The origin of the family, private property and the state

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The origin of the family, private property and the state.
1884

The origin of the family, private property and the state. Following up on Lewis H. Morgan's research is astudy writtenby Friedrich Engels , which, beyond its canonical significance for Marxism , was a demanding theoretical throw which, together with the studies of Lewis H. Morgan, marked the beginnings of future family , economic and state sociology strongly influenced.

Origin and publication history

Engels wrote the script between the end of March and May 26, 1884; in October of that year it was published in Hottingen , Switzerland . It is based on Marxian manuscripts on Lewis H. Morgan's script "Ancient Society". By 1891 the script was published in Italian, Romanian and Danish, and a French edition was also planned. A fourth German-language, expanded edition followed in 1892 with a foreword by Engels', this foreword was first published under the title "Zur Urgeschichte der Familie ( Bachofen , MacLennan, Morgan)" in the magazine " Die Neue Zeit " . In this new edition, Engels tried to incorporate the current state of research; For example, he took up studies on the patriarchal house cooperative of the Russian historian Maxim Kowalewski , to whom he sent a copy with a personal dedication. In the second chapter there is also an almost ten-page supplement on the current forms of marriage and "individual sexual love". In Chapter 6, Engels added a criticism of Theodor Mommsen's idea of ​​the “Roman gentile order”. In 1894 the script was translated into Russian and was Engels' first legally published work in Russia.

The text in the Marx-Engels works follows the fourth expanded edition, Stuttgart 1892, published by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Dietz . The script is available in 13 languages ​​in the Marxists Internet Archive .

content

I. Prehistoric stages of culture

Following Morgan, Engels characterized three main epochs of social development, of which, like Morgan, he examined the first two and the transition to the third: savagery (or primeval communism ), barbarism and civilization . The first two epochs are further divided into a lower, middle and upper level following Morgan. The change of epochs is connected with the change in the production of life. The development of the family would be a process taking place alongside this development.

Savagery

Hand ax

According to Morgan and Engels, people lived on the lower level of wildness in order to protect themselves from predators, sometimes still on trees and fed on fruits, nuts, etc. Although no human societies live on this cultural level anymore, according to Engels it is “the descent of humans once admitted from the animal kingdom,… inevitable. ” At this level the language is said to have developed. At the intermediate level of wildness occurs the use of water and marine food and fire . Humans became less dependent on climatic conditions and began to spread along the waterways, as finds from stone tools testify. The first weapons such as clubs or spears , which made hunting possible, are introduced. The upper school began with the introduction of the bow and arrow , which enabled hunting as a regular source of food and a normal branch of work. The invention of the bow and arrow presupposes "long, accumulated experience and sharpened intellectual powers" , such as "the simultaneous acquaintance with a multitude of other inventions" . There are first branches and "a certain mastery of the production of livelihood" . Engels mentions "wooden vessels and tools, finger weaving ..., woven baskets ..., cut ( Neolithic ) stone tools."

"The bow and arrow were to savagery what the iron sword was to barbarism and the fire pipe to civilization: the decisive weapon."

barbarism

The lower level of barbarism begins with the introduction of pottery . “The characteristic moment of the period of barbarism” is “the taming and breeding of animals and the cultivation of plants.” While a general course of development that was the same for all societies could be described up to now, the specific continental conditions must now be taken into account. While in Eurasia "almost all animals suitable for taming and all types of cereal suitable for cultivation except one" could be found, in America only the llama would have been present of the animals that could be tamed in a part of the south, and of the cultivated cereals only maize would have been available. “These different natural conditions mean that from now on the population of each hemisphere takes its own course, and the milestones at the boundaries of the individual levels are different in each of the two cases.” The intermediate level begins in the east with the domestication of domestic animals, in the west with the cultivation of nutrient plants and the use of adobe and stone for building buildings. According to Engels, no society in America would have passed the intermediate level of barbarism until the “European conquest”.

Pottery depicting a chariot, around 520 BC. In Vulci , today's Italy
“The Indians of the so-called pueblos in New Mexico ... were at the intermediate level of barbarism; They lived in fortress-like houses made of adobe or stone, built maize and other nutrient plants, depending on location and climate, in artificially sprinkled gardens, which provided the main source of food, and had even tamed some animals - the Mexicans the turkey and other birds, the Peruvians the lama. In addition, they knew the processing of metals - with the exception of iron, which is why they still could not do without stone weapons and stone tools. ... In the east, the intermediate level of barbarism began with the taming of milk and meat-giving animals, while plant culture here seems to have remained unknown until well into this period. "

The upper level begins with the smelting of iron ore and "goes over to civilization through the invention of the alphabet and its use for literary recording." The upper level is said to be "richer in advances in production than all the previous ones put together." They belong to the Greeks of the heroic age , the Italian tribes shortly before the founding of Rome , the Germans of Tacitus , the Normans of the Viking Age ” , there are iron tools, the bellows , the hand mill , the potter's wheel , oil and winemaking in the most developed form ; the crafts through continuous metal working , car and chariots ; Shipbuilding with beams and planks; Architecture as art, walled cities , etc. The ploughshare pulled by cattle made " arable farming possible on a large scale".

