The Origin of the Family
The Origin of the Family: Private Property and the State Friedrich Engels,
Publisher: University Press of the Pacific
ISBN: 0898754690
DDC: 301
Edition: Paperback; 2001-07
Summary:
“An eternal being created human society as it is today, and
submission to ‘superiors’ and ‘authority’ is imposed on the ‘lower’
classes by divine will.” This suggestion, coming from the pulpit,
platform and press, has hypnotized the minds of men and proves to be
one of the strongest pillars of exploitation. The history of the
family dates from 1861, the year of the publication of Bachofen’s
“Mutterrecht” (maternal law) Engles makes the following propositions:
1. That in the beginning people lived in unrestricted sexual
intercourse, which he dubs, not very felicitously, hetaerism. 2. That
such an intercourse excludes any absolutely certain means of
determining parentage; that consequently descent could only be traced
by the female line in compliance with maternal law – and that this
was universally practiced by all the nations of antiquity. 3. That
consequently women as mothers, being the only well known parents of
younger generations, received a high tribute of respect and
deference, amounting to a complete women’s rule (gynaicocracy),
according to Bachofen’s idea. 4. That the transition to monogamy,
reserving a certain woman exclusively to one man, implied the
violation of the primeval religious law (i.e., practically a
violation of the customary right of all other men to the same woman),
which violation had to be atoned for its permission purchased by the
surrender of the women to the public for a limited time.
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