The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

The origin of the terms “genetics,” “generation,” and many other familial terms, Engels uses this word to describe a family unit linked by a common ancestor, traditionally but not always female. In his telling, a family based on the principle of gens had as its goal the perpetuation of the bloodline, eventually with the exception of incest since excessive inbreeding weakened their genetic stock. This communal focus allowed the gens to hold property in common and conduct their affairs with a kind of radical democracy. Marriage existed but with far fewer restrictions than seen in modern monogamy. The shift from “barbarism” to “civilization” turned, in Engels’s telling, on the suppression of the gens and its replacement by a family unit consisting primarily of a married couple and their children, which in turn laid the groundwork for private property and eventually capitalism.

Based on a study conducted by Lewis Morgan in the Hawaiian islands, this system marks an intermediary stage between group marriage and monogamy. In this arrangement, there was common marriage among men and women, so that each could be considered married to a host of others all at the same time, while excluding close familial relations. Husbands would not call each other “brother,” as in true group marriage, but instead “punalua,” meaning something like companion or partner. While it distinguished marriage from the family, it maintained a communal structure and a broader definition of familial relationships than would prevail under monogamy. This system was largely suppressed by the arrival of Spanish missionaries.

This term describes a family unit that lies between the gens and the tribe. Roughly translating to “brotherhood,” it is a grouping of several gentes, coming into being largely as a result of gentes prohibiting marriage within their own ranks. Needing outsiders for reproduction, but eager to maintain the principles of consanguine life, a phratry generally permits marriage within its broader ranks, while creating other institutions of fellowship such as sporting events that reify a singular identity. It also reproduces on a slightly larger scale the same governing institutions, such as a tribal council and emergency appointment of military leaders, which prevail on both the level of the gens and the tribe, which is in turn a union of phratries.