At the end of the chapter, Engels summarizes the topic as follows:

“Wildness - period of predominant appropriation of finished natural products; Man's artifacts are predominantly auxiliary tools for this appropriation. Barbarism - period of acquiring livestock and agriculture, learning methods for increased production of natural products through human activity. Civilization - period of learning how to further process natural products, actual industry and art. "

II. The family

According to the classification of the cultural levels, Engels dedicates himself to the family, whose development runs parallel to the cultural levels, but is more difficult to define. One after the other, four types of family are distinguished.

Consanguineous family

The consanguineous family represents the most original and oldest form of family. In it, the different generations form marriage groups. There are no permanent partners within the marriage groups. All grandfathers and grandmothers are married to one another, as are all mothers and fathers, and later all sons and daughters. The consanguineous family is now extinct, but from the very different kinship names of some South Sea peoples it can be concluded that they must have existed once.

Group family

In the group family, not all generations are married to one another, but one gens with the other. This assumes that the population is organized into tribes, which in turn are divided into two or more gentes. The man of one gens is married to all the women of the other gentes of the same tribe. If children arise from such a relationship, they are members of the mother gene. Such a society is matriarchally organized according to Engels and forms the natural second level of the family in all primeval societies.

Mating family

The next level of the family is the mating family. This is the first time a couple is married to each other, separated from a larger group. In the mating family, however, the man is allowed to practice polygamy, while the woman must be faithful. But the man must be able to guarantee the care of his wives. If he can't, the woman expels him from the house and has to return to his gens. The marriage bond can easily be terminated by either party. In the event of a separation, the children belong to the woman and her gens.

The monogamous family

`Tabular overview

Matriarchy only dissolves with the last family form for the time being, the monogamous family. It resulted from the emergence of private property, which allowed men to amass great wealth and undermine a gens' communal housekeeping. The tribe and gentes dissolve and are replaced by families headed by a patriarch . The woman is only subordinate to the man from this point on, because for the first time she is economically dependent on him and housekeeping has been shifted to the non-public area, which socially degrades her to an employment.

reception

The writing is considered an example of evolutionism , i.e. the assumption of a uniform and uninterrupted higher development of mankind, for which numerous step models were presented from the middle of the 19th century in transferring the teachings of Charles Darwin to the social sciences and humanities.

expenditure

Original editions

  • Friedrich Engels: The origin of the family, private property and the state. Following LH Morgan's research. Swiss Cooperative Book Printing Company, Hottingen-Zurich 1884. (partly also 'Verlags-Magazin', Zurich 1884)
  • Origina family, proprietătei private și a statului. În legătură cu cercetările luî Lewis H. Morgan. In: Contemporanul. lașî, on. 4, 1885, nos. 17-21; on. 5, 1886, No. 22-24
  • L'origine della famiglia, della proprietá private e dello stato. In relazione alle ricerche di Luigi H. Morgan di Federico Engels. Versione riveduta dall'autore di Pasquale Martignetti . Benevento. Stabilimento Tipografico di F. de Gennaro 1885.
  • Friedrich Engels: The origin of the family, private property and the state. Following LH Morgan's research . 2nd Edition. JHW Dietz, Stuttgart 1886. Online
  • Familjens, Privatejendommens og Statens Oprindelse. I Tilslutning to Lewis H. Morgans Undersøgelser af Friedrich Engels. Dansk, af Forfatteren gennemgaaet Udgave, besørget af Gerson Trier . København 1888. Digitized
  • Friedrich Engels: The origin of the family, private property and the state. Following LH Morgan's research. 3. Edition. JHW Dietz, Stuttgart 1889.
  • Friedrich Engels: The origin of the family, private property and the state. Following LH Morgan's research. 4th edition. JHW Dietz, Stuttgart 1892. (= International Library 11)
  • Friedrich Engels: The origin of the family, private property and the state. Following LH Morgan's research. 5th edition. 8th-9th Tausend, JHW ​​Dietz, Stuttgart 1892. (= International Library 11)
  • Friedrich Engels: L 'origine de la famille, de la Propriété privée et de l'État. (Pour faire suite aux travaux de Lewis H. Morgan). Traduction française by Henri Ravé . Georges Carré, Paris 1893.
  • Friedrich Engels: The origin of the family, private property and the state. Following LH Morgan's research. 6th edition. 10-11 Tausend, JHW ​​Dietz, Stuttgart 1894. (= International Library 11)

