Native-American origin of the Marxist utopia

Danilo Antón

Karl Marx used to a large extent the philosophical developments that preceded it. In particular, he dedicated years to the study of the social organization of the Indians of America (as indicated in Engels' work, "The origin of the family, private property and the state"). This paper is based on the studies of Lewis Henry Morgan "Ancient Society, or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savajism through Barbarism to Civilization" based on a previous work on the League of Iroquois written as a result of their experiences in the Seneca communities of the state of New York. This work was written jointly with a young Seneca Iroquois named Hasanoasda (whose English name was Ely Parker) who provided much of the information and his own point of view.

Marx's work on this subject remained inconclusive due to his death. Engels himself points out in his preface to the edition of 188444: "The following pages come to be, in a certain sense, the execution of a will. Karl Marx was preparing to personally expose the results of Morgan's investigations ... "and then pointed out:" The great merit of Morgan is to have found in the gentile unions of the North American Indians the key to deciphering very important enigmas, not yet resolved of the ancient history of Greece, Rome and Germany. " At the beginning of "The origin of the family, private property and the State", Engels continues: "Morgan was the first who knowingly tried to introduce a precise order into the prehistory of humanity, and his classification will no doubt remain in vigor until a much more considerable wealth of data does not force to modify it. "

In its first moment (lower stage) human beings had not yet completed its evolution as a species, at this time they fed on fruits, nuts and roots and did not use fire. In a second moment they learned to use fire and the fish was incorporated into the diet. According to Engels, there were no exclusively hunter villages due to the problematic nature of this feeding source. The superior stage or salvajism begins with the invention of the bow and arrow that allows much more dependence on hunting. The era of barbarism began with the introduction of pottery and the domestication of plants and animals. Always according to Engels, "the eastern continent, the so-called ancient world, possessed almost all the domesticable animals and all the cereals proper for cultivation, except one; the western continent, America, did not have more domesticable mammals than the llama, and still, only in a part of the South, and only one of the arable cereals, but the best, the maize. " The middle and upper stages of barbarism correspond to an increase in social and technological complexity. The upper stage was the "period in which all civilized peoples pass their heroic age: the age of the iron sword, but also of the plow and the iron ax. By putting this metal at his service, man became the owner of the last and most important of the raw materials that represented in history a revolutionary role, the last one without counting the potato. The iron made possible the agriculture in large areas, the clearing of the most extensive jungle regions "

The culmination of barbarism is civilization. With the increase of production appear cities increasing the division of labor, there appear differentiated trades of agriculture, increases the production and productivity of labor, and simultaneously the value of the labor force of man. This gave birth to a "civilized" system in which the "auxiliaries" of the work "gave" their place to the slaves, at the same time as the merchant production and associated trade networks appeared. "The difference between rich and poor was added to that between free and slaves; of the new division of labor resulted in a new division of the class society ... the common work of the land was ended ... The arable land was distributed among the private families; at the beginning in a temporary way, and later forever; the step to full private ownership was realized little by little ... ". "Along with the wealth in merchandise and slaves, along with fortune in money, territorial wealth also appeared." These riches became hereditary, and over time, all of them susceptible to being alienated (mortgaged, sold).

Engels' approach is clearly evolutionary: societies "advance" naturally from "wild" levels to "barbaric" levels, culminating in "civilizations". From a certain point of view, this evolution is evaluated in a negative way. Engel says Engels says: "Every progress in production is at the same time a setback in the situation of the oppressed class, that is, of the immense majority. Every benefit for some is by necessity a detriment to others; each degree of emancipation achieved by one class is a new element of oppression for the other. "But at the same time it is posited as the inevitable development of an ineluctable historical process that can only be resolved through progress towards a higher stage. That stage is defined by Engels through a quote from Morgan himself:

"Democracy in administration, fraternity in society, equality of rights and general education, will envision the next higher stage of society, to which experience, science and understanding constantly tend. It will be a revival of the freedom, equality and fraternity of the ancient gens, but under a superior form? (Morgan, The Ancient Society, page 552). "

As a footnote, it is worth noting that when Engels refers to corn as the best cereal and to potato, one of the main food crops, recognizes the impressive role of American agricultural knowledge in the development of the contemporary world.

From: Amerrique, the Orphans of  Paradise, Danilo Antón, Piriguazú Editions.