Date: Fri, 3 May 96 11:04:34 GMT
Subject: Re: Women's oppression, Adam and Engels ?



Lisa writes:
> But I'd still like you to explain _how_ class society created women's
> oppression or patriarchy [which is not quite the same thing,
> perhaps].

First of all, there was a division of Labour.
This division of Labour came about as a result of
the things talked about in "the role of Labour . . . ".

Women were more involved in reproduction and those aspects of
production which fitted in with reproduction, men did those
things which didn't fit in so well with reproduction, in particular,
hunting.

This wasn't really matriarchy, patriarchy, or any archy. No one
ruled, no one was oppressed. There was no surplus to be shared
out fairly or otherwise.

Gradually, a surplus developed ( ie the productivity of Labour 
rose beyond the bare minimum needed for survival ). Probably,
It would have grown out of things like stores set aside to get
through the winter or the dry season.

At this point, and not before, the question of who owns and controls
the surplus arises. Private property and its neccessary corollary,
the state, come into existence [ There isn't enough of a surplus
for a classless society to share out the surplus, this objective
basis for socialism only comes with the rise of capitalism].

Men had the weapons, because they were the hunters. Before the rise
of the surplus, there was nothing much to be gained from this. But
when there was a surplus to be controlled, the weapons were the means
of getting control. Private property was individual men's property.
The property had then to be passed down the male line, hence the 
familly and all that.

I also think that the actual technology involved in the transition to
agriculture involved the application of what had been hunting technologies
to "horticulture" , and that this was were the surplus came from.

Adam.

Adam Rose
SWP
Manchester
UK


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