On Engels Origin of the Family

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument¶

The article argues that Engels' Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State remains a fundamentally correct application of historical materialism to humanity's earliest development, despite subsequent anthropological discoveries that have superseded some of Morgan's specific ethnographic claims. The central thesis is that the family, private property, and the state are not eternal institutions but historically specific products of class society, arising from the development of productive forces and the creation of a social surplus. The subordination of women is therefore not a transhistorical feature of human existence but a consequence of the overthrow of matrilineal descent and the concentration of wealth in male hands — a "world historic defeat" that can only be reversed through the abolition of class society itself.

Theoretical Grounding¶

The analysis is firmly rooted in the classical Marxist tradition, drawing on:

Historical materialism as method: The article insists that the production and reproduction of material life is the determining factor in historical development, even for the earliest periods where kinship relations appear dominant. This is a direct application of the base-superstructure model, but applied with sensitivity to the specific conditions of primitive communism where the "superstructure" of sexual relations appears to predominate precisely because the productive base is so undeveloped.
Engels' extension of Morgan: The article treats Engels' work as a pioneering synthesis of Morgan's anthropological discoveries with Marx's materialist conception of history. It acknowledges the limitations of Morgan's specific hypotheses while defending the overall evolutionary framework — savagery, barbarism, civilisation — as a materialist periodisation based on economic activity.
Gordon Childe's archaeological synthesis: The article draws heavily on Childe's What Happened in History to supplement and update Engels, particularly regarding the Neolithic Revolution, the role of women in early agricultural innovation, and the transition to class society through the extraction of a social surplus.
The Marxist theory of the state: The state is presented as an institution invented to sanctify private property, perpetuate class division, and legitimate exploitation — a direct restatement of Engels' argument in Origin of the Family.

Conjunctural Relevance¶

The article connects its historical analysis to the contemporary conjuncture in several ways:

Women's position under capitalism: It notes that women now constitute roughly half the British workforce, which is "enormously progressive" in Engels' terms, but that capitalism simultaneously forces working-class women into dead-end, part-time jobs while dismantling the welfare state. The gap between rich and poor is identified as greater than at any time since 1886.
Critique of bourgeois feminism: The article sharply distinguishes its position from "largely middle class feminists" who confine the question of women's oppression to male attitudes and seek advancement within capitalism — more lawyers, judges, MPs, company directors. This is presented as fundamentally different from the class-based approach that sees women's liberation as inseparable from the overthrow of class society.
Crisis of the family: The disintegration of the welfare state and the break-up of the family are interpreted not as moves toward equality but as products of capitalism's crisis, producing "the most glaring inequalities" rather than emancipation.
The strategic question: The article concludes with a practical political orientation — the need to involve working-class women in the labour movement through socialist policies, childcare provision, and the struggle for a planned economy that reduces working hours and allows full participation in art and culture.

Where the Argument Continues¶

The article leaves several areas underdeveloped that are addressed elsewhere in the IDOM corpus:

The specific mechanisms of the transition from matrilineal to patrilineal descent: The article states the fact of the transition but does not explore the internal dynamics or variations across different societies. This is taken up in other IDOM articles on primitive accumulation and the origins of class society.
The relationship between women's oppression and the reproduction of labour power under capitalism: The article gestures toward this but does not develop the analysis of domestic labour, the family wage, or the role of the household in reproducing the working class. These themes are explored in IDOM articles on Marxist feminism and the domestic labour debate.
The concrete programme for women's liberation under socialism: The article is appropriately cautious about speculating on the form of the family under socialism, but other IDOM texts and Against the Stream episodes have addressed transitional demands — free childcare, equal pay, reproductive rights — and their relationship to the revolutionary programme.
The critique of contemporary anthropology: The article notes that Morgan's work has been challenged but does not engage systematically with post-Morgan anthropology, Lévi-Strauss, or feminist anthropology. This is a gap that later IDOM articles have attempted to fill.

Connections¶

Engels, Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: The foundational text under discussion.
Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto: Quoted directly on the bourgeois view of wives as instruments of production.
V. Gordon Childe, What Happened in History: Used extensively to update and supplement Engels' account of the Neolithic Revolution.
Karen Sacks, "Engels Revisited" (in Towards an Anthropology of Women): Cited as a defence of Engels' main ideas despite specific ethnographic errors.
R. B. Lee, The !Kung San: Provides ethnographic evidence for the egalitarianism of hunter-gatherer societies.
IDOM articles on Marxist feminism and the family: The broader corpus includes treatments of the domestic labour debate, the history of the family under capitalism, and the strategic orientation of the revolutionary party toward women's struggles.

Key Quotes¶

"According to the materialist conception of history, the key factor in history, in the last analysis, is the production and reproduction of life."
"The overthrow of mother right was the world historic defeat of the female sex."
"The emancipation of women becomes possible only when women are enabled to take part in production on a large, social scale, and when domestic duties require their attention only to a minor degree."
"Monogamy arose out of the concentration of considerable wealth in the hands of one person — and that a man — and out of the desire to bequeath this wealth to this man's children and to no one else's."
"The impending social revolution, however, by transforming at least the far greater part of permanent inheritable wealth — the means of production — into social property, will reduce all this anxiety about inheritance to a minimum."
"Monogamy, instead of declining, finally become a reality — for the men as well."