eBook, 256 pages
Published Nov. 8, 2010 by Penguin Books.
The Origin Of The Family, Private Property, and The State
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The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), was a provocative and profoundly influential critique of the Victorian nuclear family. Engels argued that the traditional monogamous household was in fact a recent construct, closely bound up with capitalist societies and also changes in religious beliefs. Prior to that, promiscuity was the norm and hence family line could only be determined by the mother. As such, women occupied a place of higher social position. It was this position which was ultimately undermined by patriarchy and the rise of the State.
Much of the work takes as it's foundation the text Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery, through Barbarism to Civilization, by Lewis H. Morgan, and Karl Marx's notes on the same.
This book is written in a very accessible style, which is in part a credit to Engels and in part the …
The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), was a provocative and profoundly influential critique of the Victorian nuclear family. Engels argued that the traditional monogamous household was in fact a recent construct, closely bound up with capitalist societies and also changes in religious beliefs. Prior to that, promiscuity was the norm and hence family line could only be determined by the mother. As such, women occupied a place of higher social position. It was this position which was ultimately undermined by patriarchy and the rise of the State.
Much of the work takes as it's foundation the text Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery, through Barbarism to Civilization, by Lewis H. Morgan, and Karl Marx's notes on the same.
This book is written in a very accessible style, which is in part a credit to Engels and in part the translation by Alick West, as well as the subsequent revisions since it first appeared.