"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.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
they were wrong but you have to know why:
Marx and Engels made a fundamentally wrong guess about the nature of human beings. But it is very important to understand their line of reasoning, because they developed quite a few critical insights along the way. Due to political charge associated with their teachings it is practically impossible to find suitable third party narrative of their works. So, the only way to enlighten yourself is to dig right down into originals.
Why doesn't the war of the sexes ever end?:
Why is society so cruel? It seems to be self-defeating. Why doesn't the war of the sexes ever end? In no other species do the two sexes battle against each other.
In this book we learn that things weren't always this way. In fact, oppression and exploitation are recent inventions, if we count that human history dates back EIGHTY thousand years since the rise of homo sapiens sapiens. At one point most cultures suddenly became sedentary and agriculturalist - and private property in the land emerged. Private... more info
Relevant Today:
Was human society always overseen by a military and police force? Was wealth and the means of producing more wealth always the private possession of individuals or a small section of society? Were women always at the bottom of society, treated primarily as sex objects and machines for child-bearing and child-raising?
And is this humanity's destiny? In this book published in 1884, Fredrich Engels answers the above questions in the negative. His book is based on anthropological data available in... more info
Tearing Down Social Icons:
Are the father-centered family, private property, and the state necessary and inevitable part of all human societies? Frederick Engels, coworker of Karl Marx, says no. Engels demonstrates that these three institutions arose in the fairly recent history of the human race, as a way to establish the rule of the many over the few. And, conversley, when these institutions are an obstacle to human progress, they can be dismantled. Although this book was written about 125 years ago, the subject matter and... more info
Privacy policy: we don't collect information
about visitors except for the standard technical server logs. We don't send unsolicited emails. We don't
sell the information that we don't collect about you to anyone. When you follow
links to other sites, their privacy policies apply. Thanks for visiting!
