THE ORIGIN
OF THE FAMILY,
PRIVATE PROPERTY
AND THE STATE

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  ^[1] The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State is one of the fundamental works of Marxism. The work is a scientific analysis of the history of human society in the earlier phases of its development. It covers the process of the breakdown of the primitive community and of the formation of class society, based on private property. It indicates the general characteristics of class society, and lays bare the particularities in the development of family relations in the different socio-economic formations. It also reveals the origin and essence of the state, and demonstrates the historic necessity of the withering away of the state with the final victory of classless, communist society.
    The book was written between the end of March and the end of May 1884. While examining the manuscripts of Marx, who had died in 1883, leaving Engels as his literary executor, Engels found an extensive conspectus, written by Marx in 1880-81, of the book Ancient Society by the progressive U.S. scholar Lewis H. Morgan. It contained many critical remarks and original theses by Marx, as well as supplementary material from other sources. From it, Engels convinced himself that Morgan's book confirmed the materialistic conception of history worked out by Marx and himself, as well as their views on primitive society. He then decided to write a separate work on these questions, taking into full account Marx's observations and some of Morgan's conclusions and data, as well as Engels' own research into ancient Greek, Roman, Irish and German history. Engels regarded this work as "in a sense, the execution of a bequest" by Marx.

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    The book was published in early October 1884 in Zurich, and the following, unaltered editions (the second in 1886, the third in 1889) were published in Stuttgart. In 1885 it appeared in Polish, Rumanian and Italian. Engels himself edited the Italian translation, as well as the Danish translation published in 1888. The first edition was also translated into Serbian.

    After Engels had gathered new material on the history of primitive society, he began in 1890 to prepare for a new edition. He studied all new publications on the question, including the works of the Russian scholar M. M. Kovalevsky. On the basis of new discoveries, especially in archaeology and ethnography, he made numerous changes and improvements in the original text and substantial additions, especially in Chapter 2, "The Family." These, however, did not affect Engels' conclusions, which new scientific discoveries had confirmed, and have since continued to confirm, so that they have lost nothing of their significance today, regardless of a certain lack of clarity, from the standpoint of modern science, on some particular points taken from Morgan's book (e.g., his division of periods of primitive history and the terms he used for this purpose).

    The fourth, improved and supplemented edition of The Origin of the Family was published in November 1891 in Stuttgart. Two further editions in Engels' lifetime, the fifth in 1892 and the sixth in 1894, were reprints of the fourth. The fourth edition was also the basis of numerous translations -- French (1893, edited by Laura Lafargue, Marx's daughter, and checked by Engels), Bulgarian (1893), Spanish (1894) and Russian (1894). The first English translation appeared in 1902.    [pub. note]

  ^[2] This refers to E. A. Freeman, Comparative Politics, London, 1873.    [p. 5]

  ^[3] Engels' preface to the fourth edition of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State was published with his permission before the edition itself. It appeared in Die Neue Zeit (No. 41, 1891) under the title "Concerning the Early History of the Family (Bachofen, McLennan, Morgan)."    [p. 6]

  ^[4] E. B. Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization, London, 1865.    [p. 8]

  ^[5] J. J. Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht. Eine Untersuchung über die Gynaikokratie der alten Welt nach ihrer religiösen und rechtlichen Natur [Mother Right. An Investigation of the Gynocracy of the Ancient

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World According to Its Religious and Juridical Nature ], Stuttgart, 1861.    [pp. 8, 35]

  ^[6] Aeschylus, The Eumenides, in the Oresteia trilogy.    [p. 10]

  ^[7] J. F. McLennan, Studies in Ancient History, Comprising a Reprint of "Primitive Marriage. An Inquiry into the Origin of the Form of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies," London and New York, 1886, pp. 124-25.    [p. 13]

  ^[8] Morgan's fourteen letters on the Iroquois, in the American Review, Nos. 2-12, 1847, and his League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee or Iroquois, Rochester, 1851.    [p. 13]

  ^[9] John Lubbock, The Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of Man. Mental and Social Condition of Savages, London, 1870.    [p. 15]

  ^[10] Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family, Washington, 1871.    [pp. 16, 48, 99]