Scientific editions

Research literature

  • Lawrence Krader : The Ethnological Notebooks of Karl Marx. (Studies of Morgan, Phear , Maine , Lubbock ). Van Gorcum, Assen 1972 (= sources and studies on the history of the German and Austrian labor movement. New series. Volume 4), ISBN 90-232-0924-9 .
    • Lawrence Krader (ed.): Karl Marx, the ethnological excerpts. Translated by Angelika Schweikhart. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1976 (= edition suhrkamp. Volume 800).
  • Editha Nagl: On the history of the direct emergence of Friedrich Engels' work 'The origin of the family, private property and the state' and its publication in Germany (1884-1894). In: Contributions to Marx-Engels research. Volume 3, Berlin 1978, pp. 125-142.
  • Ursula Herrmann: The processing of ideas from Friedrich Engels' book The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by August Bebel in his book ' Die Frau und der Sozialismus '. In: Contributions to Marx-Engels research. Volume 19, Berlin 1985, pp. 60-72.
  • Eike Kopf : On the history of the impact of Engels' book 'The Origin of the Family ...' in the 19th century. In: Contributions to Marx-Engels research. Volume 19, Berlin 1985, pp. 73-82.
  • Ursula Herrmann: Engels' writing 'The origin of the family, private property and the state' in the German social democracy from 1884 to 1895. In: Marx-Engels-Jahrbuch. 10. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1986, pp. 65-102.
  • Günter Guhr: About the origin and meaning of the writing by Friedrich Engels: The origin of the family, private property and the state. State Museum of Ethnology, Dresden 1984.
  • Eleanor Leacock : The origin of the family, private property and the state. In the Light of the Researches of Lewis H. Morgan, With an Introduction and Notes by Eleanor Burke Leacock. New York 1972.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lawrence Krader , The ethnological notebooks of Karl Marx (Studies of Morgan, Phear , Maine , Lubbock ) Transcribed and edited, with an introduction . Van Grocum & Comp., Assen 1972 ( Sources and studies on the history of the German and Austrian labor movement. New series . Ed. By the International Institute for Social History , Amsterdam Volume III.) And a not so good edition Karl Marx: Die ethnologische Exzerpthefte . Edited by Lawrence Krader. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1976 (edition suhrkamp 800).
  2. ^ Lewis H. Morgan: Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery, through Barbarism to Civilization Macmillan and Co., London 1877.
  3. ^ "L'origine della famiglia, della proprietá privata e dello stato" . Versione riveduta dall'autore, di Pasquale Martignetti. Benevento 1885 .; "Originea familiei, proprietatii ei private si a statului" . Traducere de Joan Ndejde, in the Jassyer magazine "Contemporanul" , September 1885 to May 1886; "Familjens, Privatejendommens og Statens Oprindelse" . Dansk af Forfatteren gennemgaaet Udgave, besørget af Gerson Trier . Copenhagen 1888. “A French translation by Henri Ravé, which is based on the current German edition, is under the press.” Cf. Engels: Der Ursprung der Familie, des Privatigentums und des Staats , p. 7. Digital Library Volume 11: Marx / Engels, p. 9357 (cf. MEW , vol. 21, p. 473–474)
  4. ↑ Die Neue Zeit (Berlin), 9th year, 1890–1891, 2nd volume, pp. 460–467.
  5. ↑ See MEW Vol. 21, pp. 60, 62-64, 127, 131, 136-137
  6. ↑ Like other people he knew ( Karl Kautsky , Eduard Bernstein , Victor Adler , Engelbert Pernerstorfer , August Bebel , Carl Schorlemmer ), he had sent the book to Maxim Kowalewski and wrote a personal dedication in the sent copy. This dedication can be found as a facsimile in many GDR and Soviet editions of the "origin" and reads "Максимъ Ковалевскій. В Лондон 14 октябрь 1891. от авторa. ”('Maksim Kovalevskij. In London October 14, 1891. by the author').
  7. ↑ See MEW Vol. 21, pp. 74-83.
  8. ↑ See MEW Vol. 21, pp. 119-122.
  9. ↑ http://marxists.catbull.com/xlang/marx.htm
  10. ↑ Engels refers to Homer's Iliad , around 730 BC. Chr.
  11. ↑ Stefan Hartmann: Evolutionism . In: Metzler Lexikon Religion. Present - everyday life - media. JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2005, vol. 1, p. 336 f.