1.3. Decomposition of the primitive communal system

Around V-IV millennium BC began the decomposition of primitive society. Among the factors contributing to this, in addition to the Neolithic revolution, an important role was played by the intensification of agriculture, the development of specialized cattle breeding, the emergence of metallurgy, the development of specialized crafts, and the development of trade.

With the development of plow farming, agricultural labor passed from female to male hands, and the male farmer and warrior became the head of the family. Accumulation in different families was created unequal, and each family, accumulating property, tried to keep it in the family. The product gradually ceases to be divided among members of the community, and property begins to pass from father to children, the foundations of private ownership of the means of production are laid.

From the maternal kinship account go to the kinship account for the father - the patriarchy is formed . The shape of family relationships changes accordingly; there is a patriarchal family based on private property. The subordinate position of a woman affects, in particular, in the fact that the obligation of monogamy is established only for a woman, for men polygamy (polygamy) is allowed. The most ancient documents of Egypt and Dvorichchia testify to such a situation that had developed by the end of the 4th beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. The same picture is confirmed by the most ancient written monuments appearing among some tribes of the foothills of Western Asia, China in the 2nd millennium BC.

The growth of labor productivity, the strengthening of exchange, constant wars - all this led to the emergence of property stratification among the tribes. Property inequality generated social inequality. The top of the clan aristocracy was formed, in fact, in charge of all affairs. Notable members of the congregation sat in the tribal council, were in charge of a cult of the gods, isolated from their midst military leaders and priests. Along with the property and social differentiation within the tribal community, differentiation within the tribe between individual clans also occurs. On the one hand, there are strong and rich childbirth, and on the other - weak and impoverished. Accordingly, the first of them gradually turn into dominant, and the latter - into subordinates. As a result of wars, entire tribes or even groups of tribes could be in a subordinate position.

However, for a long time, despite the property and social stratification of the community, the tip of the clan aristocracy still had to reckon with the opinion of the whole community. But more and more often the labor elite are abused in their own interests by the ancestral elite, with whose power ordinary members of the community cannot argue anymore.

So, signs of the disintegration of the tribal system were the emergence of property inequality, the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of tribal leaders, the increased frequency of armed clashes, the conversion of prisoners to slaves, the transformation of a kind of blood group into a territorial community. Archaeological excavations in various parts of the world, including in the USSR, allow us to draw such conclusions. An example is the famous Maykop barrow in the North Caucasus, relating to the II millennium BC. or the magnificent burials of the leaders in Trialeti (south of Tbilisi). The abundance of jewels, burial with slaves and slaves forcibly killed by the leader, the colossal size of the grave mounds all this testifies to the wealth and power of the leaders, the violation of the initial equality within the tribe.

In various parts of the world, the destruction of primitive communal relations took place at different times, the patterns of transition to a higher formation were also varied: some nations formed early class states, others slave-owning, many peoples passed the slave-owning system and immediately turned to feudalism, and some to colonial capitalism (the peoples of America Australia) 1 .

Thus, the growth of productive forces created the prerequisites for strengthening the ties between social organisms and the development of the system of gift-exchange relations. With the transition from a pair marriage to a patriarchal, and later monogram, the family is strengthened, which is located in the framework of the community. Community property is complemented by personal. Individualization of production and strengthening of the family meant the weakening of primitive collectivism and the community as a whole. With the development of the productive forces (the transition to copper, bronze and iron tools of labor) and the strengthening of territorial (neighborly) ties between families, the early primitive community is replaced by the primitive neighborhood, and later the agricultural community. It is characterized by a combination of individual parcel production with common land ownership, private ownership and community principles. The development of this internal contradiction creates the conditions for the emergence of class society and the state.

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Primitive communal system - the starting point in the history of mankind. This is the longest socio-economic formation, it existed among all nations in the early stages of development.

In the history of the primitive system, several stages are distinguished according to the degree of development of productive sIPs, social organization, as well as forms of economy and movement from a lower stage to a higher one - from stone age to bronze, from bronze to iron.

An important stage in the history of primitive man was the first economic revolution (neolithic), when there was a transition from the appropriating economy to the producing one. As the social division of labor deepened and its productivity increased in primitive society, exchange increased, a surplus product emerged, which became the basis for the emergence of private property and property inequality. In place of the primitive system come class societies.

Questions for self-test

1. 1. Tell us about the variants of periodization of the primitive era of humanity, the main stages of development.

2. 2. How did the physical type of person change?

3. 3. What were the religious beliefs of primitive people?

4. 4. List the main inventions and discoveries of this era.

5. 5. What was Tripoli culture?

6. 6. Describe the main features of the community and its evolution.

7. 7. What were the dwellings of primitive people?

8. 8. Describe the main signs of the decomposition of the primitive system.