I. Engels Interprets Morgan

A. The Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884)
B. Uses Marx's notes to interpret, simplify Morgan
C. Morgan: who and what; Engels: how and why
D. Evolution of family structures = narrowing of marriage to one man, one woman pair

1. Savagery: group marriage, no jealousy

a. incest avoidance "naturally" occurs
b. pairing family, women respected
c. women "naturally" want monogamy

2. Barbarism: pairing marriage develops

a. domestication of animals, agriculture ==> property
b. men enforce monogamy to ensure paternity, transmission of property, "world historical defeat of the female sex" (120)
c. patriarchal family, women as property

3. Civilization: monogamy is victorious

a. men = property-owning class
b. women = domestic slaves, proletariat
c. eliminate private property ==> equality between sexes, individual sex love

E. Links between Engels and US women's movement
F. Problems with Engels (and Morgan)

1. kin terms don't reflect conceptions of biological relationship
2. simple and complex
3. assumptions about what is natural

G. Legacy: domestic mode of production, investigate households as unit of production, gendered divisions of labor, intra-household relationships

 

II. Alexander Vasilevich Chayanov and the Peasant Mode of Production

A. Peasant households as production and consumption units

1. own land
2. produce for subsistence
3. don't sell or hire labor
4. dominant form in Asia and South America, common in Europe

B. Chayanov: Peasant Mode of Production

1. goal of production: secure family's needs
2. no profit motive
3. labor - consumer balance, limits of the stomach

a. labor is drudgery
b. additional labor valued only if it leads to additional consumption

4. Household life cycle, ratio between laborers and consumers

a. early married years: 2 producers, 2 consumers b. early childbearing: more consumers than producers, work is hardest, landholdings increase
c. later childbearing: consumer-labor ratio declines as children start to work
d. later married years: couple's labor declines, landholding decreases, children support separate families

5. "Chayanov's rule": intensity of labor per worker will increase in direct relation to the domestic ratio of consumers to workers

C. Chayanov's theory best for sparsely populated areas
D. Problems with Chayanov's assumptions about peasant households

1. not always self-sufficient, agricultural labor demands vary seasonally
2. ignores larger community structures
3. peasantry isn't historical situation, exists in feudalism and capitalism

 

III. Marshall Sahlins and the Domestic Mode of Production

A. Peasants just one case of primitive condition of few needs
B. Primitive economies consistently underproduce
C. Domestic mode of production

1. small labor force differentiated by sex
2. simple technology
3. finite production goals -- to meet subsistence needs

D. Kinship ties promote stability, stasis
E. Household pools consumption, distributes according to need

 

IV. Gender and Intra-Household Inequality

A. Feminist anthropologists rediscover Engels
B. Mitzi Goheen, Nso agricultural communities in the Cameroon

1. women farm, surplus goes to men for trade
2. men hunt, wage war, trade, use material goods to get status
3. different interpretations

a. men control the material wealth women produce, supports Engels
b. men depend on women
c. women have community organizations, can hold political protests, not confined to household

4. Gender relations depend on context: capitalism has improved men's status, weakened women's

C. Peasant and domestic modes of production assume character of gender relations

1. Engels: antagonistic, women inferior
2. Sahlins and Chayanov: households are loving, nurturing

D. Goheen: empirical investigation shows that households can be both, simultaneous harmony and discord
E. To understand intra-household relations, look to inter-household ties

 

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu