The origin of the family, private property, and the stateEngels, Friedrich
Philosophy
The origin of the family, private property, and the state
Engels, Friedrich
Families -- History; Morgan, Lewis Henry, 1818-1881. Ancient society; Prehistoric peoples; Property -- History; State, The
But humanity did not everywhere remain in this stage. In Asia they found
animals that could be tamed and propagated in captivity. The wild
buffalo cow had to be hunted down; the tame cow gave birth to a calf
once a year, and also furnished milk. Some of the most advanced
tribes--Aryans, Semites, perhaps also Turanians--devoted themselves
mainly to taming, and later to raising and tending, domestic animals.
The segregation of cattle raising tribes from the rest of the barbarians
constitutes the first great division of social labor. These stock
raising tribes did not only produce more articles of food than the rest
of the barbarians, but also different kinds of products. They were ahead
of the others by having at their disposal not alone milk, milk products,
and a greater abundance of meat, but also skins, wool, goat's hair, and
the spun and woven goods which the growing abundance of the raw material
brought into common use. This for the first time made a regular exchange
of products possible. In former stages, exchange could only take place
occasionally, and an exceptional ability in manufacturing weapons and
tools may have led to a transient division of labor. For example,
unquestionable remains of workshops for stone implements of the
neolithic period have been found in many places. The artists who
developed their ability in those shops, most probably worked for the
collectivity, as did the artisans of the Indian gentile order. At any
rate, no other exchange than that within the tribe could exist in that
stage, and even that was an exception. But after the segregation of the
stock raising tribes we find all the conditions favorable to an exchange
between groups of different tribes, and to a further development of this
mode of trading into a fixed institution. Originally, tribe exchanged
with tribe through the agency of their tribal heads. But when the herds
drifted into the hands of private individuals, then the exchange between
individuals prevailed more and more, until it became the established
form. The principal article of exchange which the stock raising tribes
offered to their neighbors was in the form of domestic animals. Cattle
became the favorite commodity by which all other commodities were
measured in exchange. In short, cattle assumed the functions of money
and served in this capacity as early as that stage. With such necessity
and rapidity was the demand for a money commodity developed at the very
beginning of the exchange of commodities.
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