Johann Jakob Bachofen
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Bachofen, Johann Jakob
Born Dec. 22, 1815, in Basel; died there on Nov. 25, 1887. Swiss legal historian.
Bachofen laid the foundations for the study of the history of the family. In his work Matriarchal Law (1861) and others he put forth the thesis of the universal historical development of primitive mankind from an original promiscuity (“heterism”) to matriarchal and later to patriarchal law. Bachofen erroneously viewed the evolution of religious ideas as the basis of this development. After criticizing and rejecting Bachofen’s idealistic ideas, K. Marx and F. Engels made use of his work in creating a materialistic conception of primitive history.
REFERENCES
Engels, F. “Proiskhozhdenie sem’i, chastnoi sobstvennosti i gosudarstva.” In K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 21.Kosven, M. O. Matriarkhat: Istoriia problemy. Moscow-Leningrad, 1948.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.