1884 marked the publication of Engels’s The Origin of the Family, Private Property
and the State, a text which suggested a direct link between the subordination of
women and the emergence of the private ownership of property. Although this text
was a fundamental part of the Marxist canon (and hugely influential in the ordering
of state socialist societies) it also has a long and influential role in the history
of the social sciences, particularly in sociology and anthropology. The search for
the ‘origins’ of the social world is one which was hugely influenced by Engels and
the essays in this volume (which is to be re-
Tavistock
London and New York, 1987
ISBN 0422 60810 6