed them Savage, Barbarian, and Civilization in his tremendous essay From Barbarism to Civilization. As a social evolutionary theorist, Powell’s ability to communicate his ideas in such a succinct and persuasive way aided the adoption of his views by an entire scientific community. Powell had influential and successful peers such as Alexander Graham Bell and W. J. McGee, president of the National Geographic Society. Ethnology, Geology, and Archaeology, among so many of the sciences, would never be the same. In proof of that, his preserved brain is housed in the Smithsonian Institute. W. J. McGee best described his friend, “Things large to others were small to him. Things great to him were past the reach of most others.” (Miller, 114)

Born in Mount Morris, New York in 1834, Powell was schooled by George Crookham, a “self taught scientist”(Rabbitt, 4). Accompanying Crookham to fieldwork may have been the early inspiration that shaped the rest of his life. As he grew, he became involved with the Illinois State Natural History Society, which strengthened his interest in anthropology and history. During the Civil War, he fought in the Union Army as Captain of Battery F, 2^nd Illinois Light Artillery. A serious injury as a captain eventually led to the loss of his right arm. He left the Army as a Major, a title that stuck with him. After traveling with the Army and seeing more of the country, Powell accepted a professorship of Geology at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. Expeditions into Colorado would soon follow. He acted as curator of the State Natural History Society. During his days as curator, he traveled to the Rocky Mountains to do survey work for the State Natural History Society. He explored the Colorado River and produced an invaluable document of his experience in the form of The Geographical and Topographical Survey of the Colorado River of the West. Powell was the first man to explore its entire length (Meadows, 24). In 1874, Powell became a member of the Philosophical Society of Washington. In 1880, he served as President. Another of his many accomplishments is his establishment of the Bureau of American Ethnology. He acted as its director starting in 1879 until his death. In 1881, Powell became the second director of the United States Geological Survey, a branch of government he helped create, and held that office for 13 years. Through these powerful positions, he affected public policy. Powell’s ability to translate PSET theory into social policy worked to his advantage. He helped to establish Geology and Ethnology as important parts of anthropology, government and especially government expansion and mapping projects of the uncharted West. Powell served important roles in many influential agencies throughout his career, which also helped pave the way for his wide spread influence over United States public policy and over the scientific community in shaping methodological approaches to New World Archaeology and the Native population. His other professional memberships included the National Academy of Sciences. He founded the Cosmos Club and the Anthropological Society of Washington, where he was also President. His active professional life also led to his participation in the creation of both the National Geographic Society and the Geological Society of America. Powell was obviously an influential man and a well-respected scholar. Towards the end of his life, Powell was still active in pursuing his goals for Americanist Archaeology. He died in 1902 at the age of 69 while Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

“Human evolution is the result of the development of the arts, institutions, linguistics, and opinions…the result of his endeavor to secure happiness; and in all there is no natural selection but only human selection.” (Bettinger, 57)

Powell may have contributed a majority of the theoretical framework for New World Prehistory through Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory, but he did have previous influences. This rich academic environment, his education, and his interaction with statesmen and scientists helped shape his career and pursuit of science. Thomas Jefferson preceded Powell in archaeological interests. Jefferson gathered empirical data and was opposed to Buffon’s theories about the New World and it’s stifling characteristics. He sent out Lewis & Clark to collect ethnographic and geographic data regarding the West. Lewis Henry Morgan worked twenty years previous to Powell and studied the Iroquois Indians. His work first based stages of evolution on development of technology, something Powell would later use as the determinant of his 3-stage classification.