  ^[11] Alexis Giraud-Teulon, Les origines de la famille, Geneva and Paris, 1874.    [p. 17]

  ^[12] Morgan, Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery Through Barbarism to Civilization, London, 1877.    [p. 17]

  ^[13] In August and September 1888, Engels visited the United States and Canada, accompanied by Edward Aveling, Eleanor Marx-Aveling and Carl Schorlemmer.    [p. 19]

  ^[14] See McLennan, Studies in Ancient History, London, 1876, p. 333.    [p. 20]

  ^[15] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 19. The references in the present English translation of Engels' work are to the Charles H. Kerr (Chicago) edition of Morgan's Ancient Society.    [p. 23]

  ^[16] Pueblo (derived from the Spanish word for people, community or village) was the name given by the Spanish conquerors to a group of Indian tribes having a common history and culture and inhabiting New Mexico (today northern Mexico and the southwest region of the United States). They lived in large communal fortified houses of five or six stories, each inhabited by up to a thousand people.    [pp. 27, 110]

  ^[17] This refers to Caesar's The Gallic War and Tacitus' Germania.    [p. 29]

  ^[18] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 444.    [p. 33]

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  ^[19] Charles Letourneau, L'évolution du mariage et de la famille, Paris, 1888.    [p. 36]

  ^[20] See Giraud-Teulon, Les origines du mariage et de la famille, Geneva and Paris, 1884, p. xv.    [p. 36]

  ^[21] Letourneau, op. cit., p. 41.    [p. 37]

  ^[22] Alfred Espinas, Des sociétés animales, Paris, 1877.    [p. 37]

  ^[23] Edward Westermarck, The History of Human Marriage, London and New York, 1891, pp. 70-71.    [p. 41]

  ^[24] The letter from Marx has not survived. Engels mentioned it in a letter to Karl Kautsky, dated April 11, 1884.    [p. 41]

  ^[25] This refers to Richard Wagner's operatic tetralogy, The Ring of the Nibelungs, for which the composer drew on the Scandinavian epic, the Edda, and on the German epic, the Nibelungenlied (Song of the Nibelungs). (See The Valkyrie, First Day, from the tetralogy, The Ring of the Nibelungs, Act II.)
    The Nibelungenlied is a major German epic based on myths and sagas from the time of the migrations from the third to the fifth century. The version known today was recorded around 1200.    [p. 41]

  ^[26] The collection of Scandinavian songs and sagas known as the Edda has come down to modern times in two forms. One, a thirteenth century manuscript discovered in 1643 by the Icelandic bishop Brynjólf, Sveinsson, is known as the Elder Edda. The other, put together by the early-thirteenth-century Icelandic poet and chronicler Snorri Sturluson, is called the Younger Edda. The Edda reflects Scandinavian society during the time of the disintegration of the gentile system and of the migrations of the Germanic peoples. In these works we encounter characters and plots from the folk literature of the ancient Germans.
    Ögisdrecka -- a song from the Elder Edda. Here Engels cites from stanzas 32 and 36.    [p. 42]

  ^[27] Aesir and Vanir -- two groups of gods in Norse mythology. The Ynglinga Saga is the first saga in the book Heimskringla, written by Snorri Sturluson about Norwegian kings from ancient times to the 12th century. Here Engels cites from Chapter 4 of this saga.    [p. 43]

  ^[28] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 434.    [p. 43]

  ^[29] See Bachofen, op. cit., pp. XXIII and 385 ff.    [p. 45]

  ^[30] Caesar, op. cit., Bk. V, Ch. 14.    [p. 45]

  ^[31] J. F. Watson and J. W. Kaye, The People of India, London, 1868, Vol. II, p. 85.    [p. 46]

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  ^[32] Australian class system here means the system of marriage groups into which most of the Australian tribes were divided. There were four to eight such classes in a tribe, each divided into a male and a female section. The men of one class could only marry women of a specific other class.    [p. 46]

  ^[33] The result of investigations by Lorimer Fison and A. W. Howitt is given in their book, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane, 1880.    [p. 49]

  ^[34] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 468.    [p. 53]

