Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2723

Extracts from (incomplete) penned letter from Spencer MacCallum, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

November, 1957

 

 

Dear Popdaddy,

 

… Say, P.D., next time you write, tell me how your new glasses are. I’ve been wondering all fall if they were helping your reading any — especially since the last book I sent you had such small print. I hope you’re enjoying Radcliffe-Brown as much as I do. He didn’t catch sight of modern contractual organization, but he sure had a lot of insight into primitive organization — which is of course background for more sophisticated social (societal) organization.

 

     In studying kinship this fall, I’ve come across an interesting fact. The kinship system of the early Anglo-Saxons was a rare type which occurred in very few other parts of the world, and I think there may be grounds for believing that, other things being equal, the transition to individualism could most easily be made from that type than from any other. So when you said the Anglo-Saxons in England were specially favored for proprietary administration by having migrated by sea, I think we might be able to say they were also favored by the very structure of their kinship organization. The reasons are roughly as follows.

                                

/Succeeding pages missing/