The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State

nuts, and roots served as food; the development of articulate language is the main achievement of this time. Of all the peoples known within the historical period, not a single one still belonged to this primeval state. As many millennia as it may have lasted, we can prove it just as little from direct evidence; but once the descent of man from the animal kingdom is admitted, the assumption of this transition becomes indispensable.

2. Middle stage—begins with the utilization of fish (to which we also count crustaceans, shellfish, and other aquatic animals) for food and with the use of fire. Both belong together, since fish food only becomes fully usable through the medium of fire. With this new food, however, humans became independent of climate and location; following the rivers and coasts, they could spread over the greater part of the earth even in their wild state. The crudely worked, unpolished stone tools of the earlier Stone Age, the so-called paleolithic, which fall entirely or for the most part into this period, are evidence of these migrations in their distribution over all continents. The newly occupied zones, like the incessantly active instinct for discovery, combined with the possession of the Reibfeuer friction fire, brought forth new food sources; such as starch-containing roots and tubers, baked in hot ashes or in baking pits (earth ovens); such as game, which, with the invention of the first weapons, club and spear, became an occasional addition to the diet. Exclusive hunter-gatherer peoples, as they figure in books—that is, those who live solely by hunting—have never existed; the yield of hunting is far too uncertain for that. As a result of the constant uncertainty of food sources, cannibalism appears to arise at this stage, which from now on persists for a long time. The Australians and many Polynesians still stand at this middle stage of savagery today.

3. Upper stage: begins with the invention of the bow and arrow, whereby game became regular food, and hunting one of the normal branches of labor.