  ^[35] From a letter of Arthur Wright, dated May 19, 1874, as quoted in Morgan's Ancient Society, p. 464 n. It has since been published in full in the magazine American Anthropologist, New Series, Menasha, Wisconsin, U.S.A., 1933, No. I, pp. 138-40.    [p. 55]

  ^[36] See H. H. Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, New York, 1875, Vol. I, pp. 352-53.    [p. 56]

  ^[37] Saturnalian feasts were popular festivals in ancient Rome, named after the Roman god Saturn and held at the time of winter solstice, after the year's harvest had been brought in. During the festival there was a temporary relaxation of class and sexual barriers. The term "Saturnalian feast" has since come to signify any orgiastic feast.    [p. 57]

  ^[38] This refers to the so-called "Guadalupian Motto" -- a decree issued on April 21, 1486 by the Spanish king Ferdinand V ("the Catholic") under the pressure of a peasant uprising in Catalonia. Here the king presented himself in the guise of mediator between the rebellious peasantry and the feudal lords. The decree envisioned the abolition of serfdom and a number of feudal duties which the peasants hated most, including the right of the first night; for which the peasants had to pay large sums in ransom.    [p. 59]

  ^[39] Samuel Sugenheim, Geschichte der Aufhebung der Leibeigenschaft und Hörigkeit in Europa bis um die Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts [History of the Abolition of Serfdom and Bondage in Europe Up to the Middle 19th Century ], St. Petersburg, 1861, p. 35.    [p. 59]

  ^[40] Maxim Kovalevsky, Tableau des origines et de l'évolution de la famille et de la propriété, Stockholm, 1890.    [p. 65]

  ^[41] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 474.    [p. 65]

  ^[42] Ibid., p. 478.    [p. 66]

  ^[43] The reference is to Kovalevsky's work Primitive Law, Book I, "The Gens," in Russian, Moscow, 1886, which cites data on the family

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community in Russia collected by Orshansky in 1875 and Yefimenko in 1878.    [p. 68]

  ^[44] The Pravda of Yaroslav is the first part of the old version of the Russkaya Pravda, the code of laws of ancient Rus, formulated in the 11th and 12th centuries on the basis of common law. It reflected the socio-economic relations of that society.    [p. 68]

  ^[45] The Dalmatian laws were in force from the 15th to the 17th century in Poljica, a region of Dalmatia (today, in Yugoslavia). They were also known as the Poljican Statute.    [p. 68]

  ^[46] Andreas Heusler, Institutionen des deutschen Privatrechts [Institutes of German Private Law ], Leipzig, 1886, Vol. II, p. 271.    [p. 68]

  ^[47] Mentioned in Strabo, Geography, Bk. XV, Ch. 1.    [p. 68]

  ^[48] The calpullis described by Alonso Zurita was a communal household of Mexican Indians prevailing at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Each household community, whose members were of the same lineage, possessed a piece of land in common which they could neither alienate nor divide among their heirs. Zurita's report on the calpullis is included in H. Ternaux-Compans, Voyage, relations et mémoires originaux pour servir à l'histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique, Paris, 1840, Vol. XI, pp. 50-64.    [p. 69]

  ^[49] See Heinrich Cunow, "Die altperuanischen Dorf- und Markgenossenschaften" ["The Ancient Peruvian Village and Mark Communities"], in Das Ausland, October 20 and 27, and November 3, 1890.    [p. 69]

  ^[50] This refers to Article 230 of the French Code civil introduced under Napoleon I in 1804.    [p. 71]

  ^[51] See Homer, Odyssey, Bk. XXI, 11. 350 ff.    [p. 71]

  ^[52] See Aeschylus, Agamemnon in the Oresteia trilogy.    [p. 71]

  ^[53] See Plutarch, Sayings of Lacedaemonian Women, Ch. 5; and G. P. Schoemann, Griechische Alterthümer [Greek Antiquities ], Berlin, 1855, Vol. I, p. 268.    [p. 73]

  ^[54] Spartiates -- a class of citizens of ancient Sparta enjoying full civil rights.
    The helots were a class of underprivileged inhabitants of ancient Sparta attached to the land and obliged to pay duties to Spartan landholders. Their condition was virtually the same as that of the slaves.    [p. 73]

