the ethnological notebooks of karl marx - Marxists Internet Archive

Notes to Introduction, pp. 12-17.hallowed path by means of private property.” This is offered byLucas as an example of an ironical turn of phrase by Marx, and of asubjective coloration. It is not found in Marx.The word ‘osviashchennyi’, which occurs in the Russian, is renderedas ‘geheiligt’ by Lucas. The text of The Origin of the Family byEngels provides a clue to this introduction of material into Marx’stext without indication that it is not Marx’s own wording. Engelswrote (MEW 21, p. 105), “ ... eine Einrichtung ... die nicht nur dasfrüher so geringschätzte Privateigentum heiligte und diese Heiligung... erklärte__ ” (... An arrangement... that not only hallowed privateproperty that had formerly been so litde prized ... and declared thissanctification__ ) (Cf. Engels, Origin, Eng. tr., op. cit., p. 97).The Russian version is not a translation, but a rendering whichsubstitutes proper Russian semantic, grammatical and syntactic constructionsfor Marx’s condensed polyglot note-taking style.26 Morgan, Ancient Society, 1907, p. 17, characterized the Latin tribes ofRomulian period as die “ ... highest exemplification of the UpperStatus of Barbarism.”27 Morgan, ibid., p. 544. Morgan’s notion that the banks of the Tigris,Euphrates, and other rivers of (southwestern) Asia were the naturalhomes of the pastoral tribes is one of the grounds for Gordon Childe’sproposal that the substance if not the form of Morgan’s schema bechanged. (See below, note 148.)28 Morgan, ibid., p. 552. Iliad, book v, 90. Here Diomedes attacked theTrojans like a winter torrent that overcomes the fences and dikesalong its banks. The context permits some interpretation about thetechnology of Homeric Greek flood control, possibly about theirviticulture, etc., but nothing about forms of landownership, whethercollective or private.Iliad v, 90-91 : o u t ’ àpa ëpxea ïayei àXàcov epi0Y)XécovèXôovx’ è£a7tiv7)ç, o t ’ e7ußpicry] Sioç 6[a.ßpo^... The fenced embankments did not hold back the winter torrents,neither did the walls of the fruitful vineyards stay its sudden comingwhen the rains of Zeus drives it on,” etc. (Loeb ed.) ëpxoç fence,enclosure, epxea layzi (redupl.) keep back the torrent. ocXcoa garden,vineyard, orchard, prepared ground.29 Morgan, op. cit., p. 19. Engels, op. cit., p. 19, quoted Morgan ashaving written, “ ... almost absolute control...” , reflecting Marx’sexclamation at Morgan’s unqualified statement. The English translationof Engels restores Morgan’s text, with a note referring toEngels’ insertion; the German editions of 1931, H. Duncker, ed.,and of 1962, MEW, 2 1p . 30, retain Engels’ text without change.30 Morgan, op. cit, p. 471.31 Ibid., p. 540.32 Engels, op. cit., p. 50. M. M. Kovalevsky, Tableau des Origines et der Evolution de la Famille et de la Propriété, 1890.368