In the last two years of his life Marx was engaged in an intensive study
of pre-industrial cultures coming under colonial rule. The first
comprehensive collection of his so-called "ethnological notebooks" will be
published next year by Yale, under the title "Property and Patriarchy."
The editor is David Smith, a sociologist at the University of Kansas.
Smith, who recently lectured here about this, finds that Marx frequently
expressed his dismay at the social destruction underway, and his sense
that something valuable was being wiped out by European civilization.
According to Smith, Marx was especially impressed by the gender equality
he found in tribal societies. This text will represent Marx's most mature
thinking on colonialism. Smith's editing project is huge, since
apparently Marx composed these notes rather chaotically in six languages.
I think this may be a very important resource from an historical and
political standpoint, and may require us to revise our thinking about what
a "marxist" position is on this subject.