  ^[55] See Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae.    [p. 73]

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  ^[56] See Herodotus, History, Bk. VIII, Ch. 105; and Wilhelm Wachsmuth, Hellenische Alterthumskunde aus dem Gesichtspunkte des Staates [A Study of Ancient Greece from the Viewpoint of the State ], Halle, 1830, Vol. II, Sec. 2, p. 77.    [p. 73]

  ^[57] See Euripides, Orestes.    [p. 73]

  ^[58] Engels cites the idea put forward in Marx and Engels, The German Ideology, Moscow, 1964, pp. 42-43.    [p. 75]

  ^[59] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 511.    [p. 76]

  ^[60] Hierodules -- temple slaves of both sexes in ancient Greece and the Greek colonies. In many places, including Asian Minor and Corinth, the female temple slaves were engaged in prostitution.    [p. 76]

  ^[61] Tacitus, op. cit., Chs. 18-19.    [p. 79]

  ^[62] See Ammianus Marcellinus, History, Bk. XXXI, Ch. 9; and Procopius, Histories of the Persian, Vandal and Gothic Wars, Bk. VI.    [p. 80]

  ^[63] This refers to the minstrels of Provence in southern France between the end of the 11th to the beginning of the 13th century.    [p. 80]

  ^[64] Engels here paraphrases a passage from Charles Fourier, Théorie de l'unité universelle [Theory of Universal Unity ], Vol. III, in Oeuvres complètes, Paris, 1841, Vol. IV, p. 120.    [p. 82]

  ^[65] Nibelungenlied, Canto 10.    [p. 90]

  ^[66] Gudrun (Kudrun ) -- a medieval German epic poem of the 13th century.    [p. 90]

  ^[67] See H. S. Maine, Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society, and in Relation to Modern Ideas, London, 1861, p. 170.    [p. 92]

  ^[68] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 499.    [p. 97]

  ^[69] Ibid., pp. 85-86.    [p. 104]

  ^[70] The reference is to the conquest of Mexico by Spanish colonizers in 1519-21.    [p. 106]

  ^[71] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 117.    [p. 107]

  ^[72] Here and in similar instances elsewhere Engels refers to Tacitus' Germania.    [p. 109]

  ^[73] The term "Neutral Nation " was applied by the French colonialists to a military alliance of several American Indian tribes living during the 17th century on the northern shore of Lake Erie. Though related to the Iroquois, these tribes maintained neutrality in the war between the Iroquois and the Hurons.    [p. 114]

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  ^[74] The reference is to the national-liberation wars of the Zulus and of the Nubians against the British colonialists in 1879-87.
    Attacked by the British in January 1879, the Zulus led by Cetewayo put up a fierce resistance. Despite their overwhelming superiority in armament, the colonialists were unable to win a decisive victory until a civil war between the Zulu tribes, instigated by the colonialists, led to the Zulus' subjugation in 1887.
    The national-liberation war of the Nubians, the Arabs and other tribes of the Sudan began in 1881. It was led by the Muslim preacher Mohammed Ahmed, who called himself Mahdi -- Saviour. The struggle reached a peak in 1883-84, when nearly the whole territory of the Sudan was liberated from the British colonialists, who had penetrated it already in the 1870s. In the course of the struggle, an independent centralized Mahdist state was formed. The weakening of this state from within -- resulting chiefly from incessant wars and disputes between the tribes -- led to victory for the militarily far better equipped colonialists in 1899.    [p. 114]

  ^[75] See George Grote, A History of Greece, London, 1869, Vol. III, pp. 54-55.    [p. 118]

  ^[76] This refers to a passage in Demosthenes' appeal against Eubulides where mention is made of the old custom of burying none but consanguine kin in the common burial ground.    [p. 118]

  ^[77] The work of the Greek philosopher Dicaearchus is not extant. The passage to which Engels refers is cited on the basis of a fragment by Wachsmuth, Hellenische Alterthumskunde aus dem Gesichtspunkte des Staates, Halle, 1826, Vol. I, Sec. 1, p. 312.    [p. 119]

