Origin of the family In Defence of Engels and Morgan

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The article defends the Engels-Morgan thesis on the origins of the family against its modern anthropological detractors, arguing that the materialist, evolutionary framework developed in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State remains fundamentally correct. The central claim is that primitive society was characterised by communism, matrilineal descent, and equality between the sexes, and that women's oppression arose historically with the development of private property and class society — not from any "natural" or eternal patriarchal order. The article insists that the dismissal of Morgan and Engels reflects not scientific advance but the class prejudices of bourgeois anthropology, which cannot tolerate the implication that class society is neither natural nor permanent.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws on several interconnected Marxist concepts:

Historical materialism as applied to pre-class society. The article follows Engels in applying the materialist conception of history to the earliest human epochs, arguing that the stage of development of the productive forces determines social organisation — including kinship structures and gender relations. Morgan's classification of savagery, barbarism, and civilisation is defended as approximating a materialist periodisation based on changes in food production.

The twofold character of production. Engels's formulation from the preface to The Origin is central: the determining factor in history is both the production of the means of subsistence and the production of human beings themselves (the propagation of the species). This allows the analysis to link kinship systems and family forms to the material conditions of social reproduction.

Primitive communism as a distinct mode of production. The article argues that hunter-gatherer societies were characterised by common ownership of land, generalised reciprocity, egalitarian political relations, and production for use rather than exchange — a social formation fundamentally different from class society.

The historical origin of women's oppression. The "world historical defeat of the female sex" is traced to the emergence of private property and the need for male heirs to inherit accumulated wealth, which required the overthrow of matrilineal descent and the establishment of patriarchal monogamy.

The article situates itself within the Marxist tradition that takes seriously Engels's Dialectics of Nature and The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, treating dialectical materialism as a method applicable to natural as well as social history. It explicitly positions itself against functionalist anthropology (Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown) and sociobiology, which it characterises as reactionary schools that naturalise class society and male domination.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was published in 2012, but its argument has enduring conjunctural significance:

The persistence of ideological attacks on Marxism. The article responds to a long-standing pattern in bourgeois anthropology of dismissing Engels and Morgan as outdated or empirically refuted. This is not merely an academic debate: the claim that patriarchy is eternal or natural serves to depoliticise women's oppression and undermine the case for socialist revolution as the necessary condition for women's liberation.

The revival of interest in primitive communism. The article notes that the concept of primitive communism — long dismissed by orthodox anthropology — is gaining acceptance among anthropologists such as Richard Lee, whose work on the !Kung San confirms the egalitarian, cooperative character of hunter-gatherer societies. This empirical vindication strengthens the Marxist case against those who claim Engels's thesis has been refuted by modern evidence.

The political stakes of anthropological method. The article identifies a broader ideological struggle within the sciences between materialist, evolutionary approaches and those that naturalise existing social relations. This mirrors the struggle within economics between the labour theory of value and marginalism, and within biology between Darwinian evolution and creationism. The defence of Morgan and Engels is thus part of a wider defence of scientific materialism against bourgeois ideology.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is itself a defence of a classic Marxist text, but several lines of argument remain open or are developed elsewhere:

The precise sequence of family forms. The article acknowledges that modern anthropological evidence does not bear out Engels's specific sequence (consanguine family → punaluan family → pairing family → monogamy), but argues this does not invalidate the broader materialist framework. A fuller treatment would need to engage with the evidence more systematically, as the RCI has done in other articles on the family and women's oppression.

The question of matriarchy. The article is careful to distinguish matrilineal descent from matriarchy, and to note that Engels never claimed the existence of matriarchal societies. However, it leaves open the question of whether societies approximating matriarchy existed, and notes that even the Iroquois — the closest example — had some subordination of women. This debate continues in Marxist-feminist literature and in RCI publications.

The transition from primitive communism to class society. The article describes this transition but does not develop a detailed account of how surplus production, exchange, and the emergence of the state transformed kinship-based societies. Engels's own account in The Origin remains the classic treatment, but subsequent Marxist archaeology (Gordon Childe, the Soviet school) has developed it further.

The relevance to contemporary women's liberation. The article argues that women's oppression arose with private property and class society, implying that only the abolition of capitalism can create the conditions for genuine equality. This argument is developed in other IDOM articles on feminism, the family under capitalism, and the strategy for women's liberation.

Connections

Primary texts: - Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State - Engels, The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man - Morgan, Ancient Society - Marx, Ethnological Notebooks - Bebel, Women Under Socialism

Contemporary Marxist anthropology: - Evelyn Reed, Woman's Evolution — defends matriarchy thesis - V. Gordon Childe, Social Evolution — materialist archaeology - Richard Lee, The !Kung San — empirical confirmation of primitive communism

RCI corpus: - IDOM articles on the family, women's oppression, and the transition from primitive communism - Against the Stream episodes on Engels's The Origin and on contemporary feminism

Broader Marxist tradition: - The debate on the Asiatic mode of production and the transition to class society - Marxist-feminist literature on the "domestic mode of production" and social reproduction theory

Key Quotes

1. "According to the materialist conception, the determining factor in history is, in the last resort, the production and reproduction of immediate life. But this itself is of a two-fold character. On the one hand, the production of the means of subsistence, of food, clothing and shelter and the tools requisite therefore; on the other, the production of human beings themselves, the propagation of the species."

2. "The communistic household implies the supremacy of women in the house, just as the exclusive recognition of a natural mother, because of the impossibility of determining the natural father with certainty, signifies high esteem for the women, that is, for the mothers. That woman was the slave of the man at the commencement of society is one of the most absurd notions that have come down to us from the period of Enlightenment of the eighteenth century."

3. "This gentile constitution is wonderful in all its childlike simplicity! Everything runs smoothly without soldiers, gendarmes or police; without nobles, kings, governors, prefects or judges; without prisons, without trials... There can be no poor and needy — the communistic household and the gens know their responsibility towards the aged, the sick and those disabled in war. All are free and equal — including the women."

4. "The reign of mother-right implied communism; equality for all; the rise of the father-right implied the reign of private property, and, with it, the oppression and enslavement of women."

5. "If Engels was alive today, he would, basing himself upon the latest discoveries, certainly make changes and modifications to his original thesis. However, those who attack him, are attempting to attack and discredit his scientific method, the method of dialectical materialism, as part of a general attack on Marxism."

6. "The dissolution of society bids fair to become the termination of a career of which property is the end and aim; because such a career contains the elements of self-destruction. Democracy in government, brotherhood in society, equality in rights and privileges, and universal education, foreshadow the next higher plane of society to which experience, intelligence and knowledge are steadily tending. It will be a revival, in a higher form, of the liberty, equality and fraternity of the ancient gentes."