Perhaps the next most distinctive work is that of Lewis H. Morgan and his follower, Adolph Bandelier. Morgan's work stands out as one of the world's great contributions to anthropology and sociology. His theories of marriage and the origin of society broke new ground, but they were all based upon concrete studies among living Indian tribes. Bandelier, inspired by Morgan's genius, made a critical examination of Spanish historical sources of data upon the organization of native society in Mexico City, for the first time making it evident that American native culture from the highest to the lowest had a common basis and in all probability a single origin. However, Bandelier's greatest work was among the ruin strewn mesas and deserts of southwestern United States, where he skillfully combined documentary data and native tradition with the objective study of the ruins themselves. Though essentially pioneer work, these studies of Bandelier will ever remain the great syn thetic classics in American anthropology.
The next great concern of American an thropologists has been the relative antiquity of man's first appearance in America and the es tablishment of a chronology for his subsequent career. The most important advance in this direction was the deciphering of prehistoric in scriptions found upon the famous ruined cities of the Maya in Yucatan and their co-ordina tion with our own calendar, according to which we are able to establish dates as early as 200 B.C. Yet in the development of chronologies based upon archaeological stratification, little progress has been made in sharp contrast to what has been achieved in western Europe.
However, there is now a newly-awakened inter est in chronological research and new develop ments may be expected at any moment. See ARCHEOLOGY; INDIANS; MOUND BUILDERS.
Bibliography.—Bandelier, Adolph F., (On the Distribution and Tenure of Lands and the Customs with Respect to Inheritance, among the Ancient Mexicans' (11th Annual Report, Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. II, No. 2, pp. 3 Cambridge 1878) ; 'Social Organization an Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans' (12th Annual Report, Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. II, No. 3, Cambridge 1879) • Report of In vestigations among the Indians of the South western United States, carried on mainly in the years from 1880 to 1885' (Papers, Archaeologi cal Institute of America, American Series, Vol. III, Cambridge 1890) ; Boas, Franz, of American Indian Languages' (Bulletin 40, Bureau' of American Ethnology, Washington 1911) ; Morgan, Lewis H., (An cient Society or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization' (New York 1878) ; Morley, Sylvanus Griswold, An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs' (Bul letin 57, Bureau of American Ethnology, Wash ington 1915) ; Wissler, Clark, 'The American Indian' (an introduction to the Anthropology of the New World, New York 1917).