The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
2021/11/18 by Friedrich Engels, Ernest Untermann · 2 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Historical Economic and Social Studies
paper · doi:10.4324/9781003003595-17
openalex publication_date 2021/11/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Abstract
The communistic household, in which most or all the women belong to one and the same gens, while the husbands come from different gentes, is the cause and foundation of the general and widespread supremacy of women in primeval times. The more in the course of economic development, undermining the old communism and increasing the density of population, the traditional sexual relations lost their innocent character suited to the primitive forest, the more debasing and oppressive they naturally appeared to women; and the more they consequently longed for relief by the right of chastity, of temporary or permanent marriage with one man. The downfall of maternal law was the historic defeat of the female sex. The men seized the reins also in the house, the women were stripped of their dignity, enslaved, tools of men’s lust and mere machines for the generation of children.
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