Quiz: The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

All 34 questions. A perfect score earns the gold medal; 80% earns silver.

1. 1. Which three great forms of exploitation does Engels say characterise civilisation?

   Monarchy, aristocracy and democracy Slavery, serfdom and wage-labour Taxation, ground-rent and interest on loans Conquest, trade and usury
2. 2. How does monogamy enter history, according to Engels?

   As a gift of civilisation to women, protecting them from group marriage As a religious commandment imposed by the priesthood on the Greek and Roman family As the crowning form of individual sex love, freely chosen by both man and wife As the subjugation of one sex by the other, not as a reconciliation of man and wife
3. 3. What did the reforms before and under Solon do about Athenian debts?

   They were left wholly untouched They were declared illegal They were doubled as a penalty They were transferred to the state treasury
4. 4. Who first discovered “mother right”, according to the 1891 preface?

   Darwin Morgan Bachofen McLennan
5. 5. What does Morgan call the “syndyasmian” family?

   Polygamy The patriarchal family of the Hebrews The pairing family, easily dissolved by either side Lifelong monogamy enforced on the wife alone
6. 6. With what does Engels say the first class oppression in history coincides?

   The rule of priests The oppression of the female by the male sex The enslavement of prisoners taken in war The conquest of one tribe by another, stronger tribe
7. 7. Where does Engels say the state machine will be put when classes disappear?

   Into the hands of the workers, to run for their own class Into the Museum of Antiquities, beside the spinning wheel and bronze axe Into a council of experts administering production for all Into a world government uniting all the free nations of the earth
8. 8. What was the second great division of labour?

   Handicrafts separated from agriculture Cattle-raising separated from hunting tribes Priests and chiefs separated from warriors Merchants separated from producers
9. 9. Who was Bachofen’s successor, “the direct opposite of his predecessor”, who introduced the terms exogamy and endogamy?

   Edward Burnett Tylor J. F. McLennan Lewis Henry Morgan Sir John Lubbock
10. 10. What does Engels say Morgan had done in America?

    Discovered anew the materialist conception of history, independently of Marx Confirmed Bachofen’s theory of mother right from the religious myths of the Greeks Refuted the materialist conception of history by showing kinship, not economy, ruled early society Founded the first American socialist party on the basis of his study of the Iroquois
11. 11. When, according to Engels, can the state gain a certain independence from the classes?

    When warring classes balance each other, as under absolutism and Bonapartism Never; in every age it is always and wholly the instrument of the ruling class Only in a democratic republic, where all classes have the vote When it commands a large standing army loyal to the government alone
12. 12. To which Roman king was the constitution organising citizens by property and military service attributed?

    Romulus Tullus Hostilius Servius Tullius Tarquin the Proud
13. 13. Which relationship among the ancient Germans does Engels see as a relic of mother right?

    The custom of marriage between cousins on the mother’s side of the family The rule that the eldest woman of the house governs the household The special bond between a father and his eldest son, the heir The bond between a man and his sister’s son (the mother’s brother)
14. 14. Among which people did Morgan spend much of his life, being adopted into the Seneca tribe?

    The Sioux of the Dakotas The Iroquois The Inuit of the Arctic The Cherokee of Georgia and Carolina
15. 15. Which invention marks the upper stage of savagery in Morgan’s scheme?

    The bow and arrow Iron smelting Pottery Writing
16. 16. How does the state first differ from gentile organisation, according to Engels?

    It has no leaders It groups its members by territory, not kinship It has no laws It abolishes private property
17. 17. What does Engels admire about the gentile constitution of the Iroquois?

    Its standing army of warriors, which made it master of all the neighbouring tribes No soldiers, police, nobles, kings, prisons or lawsuits, yet all runs smoothly Its private ownership of land, which gave each family an interest in the common good Its written code of laws, kept by the sachems and read out at every tribal council
18. 18. What term (taken from Marx) does Engels use for the Homeric constitution of assembly, council and basileus?

    Military democracy Oriental despotism Primitive communism Aristocratic republic
19. 19. What does the state presuppose, which gentile society lacked?

    A public power of coercion separated from the people as a whole A common religion uniting the tribes under a single supreme god A written language in which laws and contracts can be recorded A priesthood that sanctifies the authority of the ruling chiefs
20. 20. What new class did civilisation create, which took no part in production but only exchanged products?

    The merchants The priests The professional warriors The slaves
21. 21. What two kinds of production does Engels say are decisive in history?

    The production of material goods, and the production of ideas and religion The production of the means of existence, and the generation of children The production of food by agriculture, and the production of goods by industry The production of wealth by labour, and its distribution through exchange
22. 22. What is the name of the second form of group marriage in Morgan’s scheme, after the consanguine family?

    The monogamous family The pairing family The patriarchal family The punaluan family
23. 23. What does Engels call the downfall of maternal law?

    The historic defeat of the female sex The origin of democracy A natural development The triumph of reason over superstition
24. 24. What was “the first great division of social labour”?

    The separation of pastoral tribes from the other barbarians The separation of town and country, with the first cities The separation of mental from manual labour The rise of merchants
25. 25. What did the maintenance of the state’s public power require that was absolutely unknown in gentile society?

    Assemblies Leaders Customs Taxes
26. 26. Who translated this 1902 American edition?

    Ernest Untermann Eleanor Marx Aveling Florence Kelley Wischnewetzky Algie Martin Simons
27. 27. Which revolution, according to Engels, brought the final downfall of the gentile order in Athens?

    The revolution of Kleisthenes The Persian Wars The democratic reforms of Pericles The tyranny of Pisistratus and his sons
28. 28. How did Solon divide the citizens?

    Into the four old Ionian tribes, according to gens and phratry Into nobles, farmers and craftsmen, according to their occupation Into four classes according to the yield of their land Into territorial districts, according to their place of residence
29. 29. Which ancient drama did Bachofen interpret as depicting the struggle between declining mother right and rising father right?

    The Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles The Trojan Women of Euripides The Oresteia of Aeschylus The Odyssey
30. 30. From what does Morgan date the transition from savagery to barbarism?

    The bow and arrow The alphabet The art of pottery The use of fire
31. 31. What was the governing body of the Iroquois League?

    An assembly of all the warriors of the five tribes A council of fifty sachems, equal in rank A single hereditary king and his war council A council of priests
32. 32. What is the first right of an Iroquois gens, as Engels lists them?

    It holds all the land of the tribe as the private property of its chief It levies tribute from conquered tribes and divides it among its members It appoints the priests who keep the religious festivals of the tribe It elects its sachem (peace leader) and its chief (war leader)
33. 33. Which three main epochs of human development does Morgan distinguish?

    Hunting, herding and farming Savagery, barbarism and civilization Stone, bronze and iron ages Ancient, medieval and modern times
34. 34. In what sense does Engels say the book is “executing a bequest”?

    Morgan had left Engels his unpublished papers on the Iroquois with a request to edit them Marx had planned to present Morgan’s results in light of the materialist conception of history Morgan’s heirs had commissioned a German edition of Ancient Society from Engels in 1882 He had promised the International a popular history of the family and private property