  ^[78] W. A. Becker, Charikles. Bilder altgriechischer Sitte. Zur genaueren Kenntniss des griechischen Privatlebens [Charicles. Descriptions of Ancient Greek Customs, Contributing to a More Concise Knowledge of Private Life in Greece ], Leipzig, 1840, Vol. II, p. 447.    [p. 119]

  ^[79] Grote, op. cit., p. 66.    [p. 120]

  ^[80] Ibid., p. 60.    [p. 121]

  ^[81] Ibid., pp. 58-59.    [p. 121]

  ^[82] Homer, Iliad, Bk. II, 11. 362 ff.    [p. 122]

  ^[83] Fustel de Coulanges, La cité antique [The Ancient City ], Paris and Strasbourg, 1864, Bk. III, Ch. 1.    [p. 122]

  ^[84] See Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities, Bk. II, Ch. 12.    [p. 123]

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  ^[85] See Aeschylus, The Seven Against Thebes.    [p. 123]

  ^[86] Schoemann, op. cit., p. 27.    [p. 124]

  ^[87] W. E. Gladstone, Juventus Mundi. The Gods and Men of the Heroic Age, London, 1869, Ch. 11.    [p. 124]

  ^[88] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 255n.    [p. 124]

  ^[89] Homer Iliad, Bk. II, 11. 204 ff.    [p. 125]

  ^[90] See Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Bk. I, Ch. 13.    [p. 126]

  ^[91] See Aristotle, Politics, Bk. III, Ch. 10.    [p. 126]

  ^[92] The reference is to the fourth class of Athenian citizens, the Thetes, who were free but propertiless, and obtained the right to hold public office. Some of the sources ascribe this innovation to Aristides (fifth century B.C.).    [p. 137]

  ^[93] A reference to the so-called Metics -- foreigners residing permanently in Attica. Despite their personal freedom they were counted as aliens without rights, who could neither hold public office nor participate in the assembly of the people, nor possess immobile property. They were mainly artisans and merchants. Metics were obligated to pay a special poll-tax. They had no standing with the administrative organs except through the mediation of their so-called protector, a full citizen.    [p. 138]

  ^[94] In the years 510-507 B.C., Cleisthenes of the Alcmaeonid lineage led the struggle of the Athenian demos (people) against the rule of the old gentile nobility. The victory of the insurgents was consolidated by the laws of Cleisthenes, which abolished the last remnants of the gentile constitution.    [p. 138]

  ^[95] See Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 278.    [p. 139]

  ^[96] In 560 B.C., Pisistratus, descendant of an impoverished noble lineage, seized power in Athens and established a dictatorship (tyrannis ). With some interruptions -- Pisistratus was twice driven out of Athens, but returned each time -- this form of rule endured even after his death in 527, ending only with the banishment of his son Hippias in 510. Soon thereafter Cleisthenes established the slaveholders' democracy in Athens. Pisistratus' activity in defence of the interests of the small and medium landowners against the gentile nobility did not bring about any serious changes in the political structure of the Athenian state.    [p. 141]

  ^[97] The law of the Twelve Tables -- the oldest written Roman law compiled in the middle of the fifth century B.C. as a result of the

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struggle of the plebeians against the patricians. Replacing the common law current in Rome at the time, this code reflects the differentiation of wealth within Roman society, the development of slavery and the emergence of the slaveholders' state. The law was inscribed on twelve tables, hence the name.    [p. 143, 219]

  ^[98] The battle in the Teutoburg Forest (9 A.D.) between the insurgent Germanic tribes and the invading Roman troops led by Varus ended in the complete annihilation of the Roman army. Varus committed suicide.    [p. 143]

  ^[99] Appius Claudius was elected for the year 451-450 B.C. to a ten-man council (the Decemvirs), charged with drafting the laws (namely, the famous law of the Twelve Tables). The council possessed extraordinary powers. At the conclusion of their appointed term, Appius Claudius and the other Decemvirs attempted to extend their power illegitimately for an additional year. Their arbitrary and violent deeds, especially those of Appius Claudius, provoked a plebeian rebellion which overthrew them. Appius Claudius was thrown in prison where he soon died.
    The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) was one of the wars fought between the two biggest slaveholders' states of antiquity, Rome and Carthage. The object of the wars was supremacy in the western Mediterranean for the conquest of new territories and the capture of slaves. The Second Punic War ended in the defeat of Carthage.    [p. 145]