John Wesley Powell was responsible for the development of the Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory paradigm as we describe it today. The stage classification of savagery, barbarism, and civilization was first used by Powell and was laid out in a systematic fashion as a logical evolutionary model. Powell recognized Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory as a “moral basis for society” (Bettinger, 35). Humans experienced cultural development in sporadic progress and this was seen as evidence for the disparity in material culture between white men and Native Americans who were being treated as ethnographic data. During his first expeditions to the Colorado River, Powell encountered the Numic speaking people of the Great Basin. He would later return to study these people. In order to collect his ethnographic data, he learned the languages of the Ute, Shoshone, and Paiute people. He later wrote Introduction to the Study of Indian Languages and was active in trying to learn more about Native American culture before it disappeared; Powell was aware that their culture was being destroyed. This work showed that Powell was an excellent ethnographer and established his prominence in the field. Hunter-gatherers of the Great Basin were seen as typical of the barbarism stage of development. Powell used his findings to develop a parallel framework for social policy based on the fact that civilized man did not compete with nature or beast for resources. To Powell, this meant that manipulation and exploitation of the natural world should be institutionalized into public policy because it was apparent through science that that was the proper course of action. “Powell’s interest in anthropology had less to do with understanding primitive man than in understanding Western civilizations.” (Bettinger, 44) By studying Native culture, he hoped to improve it and use it as a comparison to exemplify Western culture. Powell considered hunter-gatherers a peaceful, primitive population to be administered as natural resources. As civilized men, he thought it was our responsibility to lift Native Americans to the level of American and European standards, whether the Native Americans wanted or not. Powell himself characterized white men in the West as “civilized travelers among the lower races of mankind”(Powell, 99). Powell also said that, “when civilized meets with savagery or barbarism it always teaches it…”(Powell: 1888, 101). In his journal article titled From Barbarism to Civilization, Powell repeatedly mentions instances of cultural diffusion from white men to Native Americans as being a process of degradation of the cultural trait to an earlier incarnation appropriate for use by a primitive culture. Such examples include a change from polytheism and nature worship to monotheistic. Since characteristics of the indigenous religion were incorporated into Native American Christianity, it was considered a lower expression of the social construct of religion: one of the institutions Powell stresses as indicative of progress. The social progression of savagery, barbarism, and civilization represented a continuum of technological development that marked the evolution of the species. It was a goal to be strived for, by Powell’s thinking and the dominant PSET. North America was viewed as wilderness: an unconquered force to be exploited and controlled. Native Americans, as part of that natural landscape, fit into Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory as less evolved representations of man that actually reflected the past in present time. As this attitude pervaded, ethnographic work gained popular support over archaeological pursuits. Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory both advanced scientific thinking and held archeology back from its full potential. PSET divided humans living in the New World into two categories. As examples of the progression from one into the other, he cited technological advancements. Certain diagnostic features characterized the three stages of development. The distinction between savage and barbarian is lithic and metallurgy practices. The distinction between barbarism and civilization is measured by the conversion from Bronze Age tools to modern iron technology. He said that the inventor of the electric light was superior to the inventor of the torch. He went on to say the same about other technologies such as the telegraph and the smoke-signal, the machine shop and flint production, and the railroad and the dogsled. This brilliantly crafted argument was hard to refuse at the time and was accepted as truth. No thought was given to the Eurocentric bias of technological invention as a symbol of evolutionary development.

Early stages of human development were categorized by subsistence living. Barbarians had a basic concern for only food and shelter, Powell posited. Late stage humans, or present day man of Powell’s time, were concerned with more esoteric concerns such as justice and freedom. Creation of material culture in the form of technology and adaptation to the environment above subsistence were used as diagnostic features of human development. Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory set out that adaptations for economy determined the “evolutionary trajectory” (Bettinger, 39) of human development. Powell measured technology mainly through what he termed, “arts, institutions, languages, opinions and mentations (Powell: 1888, 97)”. Powell viewed evolution as progress. In his writings he stated that civilized man did not compete with the environment, animals, and lower life forms for existence. In Competition in Human Evolution, Powell said that the only form of evolutionary competition left in civilization today was in the form of crime. Barbarians responded to crime with a `life for a life’ mentality. In civilization, crime is against the state, not kin, and is punished, not revenged (Powell: 1888, 113). In this way, Powell cleverly linked Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory to social policy through domestic law. This ability to enact social policy through Powell’s extensive network of colleagues based on his scientific findings played a role as a pertinent theme in his career. Powell also gave the example of warfare as an interpretation of PSET into social policy. Murder, in civilization, was reinterpreted in two ways: as warfare, a rational act of state, or in survival of the fittest actions, like murder, which were reinterpreted as crime. Thus, Powell created a continuum of progress using Indians and European culture as examples. Warfare eliminated the fittest of the species: young strong men. He used the concept of civilized warfare to distance, both philosophically and morally, civilization from the natural world. In the natural world, death of one weak creature ensured the success of a fitter creature. In civilization, death often struck the fittest leaving behind the weak to procreate. The laws of nature, namely Darwin’s evolutionary theory of natural selection, no longer controlled civilized man.

Powell compares technology to further illustrate the white mans superiority over Native Americans. For an example, he used corn processing. Native populations used baskets and grinding stones, while civilized men used a grain cradle and a reaper. Again and again, Powell would successfully paint a picture to his colleagues, students, and government agencies that Native Americans were an inferior version of white men that could be raised up by our intervention into their way of life. Powell describes Native Americans as brutes with sticks in their hands (Bettinger, 54). Men like Powell could give them better technology thereby speeding up their technological, cultural, and social evolution.

Powell also used kinship to demonstrate the use of Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory in social policy. He uses kinship as an example of the evolutionary progression of culture through who holds the positions of power. He hypothesized that in the savagery stage, the elder was the highest authority. As development continued, eventually, the noble class would be the highest authority. Lastly, he said that representatives of the people would be the highest authority. By using the model of European development, Powell was able to place Native Americans, again, at the bottom of the scale.

Powell also used kinship as another diagnostic feature that distinguished the three stages. People at the savagery stage would follow a maternal pattern, while barbarism would follow a patrilineal pattern evolving from the matrilineal system. Both stages of development would still value kinship in relation to status and authority.

