[Marxism] Origin of Marriage

["Charles Brown" <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Carrol Cox

 Engels's book remains a fundamental Marxist text -- but it is fundamental
for the _way_ in which Engels looks at his material, and for the implicit
analysis of the modern world, _not_ for the empirical historical material
which it contains, most of which further scholarship has undermined or
corrected in various ways. Hence it certainly should be read and reread, but
it should be used with caution.

^^^^^

CB: Since the origin of the monogamous, male supremacist family, private
property and the state occurred thousands of years ago, and it is difficult
for archaeology to detect kinship and marriage rules in non-literate
cultures, I don't know that there is a lot of direct empirical evidence of
the origin of the monogamous, male supremacist family.

Mainly, anthropologist use the socalled comparative method, and assume that
foragers and gardeners in modern times have similar social structures to
those of ancient societies. Anthropologist Eleanor Leacock's introduction to
the International edition of _The Origin of the Family,etc._ reviews what
modern anthropology affirms, adds or modifies in Engels'and Morgan's data.

On the fundamental question of origin, Engels' thesis that "the" family,
private property and the state arise as an interacting complex together,
specifically with monogamy forced on women to assure inheritance of private
property by a man's offspring ( the world historic defeat of the female
sex)has not been overthrown by subsequent empirical evidence; it remains as
good an hypothesis as any, better than most. The important thing is that he
holds that monogamous male supremacy is not universal in human history ( nor
are private property and the state). So, as Carrol says his implicit
analysis for the modern world is cogent.



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