Primitive Communism and Neolithic Revolution

Who first used the name “primitive communism” for societies before classes?

• Karl Marx

• Frederick Engels

• V. Gordon Childe

• Martin Empson

In groups of people who hunted and gathered food, how was food shared?

• They shared it with everyone equally.

• Each person kept food for themselves.

• They sold food at markets.

• They traded food with other groups.

In some hunter-gatherer groups, what did both men and women do?

• Build big water systems

• Carry and look after small children

• Plow fields with heavy tools

• Lead by giving orders

Among the !Kung people, a “headman” was someone who:

• Inherited power from family

• Could make people do things with force

• Could talk and guide, but not force rules

• Had a group of elders to help them

The “Neolithic Revolution” means when people:

• First made stone tools 2.6 million years ago

• Began to grow crops and keep animals

• Painted the first cave pictures 7,000 years ago

• Started factories in the 1800s

What did farming bring that led to rich and poor?

• It made everyone work less.

• People could store extra food.

• People travelled more often.

• No one needed any leaders.

When the plough was used, what happened to women’s work?

• Women did more plough work.

• Women’s part in farming got smaller.

• Women and men shared plough work equally.

• Women stopped looking after children.

Engels said early groups had no kings, prisons, or judges. Which did they still have?

• Sharing food only with rich people

• Looking after children together

• Buying land as private property

• Big armies to fight wars

Studies of farming societies that used the plough find they often have:

• More women in politics

• More equal views about gender roles

• Fewer women in political jobs

• No effect on women’s work outside home

What is the main idea of the article?

• People were always competitive and cruel.

• Early people lived equally until farming began class differences.

• Class divisions existed even before farming.

• Gender inequality is natural in all times.