Engels, etnografi a, matriarchalistyka

• Authors: Florian Nowicki

Title variants

EN

Engels, Ethnography, Matriarchal Studies

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

This article addresses the theoretical problems which matriarchal theory has introduced into Marxism (Engels and Soviet scholarship). The author discusses fi ve problem areas: 1. The extent to which it is possible to defi ne social formations and modes of production using gender categories. 2. The relationship between matriarchy (or: the high position of women) and communism (in the past as well as the future). 3. The relationship of matriarchal theory to the general premises of the materialist theory of history (the dialectic of productive forces and relations of production). 4. The relationship between matriarchal theory and theoretical issues relating to sexuality, in particular female sexuality. 5. The extent to which it is possible to construct collective identities based on the matriarchal tradition and the tradition of research into matriarchy (Russian identity, Eastern identity – in opposition to Western identity). The author proposes that the Marxist typology of the modes of production (based on the category of “asexual” “direct producer”) be supplemented by a typology of the relationship between women and men (in the process of production), and formulates the following questions concerning the future: – Will a future socialist revolution be able to establish a connection with the remains of matriarchal “ideology” surviving in the social consciousness (above all, in the consciousness of older women)? – Will the ethos of motherhood be an element of the ideology of a future socialist society? – Can Marxism eschew its occidental bourgeois revolution perspective, and take as its reference point the (collectivist-matriarchal) Eastern identity (as was unwittingly done by Soviet researchers into matriarchy during the Stalinist period)?

Keywords

EN

matriarchy; communism; marxism; mode of production; sexuality; gender

• Publisher: Instytut Filozofii, Uniwersytet Szczeciński
• Journal: Nowa Krytyka
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 28
• Pages: 81-101

Contributors

author

Florian Nowicki

• Uniwersytet Warszawski