The Ethnographical Notebooks of Karl Marx - Marxists Internet Archive

461 Pages·1610·14.75 MB·English

Among the most important of the materials left
unpublished by Karl Marx is the body of his
ethnological excerpts and commentaries compiled
during the period 1880-1882. These include
his notes taken from the works of Lewis Henry
Morgan, Sir Henry Sumner Maine, Sir John
Budd Phear and John Lubbock (Lord Avebury).
Marx’s comments on Morgan’s Ancient Society
have been known from the use made of them in
the Ursprung der Familie, des Privateigentums
und des Staats of Friedrich Engels; nevertheless,
Engels applied but a small part of Marx’s mate­
rials. The entire corpus of Marx’s excerpts and
notes is here brought out for the first time to­
gether with editorial, historical and bibliogra­
phic matters for their comprehension.
The materials contain some of the most explicit
statements of Marx in regard to the primitive
condition of mankind, the origin of class-divided
society in connection with the transition to civili­
zation, and the formation of the State.
Here are found Marx’s polemics against the His­
torical School of Jurisprudence (Henry Maine)
on the one side, and the Utilitarians (Jeremy
Bentham and John Stuart Mill) on the other.
Further, the critique of the Analytical Theory of
the State and Law (John Austin) is taken up
by Marx in the development of his positions with
regard to the state as a social institution and to
its economic base.
The critique of man in the state of nature, and
in the civilized condition, which had been the
concern of the young Marx, is here taken up
again in his last years. Yet, whereas his early
formulations had proceeded from the abstrac­
tions of a philosophical anthropology, his late
work takes up some problems from the viewpoint
of the science of man in the modem sense, that
is, the ethnological accounts of concrete societies
given by Morgan, Maine, Phear and to a lesser
extent, Lubbock.
The resultant work is thus a contribution to the
study of the ideas of Marx, their internal devel­
opment, and their relation to the writings and
schools of the late nineteenth century. No less
important is its contribution to the history of
ethnology at a time when its empirical methods
and objects were being formed and strengthened.
On the one side Marx developed his position in
regard to the theory of human evolution and in
conjunction with this, to the theory of Darwin.
On the other, Marx’s work makes an end to the
theory of man as a self-contained atom, a theory
given in its modern form by Thomas Hobbes,
the Utilitarians, and Herbert Spencer; that
theory is replaced by Marx’s conception of man
as the ensemble of social relations, which had
been previsioned in his Theses on Feuerbach, and
is here given a concrete content in his critique of
Maine.
THE ETHNOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS
OF KARL MARX
QUELLEN UND UNTERSUCHUNGEN ZUR GESCHICHTE
DER DEUTSCHEN UND ÖSTERREICHISCHEN ARBEITERBEWEGUNG
NEUE FOLGE
Herausgegeben vom
INTERNATIONAAL INSTITUUT VOOR SOCIALE GESCHIEDENIS,
AMSTERDAM
Direktor: Prof. Dr. Fr. de Jong Edz.
I. EDUARD BERNSTEINS BRIEFWECHSEL MIT FRIEDRICH ENGELS
herausgegeben von Helmut Hirsch
n. AUGUST BEBELS BRIEFWECHSEL MIT KARL KAUTSKY
herausgegeben von Karl Kautsky Jr.
m. THE ETHNOLOGICAL NOTEBOOKS OF KARL MARX
(Studies of Morgan, Phear, Maine, Lubbock)
Transcribed and edited, with an Introduction by Lawrence Krader
THE ETHNOLOGICAL
NOTEBOOKS
OF KARL MARX
(STUDIES OF MORGAN, PHEAR, MAINE, LUBBOCK)
TRANSCRIBED AND EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
LAWRENCE KRADER
SECOND EDITION
1974
VAN GORCUM & COMP. B.V. - ASSEN, THE NETHERLANDS
Printed in the Netherlands by Van Gorcum Assen
Dedicated
to the Memory
of Karl Korsch
CONTENTS
Foreword. IX
Introduction i
Section i. Marx’s Excerpts from Morgan, Ancient Society 6
The State and Civilized Society 19
Marx’s Marginalia in the Morgan Excerpts 24
2. Marx’s Excerpts from Phear, The Aryan Village 31
3. Marx’s Excerpts from Maine, Lectures on the Early
History of Institutions 34
4. Marx’s Excerpts from Lubbock, The Origin of
Civilisation 43
5. General Considerations of the Historical Place­
ment of these Works 44
6. Community, Collectivism and Individualism 58
7. Relation of Engels to Marx and Morgan 76
Addenda 1. Chronology. 86
2. Varia. 89
Technical Apparatus and Format 91
Part I. Marx’s Excerpts from Lewis Henry Morgan Ancient
Society. 95
Part II. Marx’s Excerpts from John Budd Phear, The Aryan
Village 243
Part III. Marx’s Excerpts from Henry Sumner Maine, Lec­
tures on the Early History of Institutions 285
Part IV. Marx’s Excerpts from John Lubbock, The Origin
of Civilisation. 337
Notes 353
to Introduction 3 54-397
to Part 1. 397-414
to Part II. 414-415
to Part III. 415-420
to Part IV 420-421
Bibliography 423
I. Marx’s Bibliographic Notes 425
Notes to Bibliography I . 430
II. General Bibliography 431
Index of Names . 443
Tables in Introduction
I. Comments by Marx on Morgan . 12
II. Marginal lines in the Morgan excerpts 25
III. Marginal lines by Marx in Phear excerpts 3 3
IV. Marx’s interpolations in the Phear excerpts 34
V. Marginal lines in the Maine excerpts 36
VI. References by Engels to Morgan 78
VII. Marx’s Excerpts from Morgan in Engels 79
Facsimile Pages
Morgan. 96
Phear. 2^ f
Maine. 286
Lubbock 338
Foreword
The conception of this book was first developed in discussion with Karl
Korsch, in 1947-195 3; it is to be regarded as an evolution therefrom.
The International Institute of Social History, and its Director, Prof. Dr.
Fr. de Jong Edz., were instrumental in carrying through the present
work; without the initial support and continued cooperation of the In­
stitute throughout its period of gestation it would not have been com­
pleted.* Those who have an idea of how a work of this nature is composed
will jusdy appreciate the kinds and qualities of the individual contribu­
tions that are necessary to it. The substantive contributions of the
members of the Institute, Mr. Ch. B. Timmer, Mr. H. P. Harstick, and
Mr. Goetz Langkau, have been invaluable. Dr. Barbara Krader parti­
cipated in the completion of the work, and, in its later phases, step by
step. Many contributed their knowledge of particular fields ; here I will
mention that of Dr. Angel Palerm on Aztec history. Drs. Stanley Dia­
mond and Dell Hymes criticized the Introduction. To all those mentioned
and others beside go the acknowledgement of their contributions and the
expression of my thanks.
February 1972. L. K.