  ^[100] Theodor Mommsen, Römische Forschungen, Berlin, 1864, 2nd ed., Vol. I.    [p. 145]

  ^[101] This refers to Livy's History of Rome.    [p. 146]

  ^[102] In his Römische Alterthümer, Christian Lange quotes Ph. E. Huschke's dissertation, De privdegiis Feceniae Hispallae senatusconsulto concessis (Liv. XXXIX, 19 ) [On the Conferral of Privileges upon Fecenia Hispalla by a Decision of the Senate (Livy, XXXIX, 19 )], Göttingen, 1822.    [p. 149]

  ^[103] See B. G. Niebuhr, Römische Geschichte [History of Rome ], Berlin, 1811, Vol. I.    [p. 150]

  ^[104] See Mommsen, Römische Geschichte [History of Rome ], Leipzig, 1854, Vol. I, Bk. I, Ch. 6.    [p. 151]

  ^[105] The conversion has been made according to the tables of weights and measures and money appended to Dureau de la Malle's Économie

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politique des Romains [Political Economy of the Romans ], Paris, 1840, Vol. I.    [p. 153]

  ^[106] See McLennan, Primitive Marriage. An Inquiry into the Origin of tb Form of Capture in Marriage Ceremonies, Edinburgh, 1865.    [p. 156]

  ^[107] See Kovalevsky, Tableau des origines et de l'évolution de la famille et de la propriété, Stockholm, 1890.    [p. 156]

  ^[108] The English conquest of Wales was completed in 1283, but Wales still preserved its autonomy. It was completely incorporated with England in the middle of the 16th century.    [p. 157]

  ^[109] During 1869-70, Engels was engaged on a large work on the history of Ireland. The project remained unfinished. A fragment is published in Marx-Engels, Werke, Vol. 16, pp. 459-98 (Dietz Verlag, Berlin). In connection with his study of the Celts, Engels also studied ancient Welsh law.    [p. 157]

  ^[110] See Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, 1841, Vol. I, p. 93. (No place of publication.)    [p. 158]

  ^[111] Engels toured Scotland and Ireland in September of 1891.    [p. 160]

  ^[112] In 1745-46 Scotland was the scene of an uprising of the Highland clans against the oppression and evictions being carried out in the interest of the English-Scottish landed aristocracy and bourgeoisie. The Highlanders fought to preserve the traditional social structure based on the clans. Exploiting the people's dissatisfaction for their own ends, a section of the Scottish Highland nobility who wanted to preserve the feudal-patriarchal clan system put forward the aim of restoring the already overthrown Stuart dynasty to the English throne. After the uprising was suppressed the clan system in the Highlands was destroyed and the survivals of clan landownership eliminated. More and more Scottish peasants were driven from their land; the clan courts of law were abolished and certain clan customs forbidden.    [p. 160]

  ^[113] Morgan, Ancient Society, pp. 368-69.    [p. 160]

  ^[114] See Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum [Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation ], Bk. I, Ch. 1.    [p. 160]

  ^[115] Caesar, op. cit., Bk. VI, Ch. 22.    [p. 161]

  ^[116] The Alemannic Code was a record of the common law prevailing among the Germanic tribal alliance of the Alemanni who in the fifth century inhabited the territory of contemporary Alsace, eastern Switzerland and the southwestern part of Germany. It took shape from late sixth century or early seventh century and the eighth

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century. Engels here refers to law LXXXI (LXXXIV) of the code.    [p. 161]

  ^[117] See Notes 40 and 43.    [p. 161]

  ^[118] The Hildebrandslied  (Song of Hildebrand ) -- an Old High German heroic poem from the eighth century. Only fragments have been preserved.    [pp. 162, 196]

  ^[119] Tacitus, op. cit., Ch. 7.    [p. 163]

  ^[120] Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica [Historical Library ], Bk. IV, Chs. 34 and 43-44.    [p. 164]

