Study

Guide for
Engels’

Origin of
the Family,
Private
Property
and the
State
Preparatory Reading

Pre-Capitalist Economic Formations, Marx 1857

Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, Engels
1876

Introduction and Prefaces

Introduction
Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Fourth Edition
Henry Morgan

Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

Chapter 1. Stages of Prehistoric Culture

Terms: Civilisation, Tribal Society.

Questions for discussion:

1. How do Henry Morgan's categorisations stand up to your own
knowledge of early societies, over a hundred years later?
2. What do you think are the essential truths of Morgan's
analysis that remain valid today?

Chapter 2. The Family

Questions for discussion:

1. What does “consanguinity” mean and what is meant by the
“consanguine family”?
2. Marx notes Morgan's observation about “systems of
consanguity” and says “the same is true of the political,
juridical, religious, and philosophical systems in general”. What
exactly did he mean by this?
3. What argument does Engels use to reject the idea that pair-
bonding was the form of family at the very beginning of human
development?
4. So far as you know, in what sense are all forms of family
known in human societies different from anything found, for
instance, among the primates, if any?
5. What vestiges of mother-right do you see in your own
modern society?
6. What do you know of the marriage practices, taboos, rights
of inheritance, and so on, in the history of the indigenous
people of your own country?
7. What, according to Engels, is the relation between
monogamy and the overthrow of mother-right?
8. What does Engels see as the cause for the fall of mother-
right and the institution of monogamy?
9. What do you make of: “The first class opposition that
appears in history coincides with the development of the
antagonism between man and woman in monogamous
marriage, and the first class oppression coincides with that of
the female sex by the male.”?
10. Do you think Engels regards monogamy as the highest
form of family possible, as the ideal form, so to speak? Or is
Engels hinting at future forms of family relationship beyond
capitalism?
11. What does Engels say is/will be the impact of capitalism on
the family?

Chapter 3. The Iroquois Gens

Questions for discussion:

1. What is the difference between gens and gentes?
2. How can we explain the close similarity between Greek,
Roman, American, Australian and other systems of kinship
during the period before the emergence of the state?
3. What do you know of the kinship systems which
operate(d) among the indigenous people in your own
country?
4. Can you explain in a common-sense way the 10 “laws” of
the Iroquois gens, given the kind of way the Iroquois
produced their living?
5. What do you think an Iroquois of the 16th century would
make of the notions of Freedom, Equality and Democracy, if
you had the opportunity to explain them?
6. Why was there no slavery among the Iroquois?

Chapter 4. The Greek Gens [The Rise of Private

Property]

Terms: Slave Society, Private Property.

Questions for discussion:

1. What similarities and differences do you see between
the ancient Greek constitution and the Iroquois
constitution?
2. What factors led to the decline of the Iroquois nation,
and what factors led to the collapse of the tribal
constitution in Greece?
3. How did inequality arise in ancient Greece, what form
did this inequality take, and how do you think it would
have been viewed by the people at that time?
4. What do you think a Greek of 600 BCE would make
of the notions of Freedom, Equality and Democracy, if
you had the opportunity to explain them?

Chapter 5. The Rise of the Athenian State

Terms: State, Commodity, Centralisation, Nation,

Money, Division of Labour, Class, Politics,
Democracy.

Questions for discussion:

1. What is the difference between the “people in
arms” and an armed “public force”, and do you
think an armed “public force” is something which is
feasible now or in the future?
2. What were the factors that brought about the
downfall of the old gentile constitution in Greece?
Which do you think was the most important?
3. What is relation between territory, kinship and
rights - in tribal times, in early Greece before the
time of Solon, and nowadays?
4. What rights did women have in ancient Greece?
5. Engels talks about the impact of commodity
production, money, markets, credit and debt on
ancient Greece. Could you say that capitalism
existed at that time? If not, why not?
6. What form of property did the constitution of 594
BCE attack and what form of property did it
promote?
7. In what way did the political revolution Engels
describes restore tribal rights and in what way did it
abolish tribal rights?
8. Why was this revolution called a political
revolution?
9. In what way was “the state was perfectly
adapted to the new social conditions of the
Athenians”?

Chapter 6. The Gens and the State in Rome

Questions for discussion:

1. As Engels points out, the early Roman
constitution was essentially the same as that of
the Iroquois, but what is/are the significant
difference(s)
2. Who were the populus and the plebs, what
were their respective political and economic
interests, and what is the nature of the revolution
which Engels supposes to have occurred?
3. In what way did the new Roman constitution
make sense in terms of how the Romans made
their living?

Chapter 7. The Gens Among Celts and

Germans

Questions for discussion:

1. Why does Engels see "lax" marriage and
chastity laws as evidence of the persistence of
elements of the gentile constitution?
2. To what does Engels ascribe the high status
of women among the Germans in the time of
the Roman Empire?
3. In the light of all the chapters up to here,
how would you describe the limits of the
gentile constitution?
Chapter 8. The Formation of the State

Among the Germans

Terms: Feudal Society.

Questions for discussion:

1. What did Engels means by “the Roman
state had become in the course of time
their worst enemy and oppressor”?
2. What was the problem with the Roman
system of large-scale agriculture?
3. Why, would you say, was there not a
revolution in Rome? Why did it collapse
without being replaced by a new and
higher social order?
4. What does Engels mean by “The
moment had come to transform the
military leadership into kinship”? and in
what way is the new system of society that
arose in Europe after the fall of the
Roman Empire essentially different from
both the Roman Empire and tribal
society?
5. In what positive way did the Roman
contribute to the conditions for the rise of
feudal society?
6. In what sense did the institution of
feudalism restore elements of tribal
society?
7. Given the way people made their living
in Europe at the time, how did the new
form of society make good sense?

Chapter 9. Barbarism and Civilization

Terms: Surplus Value, Labour Power,
Individualism, Distribution and
Exchange, Alienation, Necessity, Wage
Labour, Capital, Right, .

Questions for discussion:

1. Why was division into classes
impossible among (for example) the
Iroquois?
2. What brought about the rupture of
society into classes?
3. What conditions, in Engels'
opinion, brought about the
subjugation of women?
4. What conditions does Engels see
as laying the basis for women's
liberation?
5. In what way does Engels see the
subjugation of women as bringing
about the fall of the gentile
constitution?
6. From where and how and under
what conditions does the bourgeoisie
arise?
7. In what sense is the state a
product of society itself, rather than
something imposed on society from
above, and why does it appear to
stand above society?
8. In this context, what would you say
is the “essence” of the state?
9. “The highest form of the state, the
democratic republic ... no longer
officially recognizes differences of
property”. Is this true?
10. What does Engels mean by
“Universal suffrage is thus the gauge
 of the maturity of the working class”?
11. How would the state become “a
positive hindrance to production”?

Andy Blunden, 2002

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