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The Origins of the Family

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The article argues that the family is not a natural or eternal institution but a historically specific product of class society, arising with the emergence of private property and the state. Its central thesis, drawn from Engels' Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State, is that the subordination of women and the monogamous nuclear family are direct consequences of the concentration of wealth in male hands and the need to transmit property to biological heirs. The contemporary crisis of the family — rising divorce rates, single-parent households, and the moral panic of politicians — is not a sign of moral decay but the disintegration of a social form whose economic basis is being eroded by capitalism itself. The article insists that women's liberation cannot be achieved through feminism that operates within capitalism, but only through the overthrow of class society and the socialisation of the means of production.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is rooted in Engels' application of historical materialism to anthropology, itself building on Lewis H. Morgan's evolutionary schema of savagery, barbarism, and civilisation. The key Marxist concepts deployed are:

  • The materialist conception of history: The production and reproduction of life — both the means of subsistence and human beings themselves — is the ultimate determining factor in social organisation.
  • Primitive communism: Early human societies were classless, stateless, and egalitarian, organised through kinship (gentes or clans) rather than through property relations.
  • The emergence of surplus and class society: The Neolithic Revolution, particularly agriculture and animal domestication, created a social surplus that could be concentrated, leading to the dissolution of the gens and the rise of private property, slavery, and the state.
  • The world historic defeat of the female sex: The overthrow of mother-right and the establishment of patriarchy are directly linked to the concentration of wealth and the need for inheritance through the male line.
  • The state as an instrument of class rule: The state emerged to sanctify and protect private property and class exploitation, replacing the communal decision-making of the gens.

The article situates itself within the classical Marxist tradition, defending Engels against later anthropological critiques (including from the Open University) by arguing that his main ideas remain correct despite specific ethnographic errors. It draws on Gordon Childe's work on the Neolithic Revolution and on ethnographic studies of surviving hunter-gatherer societies like the !Kung San to confirm the egalitarian character of primitive communism.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was written in 1995, at the height of the Tory assault on single-parent families under John Major, with Tony Blair's New Labour already echoing the same moralising discourse. The conjuncture is one of capitalist crisis and welfare state retrenchment:

  • Economic: The article notes that the gap between rich and poor in Britain was greater than at any time since 1886, and that working-class women were being forced into dead-end, part-time jobs as the welfare state disintegrated.
  • Political: The moral panic about the family — "back to basics" rhetoric — is exposed as a ruling-class attempt to blame working-class women for the consequences of capitalist crisis, rather than addressing the structural causes.
  • Social: The entry of women into waged labour on a mass scale (half the workforce in Britain) is recognised as progressive, but capitalism cannot provide the socialised childcare and reduced working hours necessary for genuine emancipation.

The article's relevance extends beyond 1995: the same dynamic of moralising about family breakdown while cutting welfare and attacking women's reproductive rights continues today, from austerity Britain to the US culture wars. The argument that feminism confined to professional advancement for middle-class women leaves working-class women behind remains a sharp critique of liberal feminism.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is a popular exposition of Engels' text rather than a development of new theoretical ground. The argument continues in several directions within the Marxist tradition:

  • Engels' Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State itself remains the foundational text, and the article directs readers back to it.
  • Gordon Childe's What Happened in History provides the archaeological and anthropological detail that the article draws on for the Neolithic transition.
  • The debate on women's oppression and class is taken up in other IDOM articles on feminism, the family under capitalism, and the question of domestic labour. The article's critique of middle-class feminism points toward a broader Marxist-feminist tradition (e.g., the work of Clara Zetkin, Alexandra Kollontai, and contemporary Marxist feminists).
  • The question of the family under socialism is left deliberately open — Engels' refusal to prescribe future forms of personal relationships is a position that subsequent Marxist writing has continued to explore, particularly around the socialisation of domestic labour and childcare.

Connections

  • Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State — the direct source text.
  • Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto — the passage on the bourgeois family and the "mere instrument of production" is quoted.
  • Lewis H. Morgan, Ancient Society — the anthropological foundation that Marx and Engels drew on.
  • V. Gordon Childe, What Happened in History — the archaeological supplement on the Neolithic Revolution.
  • Karen Sacks, "Engels Revisited" in Towards an Anthropology of Women — a sympathetic Marxist-feminist defence of Engels' core thesis.
  • Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin — cited for ethnographic evidence on the !Kung San.
  • The broader IDOM corpus on women's oppression, the family, and the transition from primitive communism to class society.

Key Quotes

  1. "According to the materialist conception of history, the key factor in history, in the last analysis, is the production and reproduction of life."

  2. "The overthrow of mother right was the world historic defeat of the female sex."

  3. "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."

  4. "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."

  5. "The position of working class women is fundamentally a class question, which requires the unity of the working class - men and women - in the common struggle to overthrow the capitalist system, based upon exploitation and inequality."

  6. "Monogamy, instead of declining, finally become a reality - for the men as well."