CONTENDING MATERIALIST CONCEPTIONS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE STATE: ON THE DIVIDE BETWEEN MORGAN AND ENGELS

Dr. Ivan Matić

Abstract

This paper will present a comparative analysis of two major materialist conceptions of the origin of the state, namely, those of Lewis Morgan and Friedrich Engels. The first part of the paper will offer a brief overview of the 17^th century origins of this theory: the philosophical attempts to establish how the state came to be. Thereafter, we will look at how Morgan’s innovative approach enabled tremendous progress on this issue, offering, if not the answer to the question of the state’s origin, then at least the means of reaching it. The central part of the paper will present Engels’ attempt to create a theory of his own, featuring aspects of both Marx’s and Morgan’s thought: in this regard, we will focus on the fundamental elements that are shared between Morgan’s and Engels’ theories. Finally, the subject of the last part of the paper will be the divergence between the two authors: here, we will examine the theoretical limitations of Engels’ attempt to surpass Morgan’s work and point to a number of errors that proceeded therefrom.

References

Bonte, Pierre. 1981. “The Study of Nomadic Pastoralist Societies.” The Anthropology of Pre-Capitalist Societies, eds. Joel S. Kahn and Josep R, 22–56. London: Macmillan Press.

Castillo, Bernal and Del Diaz. 2012. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hacket Publishing Company.

Engels, Friedrich. 2004. Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Resistance Books: Chippendale NSW.

Gibson, Charles. 1947. “Lewis Henry Morgan and the Aztec ‘Monarchy’.” Southwest Journal of Anthropology  3 (1): 78-84.

Grote, George. 2001. A History of Greece From the Time of Solon to 403. B.C. London and New York: Routledge.

Hobbes, Thomas. 1996. Leviathan, J. C. A. Gaskin (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Hobbes, Thomas. 1998. De Cive. Richard Tuck and Michael Silverthorne (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ivantchik, Askold. 2006. “‘Scythian’ Archers on Archaic Attic Vases: Problems of Interpretation”, Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 12 (3-4): 197-271.

Kant, Immanuel. 2006. Toward Perpetual Peace and Other Writings on Politics, Peace, and History. Pauline Kleingeld (ed.), New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Krader, Lawrence. 1968. Formation of the State. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Krader, Lawrence. 1975. The Asiatic Mode of Production: Sources, Development and Critique in the Writings of Karl Marx. Assen: Van Gorcum & Comp.

Kuper, Arthur. 1988. The Invention of Primitive Society: Transformations of an Illusion. Routledge: London and New York.

Locke, John. 2003. Two Treatises of Government. Ian Shapiro (ed.). New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Lubbock, John. 1882. The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man. London: Longsman and Green.

Maine, Henry Sumner. 1963. Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society and its relation to Modern Ideas. Boston: Beacon Press.

Morgan, Lewis. 1876. “Montezuma’s Dinner: A Review of the Native Races of the Pacific States.” The North American Review 122 (251): 265–308.

Morgan, Lewis. 1877. Ancient Society or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery through Barbarism to Civilization. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co.

Niebuhr, Barthold Georg. 1850. The History of Rome, From the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

Ostrovityanov, Konstantin Vasilevich et al. 1957. Political Economy. London: Lawrence & Wishart.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. 1994. Discourse on Political Inequality and The Social Contract. Christopher Betts (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Smith, Christopher John. 2006. The Roman Clan: The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sowell, Thomas. 1985. Marxism: Philosophy and Economics, Salisbury: Hazell Watson & Viney Limited.

Trautman, Thomas. 1987. Lewis Morgan and the Invention of Kinship, Berkley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Tylor, Edward Burnett. 1871. Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom. London: John Murray.

White, Leslie. 1945. “History, Evolutionism and Functionalism: Three Types of Interpretation of Culture.” Southwest Journal of Anthropology 1 (2): 221–248.