  ^[121] Völuspá [The Vision of the Seeress ] is one of the songs from the Elder Edda (see Note 26, above).    [p. 164]

  ^[122] The reference is to A. Ch. Bang, Vøluspá og de sibyllinske orakler [The Vision of the Seeress and Sibylline Oracles ], 1879; and to S. Bugge, Studier over de nordiske Gude- og Heltesagns Oprindelse [Studies of the Origin of Scandinavian Sagas About Gods and Heroes ], Kristiania, 1881-89.    [p. 164]

  ^[123] G. L. Maurer, Geschichte der Städteverfassung in Deutschland [History of Urban Constitution in Germany ], Erlangen, 1869, Vol. I.    [p. 165]

  ^[124] The uprisings of the Germanic and Gallic tribes under Civilis against Roman rule in 69-70 (some sources say 69-71) was provoked by increases in taxes and conscription and other abuses of Roman officials. It gripped a considerable part of Gaul and the Germanic territories under Roman rule. Rome appears to have lost control over these areas. After initial successes, however, the insurgents suffered defeats which compelled them to conclude a peace with Rome.    [p. 166]

  ^[125] See Caesar, op. cit., Bk. IV, Ch. 1.    [p. 167]

  ^[126] See Tacitus, op. cit., Ch. 26.    [p. 168]

  ^[127] The Codex Laureshamensis was the register of the cloister of Lorsch, in which were copied certificates of donations, privileges, etc. Founded in the second half of the eighth century in the Frankish kingdom not far from Worms in southwestern Germany, this cloister had large feudal possessions. Its register, dating from the 12th century, is among the most important sources on the history of peasant and feudal property in the eighth and ninth centuries.    [p. 169]

  ^[128] See Pliny, Natural History, Bk. XVIII, Ch. 17.    [p. 170]

  ^[129] Ibid., Bk. IV, Ch. 14.    [p. 176]

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  ^[130] See Liutprand of Cremona, Antapodosis [Retribution ], Bk. VI, Ch. 6.    [p. 181]

  ^[131] See Salvian of Marseilles, De gubernatione dei [On the Governance of God ], Bk. V, Ch. 8.    [p. 182]

  ^[132] Benefice (from the Latin beneficium -- literally, kindness) was a form of land tenure widespread in the Frankish kingdom in the first half of the eighth century. The usufruct of land conferred as a benefice (and of the dependent peasants living on it) belonged to the recipient (beneficiary) for life, on condition of performing certain services, usually military. If the recipient or beneficiary died, or if the beneficiary neglected his duties as a subject, or neglected the land, the granter or his heir could withdraw the benefice. The renewal of the established relation required a new conferral to the recipient or to the latter's heirs. The conferring of benefices became the practice not only of the crown and the Church but also of great magnates. The benefice system contributed to the formation of the class of feudal nobles, especially the small and middle nobility, and to the enthralment of the mass of peasants and the emergence of vassal relations and of the feudal hierarchy. In the course of time the benefice developed more and more into the hereditary fief. On the role of the benefice system in the history of the development of feudalism, see Engels' essay "The Frankish Period" in Marx-Engels, Werke, Vol. 19, pp. 474-518 (Dietz Verlag, Berlin).    [p. 184]

  ^[133] Gau counts -- royal officials in the Frankish kingdom who were chiefs of a county and responsible for its judicial, tax-collecting and military functions. As reward for their services they received one third of the royal revenues from their district, in addition to a lien of landed property. In the course of time the counts were transformed into feudal lords possessing sovereign powers. This occurred especially after 877, when the office of count became hereditary.    [p. 185]

  ^[134] Irminon's records (Polyptichon ) were a register of the lands and its dependent residents as well as of the revenues of the cloister of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, compiled in the ninth century by the abbot Irminon. Engels' citations are based on those in Paul Roth, Geschichte des Beneficialwesens von den ältesten Zeiten bis ins zehnte Jahrhundert [History of the Benefice System from Remote Antiquity to the Tenth Century ], Erlangen, 1850, p. 378.    [p. 185]

  ^[135] Angariae, in the Roman Empire, were the residents' obligations to furnish wagons and porters for state purposes. As these obligations

