Frederick Engels Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State Chapter IV. The Greek Gens
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From prehistoric times Greeks and Pelasgians alike, and other peoples of kindred stock, had been organized in the same organic series as the Americans: gens, phratry, tribe, confederacy of tribes. The phratry might be absent, as among the Dorians, and the confederacy of tribes was not necessarily fully developed everywhere as yet; but in every case the gens was the unit. At the time of their entry into history, the Greeks are on the threshold of civilization; between them and the American tribes, of whom we spoke above, lie almost two entire great periods of development, by which the Greeks of the heroic age are ahead of the Iroquois. The gens of the Greeks is therefore no longer the archaic gens of the Iroquois; the impress of group marriage is beginning to be a good deal blurred. Mother-right has given way to father-right; increasing private wealth has thus made its first breach in the gentile constitution. A second breach followed naturally from the first. After the introduction of father-right the property of a rich heiress would have passed to her husband and thus into another gens on her marriage, but the foundation of all gentile law was now violated and in such a case the girl was not only permitted but ordered to marry within the gens, in order that her property should be retained for the gens. According to Grote's History of Greece, the Athenian gens, in particular, was held together by the following institutions and customs: 1. Common religious rites, and the exclusive privilege of priesthood in honor of a particular god, the supposed ancestral father of the gens, who in this attribute was designated by a special surname. 2. A common burial place (cf. Demosthenes' Eubulides). 3. Mutual right of inheritance. 4. Mutual obligations of help, protection, and assistance in case of violence. 5. Mutual right and obligation to marry within the gens in certain cases, especially for orphan girls and heiresses. 6. Possession, at least in some cases, of common property, with a special archon (head man or president) and treasurer. Next, several gentes were united in the phratry, but less closely; though here also we find mutual rights and obligations of a similar kind, particularly the common celebration of certain religious ceremonies and the right to avenge the death of a phrator. Similarly, all the phratries of a tribe held regularly recurring religious festivals in common, at which a leader of the tribe (phylobasileus), elected from the nobility (Eupatridai), officiated. Rest at: http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/ch04.htm On 7/16/09, c b <cb31...@gmail.com> wrote: > Usually, "wooden tircotomies" refers to some kind of poor and "rigid" > effort at Hegelian dialectic. > > Look at Engels _The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the > State_ where the Teutonic-Christian , ancient Greek and Roman forms of > the family are discussed from a Marxist standpoint. Word "family" has > a Latin origin. Roman family is "pater" ruled. > > On 7/16/09, justicelov...@yahoo.com <justicelov...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > > Will some one kindly let me know what was Stein's Wooden Trichotomies, and > > shed light on this passage of Marx by explaining the mentioned forms of > > families: "It is, > > of course, just as absurd to hold the Teutonic-Christian form of the family > > to be absolute as it would be to apply that character to the ancient Roman, > > the ancient Greek, or the Eastern forms...." > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > > > _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