Powell thought that civilized humans themselves and not the natural environment controlled human progress. In such, Native Americans were an integral part of Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory, as they represented the natural environment. Considered primitive, they represented the landscape. Powell captured the essence of PSET himself in the conclusion of his work From Barbarism to Civilization:

“The age of savagery is the age of stone; the age of barbarism the age of clay; the age of civilization the age of iron.

In savagery, beast polytheism prevails; in barbarism, nature polytheism; in civilization, monotheism.

In savagery, the powers of nature are feared as evil demons; in barbarism, the powers of nature are worshipped as gods; in civilization, the powers of nature are apprenticed servants.

In savagery, the beasts are gods; in barbarism, the gods are men; in civilization, men are as gods, knowing good from evil.” (Powell: 1888, 123)

Powell devoted his life work to Archaeology and Geology and contributed his genius to delivering his theories to the scientific community. His Arid Lands work was a massive comprehensive survey of the Western states, focusing on the Colorado River region. He assessed timber resources and was very concerned with water resources. In his arid lands work, Powell suggested that Indian populations be removed from the wilderness as part of a fire control effort. He had a blatant disregard for their rights to the land and to live within their own culture without outside interference. Powell did not recognize the validity of Native American culture as it was. He saw it only has a work in progress: something to be improved upon. Under PSET, white men were the caretakers of the landscape, and had the right to do what served their needs. United States legislation such as the Homestead Act of 1862 allowed for the expansion into native Lands of white explorers, settles, and scientists. In 1879, Powell wrote, “after setting forth the general facts relating to the conditions under which these lands must be utilized, I have taken the liberty to suggest a system for their disposal which I believe would be adapted to the wants of the country.” (Meadows, 56) They wreaked havoc on the Native American way of life, causing irreparable damage. Thadis Box, author of Arid Lands Revisited: 100 years after J.W. Powell, illustrates that Powell’s racist, Eurocentric bias was still effective 100 years later in his writing.

“Powell sought to reanchor western civilization through a social evolutionary theory that ultimately led back to the natural environment.” (Bettinger, 42)

Powell contributed a large part of the research and theorizing that made up what is today the history of Americanist Archaeology. Through his work in establishing PSET as the accepted theoretical paradigm, Powell and his Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory laid the groundwork for a new, more advanced methodology and guiding theory: the Normative Paradigm. Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory was concerned with stage level change and lacked time depth or any information about duration of any stage. This prompted a move in archaeology to study small-scale change. Seriation, a study of gradual stylistic change in artifacts as a reflection of cultural norms, was the “initial chronological innovation”(Bettinger, 63) of the normative paradigm. Time and change over time became the dominant concern as the science progressed. Powell was a major factor in the development and adoption of PSET by the scientific community. His survey work, ethnographic work, political and social policy work, and professional career all worked in concert to further science and the understanding of the complex social and material culture of a new, wild continent.

John Wesley Powell had great vision for science. He strived to improve his world through his scientific contributions; however, his work contributed to the marginalization of Native American populations into primitive relicts of the ethnographic past. Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory was a new paradigm, still developing, that maintained an ethnocentric bias. When one views another as inferior, it is easy to make decisions for them based on what one believes is best for them, without the input of those who will be affected. This is the situation that arose from PSET becoming the dominant archaeological paradigm. Powell worked diligently for his entire life to expand the breadth of geology, through his surveys and position as Director of the USGS, ethnology, through his involvement in the Bureau of American Ethnology, and archaeology, through his contribution of the founding concepts of savagery, barbarism, and civilization, that framed Progressive Social Evolutionary Theory.

Works Cited

Aton, James M.

1994 John Wesley Powell. Western Writers Series No. 114. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University.

Bettinger, Robert L.

2001 Reader for Anthropology 170: Archaeological Theory and Method. University of California, Davis.

Box, Thadis. W.

1977 The Arid Lands Revisited: 100 Years After John Wesley Powell. 57^th Annual Faculty Honor Lecture. Utah State University.

Darrah, William Culp

1951 Powell of the Colorado. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Meadows, Paul

1952 John Wesley Powell: Frontiersman of Science. University of Nebraska Studies No. 10.

Miller, Peter

1994 John Wesley Powell: Vision for the West. National Geographic April 1994: 89.

Powell, J.W.

1888 From Barbarism to Civilization. American Anthropologist I: 97

Powell, J.W.

1903 Classification of the Sciences. American Anthropologist 3: 601.

Powell, J.W.

1903 Sophiology, or the Science of Activities Designed to Give Instruction. American Anthropologist 3: 51.

Rabbitt, Mary C.

1980 John Wesley Powell: Soldier, Explorer, Scientist. United States Department of the Interior/ Geologic Survey.

Sarles, Jr. Frank B.

1968 John Wesley Powell and the Colorado River: A Special Study of the Colorado River Expeditions of 1869 and 1871. Washington D.C.: National Park Service.

Terrell, John Upton.

1969 The Man Who Rediscovered America: A biography of John Wesley Powell. New York: Weybright and Talley