RE: [Marxism] re Iroquois democracy

["Carlos A. Rivera" <cerejota@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 -----Original Message-----
From:  dirkstir@xxxxxxx
>
> Marx also was very intrested in the Iroquois.

I am not so sure as to very interested. As a matter of fact, a search the
"marxists.org" webiste shows up only to M&E files that mention the Iroquois:
"Origin of the Family" and a letter from Marx to Engels in 1882 (that one I
had not read).

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1882/letters/82_12_08.htm

(actually there is a third, from 1842, but it is irrelevant to the
discussion on Iroquois political organization)

Now, I do believe that both Marx & Engels, via the admited influence of
French Socialism, which had a high regard for the Iroquois confederative
model, were in turn influenced by it. Yet I have not read anything by M&E
that shows either of them as "very interested" beyond the intellectual
curiosity both had.

I do believe they where both insuficient in examining the Iroquois
socio-political organization as anything other than an historic artifact, as
a form of primitive communism, rather than as a model of political
organization worth examining and applying to modern conditions.

sks


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