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subsequently became ever broader, they became a heavy burden for the population.    [p. 186]

  ^[136] Commendation was an arrangement widespread in Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries, whereby a peasant placed himself under the "protection" of a feudal lord, or a lesser feudal lord under that of a bigger one. In return, the protected person had to perform military and other services for the "protector," and transfer his landed property to the latter, receiving it back as a lien. For the peasants, who were forced into this arrangement, it meant the loss of personal freedom. For the lesser feudal lords it meant dependency on the big feudal lords. The system contributed to the enthralment of the mass of peasants and to the consolidation of the feudal hierarchy.    [p. 188]

  ^[137] Fourier, Théorie des quatre mouvements et des destinées générales [Theory of the Four Movements and Destinies in General ], in Oeuvres complètes, Paris, 1846, Vol. I, p. 220.    [p. 189]

  ^[138] The Battle of Hastings took place in 1066 between the Anglo-Saxons under King Harold and the invading army of Duke William of Normandy. The Anglo-Saxon defenders, whose military organization preserved remnants of gentile society and whose weapons were primitive, were crushingly defeated. In place of King Harold, who was killed in the battle, William became king of England, taking the name William I, the Conqueror.    [p. 196]

  ^[139] Molière, George Dandin, ou le mari confondu, Act I, Scene 9. p. 202    [p. 202]

  ^[140] Dithmarschen is an area in the southwestern part of what is today Schleswig-Holstein. In antiquity it was inhabited by the Saxons; in the eighth century it was conquered by Charlemagne, and thereafter became the property of various religious or secular feudal lords. In the mid-12th century, the people of Dithmarschen, predominantly free peasants, gradually achieved independence, which they preserved in practice from the early 13th to mid-16th century, successfully resisting repeated efforts by the Danish kings and of the Holstenian dukes to subjugate them. The social development of Dithmarschen followed a very original course. Around the 13th century the local nobility virtually disappeared. During the period of its independence, Dithmarschen was a totality of self-administering peasant communities, whose foundation in many cases were the old peasant gentes. Until the 14th century, supreme power was exercised by the assembly of all free landowners in the area, and later by a representative system with three elected corporate bodies. In 1559 the troops of the Danish

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King Frederick II and of Dukes John and Adolf of Holstein succeeded in breaking the resistance of the Dithmarschen people, and the invaders divided the land among themselves. The communal constitution and a partial self-administration were preserved in Dithmarschen until the second half of the 19th century.    [p. 205]

  ^[141] See G. W. F. Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts [Outline of the Philosophy of Right ], Berlin, 1821, §§ 257 and 360.    [p. 205]

  ^[142] Ferdinand Lassalle, Das System der erworbenen Rechte, Th. II, Das Wesen des Römischen und Germanischen Erbrechts in historischphilosophischer Entwickelung [The System of Acquired Rights, Part II, The Essence of the Roman and German Law of Inheritance in Its Historical-Philosophical Development ], Leipzig, 1861.    [p. 214]

  ^[143] Morgan, Ancient Society, pp. 561-62.    [p. 216]

  ^[144] Engels' source for this article was a report in the newspaper Russkiye Vyedomosti, No. 284, October 14, 1892, by the Russian ethnographer Lev Yakovlevich Sternberg, regarding the way of life and the social order among the Gilyaks (Nivchens) of Sakhalin. Engels reproduced the report virtually in full, with a few insignificant changes for greater accuracy and clarity.
    Russkiye Vyedomosti (Russian Gazette ), an organ of the liberal landowners and bourgeoisie, was published in Moscow three times a week between 1863 and 1867, and daily from 1868 to 1918.    [p. 217]

  ^[145] Gilyaks is an earlier name for the Nivchens, a people living along the lower reaches of the Heilungkiang (Amut) River as well as in the northern and central part of the island of Sakhalin.    [p. 218]

  ^[146] Etnograficheskoye Obozrenie (Ethnographical Review ) was a Russian quarterly published 1889-1916 by the Ethnographical Section of the Society of the Friends of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography of the University of Moscow. Sternberg's article on the Gilyaks of Sakhalin was published in 1893 in No. 2 of the journal.    [p. 221]