Video Origins of the Family Private Property and the State

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument¶

The central thesis of Rob Sewell's presentation is that Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State remains an indispensable application of historical materialism to humanity's earliest development, and that its core findings — particularly the material basis for the emergence of class society, the state, and women's oppression — are essential for understanding both the contingency of capitalist social relations and the possibility of their revolutionary overthrow. Sewell argues that the family, private property, and the state are not eternal features of human existence but historically specific products of class society, and that their origins in the transition from classless to class society provide the theoretical basis for understanding their eventual abolition.

Theoretical Grounding¶

The analysis is grounded squarely in Engels' 1884 text, which itself synthesised Lewis Henry Morgan's anthropological research with Marx's notes and the broader framework of historical materialism. Sewell draws on several key Marxist concepts:

Historical materialism as a method for pre-history: The presentation insists that the materialist conception of history applies not only to recorded history but to the entire span of human development, including the period before written records. Engels' achievement was to extend historical materialism backwards to explain the transition from "primitive communism" to class society.
The material basis of social organisation: Sewell traces how changes in the forces of production — particularly the domestication of animals, the development of agriculture, and the emergence of surplus production — fundamentally altered social relations, replacing kinship-based communal organisation with class-divided society.
The state as an instrument of class rule: Following Engels, the state is presented not as a neutral arbiter of social conflict but as a product of irreconcilable class antagonisms, a body of armed men and administrative apparatuses designed to maintain the rule of the exploiting class.
The historical specificity of women's oppression: The presentation locates the origins of women's subordination not in biology or eternal patriarchy but in the transition to class society, where the monogamous family emerged as a means of ensuring paternity for the purposes of private property inheritance.
The dialectical relationship between base and superstructure: Sewell shows how changes in economic organisation (the emergence of private property and class divisions) gave rise to new superstructural forms (the state, the patriarchal family, legal codes) which then acted back upon and reinforced the economic base.

The presentation sits within the orthodox Marxist tradition, drawing on Engels' text as a foundational work of historical materialism alongside Marx's Capital and The German Ideology. It implicitly rejects both reformist and postmodern approaches that would either treat the family and state as permanent institutions or reduce Engels' analysis to a crude economic determinism.

Conjunctural Relevance¶

While the article is from 2013, its argument remains directly relevant to the current conjuncture for several reasons:

The crisis of the family under capitalism: The ongoing decomposition of the nuclear family — rising divorce rates, single-parent households, the crisis of social reproduction, and the intensification of domestic labour under conditions of austerity — demonstrates the instability of the family form that Engels identified as historically contingent rather than natural. The current period of inflation, housing crisis, and cuts to public services intensifies these pressures.
The state and the pandemic response: The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent crises have laid bare the state's role as an instrument of class rule, with governments across the world deploying emergency powers to protect capitalist accumulation while imposing the costs of crisis onto working people. This confirms Engels' analysis of the state as a product of class antagonism.
The rise of authoritarianism and the state's coercive apparatus: The increased use of police violence, the criminalisation of protest, and the erosion of democratic rights in Britain and internationally demonstrate the state's fundamental character as a body of armed men standing above society.
The persistence of women's oppression: Despite formal legal equality, women continue to bear the disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic labour, face a gender pay gap, and experience violence at epidemic levels. Engels' analysis of the material roots of women's oppression in the monogamous family and private property remains essential for understanding why capitalism cannot deliver genuine women's liberation.
The ideological offensive of "family values": The ruling class's promotion of the traditional nuclear family as a natural and eternal institution serves to naturalise capitalist social relations and deflect from the material causes of social crisis. Sewell's presentation provides the theoretical ammunition to counter this ideology.

Where the Argument Continues¶

The article is an introductory presentation, so it leaves several areas open for further development:

The detailed anthropological evidence: Engels relied on Morgan's Ancient Society, which has been superseded by subsequent anthropological research. The argument continues in more recent Marxist engagements with anthropology, including work that updates Engels' findings in light of modern evidence while maintaining his materialist method.
The specific forms of the state in different modes of production: The presentation focuses on the origins of the state in general. The argument continues in Marxist analyses of the capitalist state specifically, including debates about the relative autonomy of the state, the state's role in crisis management, and the relationship between the state and the capitalist class.
The family under actually existing socialism: The presentation does not address the experience of the family and women's oppression in post-capitalist societies, a subject taken up in debates about the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba.
The transition to communism: Engels' text concludes with the famous passage about the state "withering away" under communism. The argument continues in Marxist discussions of the transition period, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the material conditions for the abolition of the family and state.

Connections¶

This article should be read alongside:

Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State itself, which is the primary text being introduced.
Marx's The German Ideology, which lays out the materialist conception of history that Engels applies to pre-history.
Engels' The Condition of the Working Class in England, which applies historical materialism to the family and women's oppression under industrial capitalism.
Lenin's The State and Revolution, which develops Engels' analysis of the state and its abolition.
Alexandra Kollontai's writings on the family and women's liberation, which apply Engels' analysis to the revolutionary period in Russia.
Evelyn Reed's Woman's Evolution, which updates Engels' anthropological analysis with more recent evidence while maintaining the materialist framework.
Contemporary IDOM articles on the family, the state, and women's oppression, which apply Engels' method to current struggles.

Key Quotes¶

"The family, private property and the state are not eternal institutions. They are the products of a particular stage of historical development — class society. And like all previous forms of society, they too will pass away."
"Engels shows how the development of the productive forces — the domestication of animals, the development of agriculture, the emergence of a surplus — led to the breakdown of the old kinship-based communal society and the rise of class divisions."
"The state is not a neutral body standing above society. It is the product of irreconcilable class antagonisms. It is an instrument of class rule, a body of armed men designed to keep the exploited classes in check."
"The monogamous family, Engels shows, was not the result of some natural human instinct. It arose as a means of ensuring the paternity of children for the purposes of inheritance of private property. The world-historical defeat of the female sex was the result of the emergence of class society."
"If the family, private property, and the state arose at a particular stage of historical development, then they can also be abolished at a higher stage. The task of the working class is not to reform these institutions but to create the material conditions for their supersession."
"Engels' great achievement was to apply the materialist conception of history to the earliest period of human development, showing that even in pre-history, the driving force of history is the development of the productive forces and the class struggles that arise from them."