A Critique of Patriarchy in Marx and Engels’ Late Anthropological Studies

In the 1860s, J.J.Bachofen suggested that human societies generally went through a matriarchal stage before entering patriarchy. Then, based on decades of fieldwork, L.H.Morgan found a realistic basis for Bachofen’s religiously mystical mother right. The proposal and refinement of mother rights rapidly became controversial. Against this background of intellectual history, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels launched the critique of patriarchy in their late anthropological studies. This article intends to integrate the anthropological studies into feminist debates to contribute to a better understanding of the genealogy of Marxist thought by presenting that Marx and Engels based on the clarification of the historical preconditions for the establishment of patriarchy, the overthrow of matriarchy and the imposition of monogamy, put forward that at the particular historical stage of capitalism, the ruling basis of patriarchy was the capitalist mode of production and that the proletarian revolution inherently included the demand for the emancipation of women. The proletarian revolution, which is also an ontological revolution in the theory of Marx and Engels, calling for women’s return to human beings as the social existence, opens the way for women’s true emancipation.