Engels: Family Maintains Capitalism By Guaranteeing Inheritance

Engels: Family Maintains Capitalism By Guaranteeing Inheritance

1. Family helps maintain social status by guaranteeing the generational inheritance of wealth and private property.

2. Eg. Rockefeller made billions of dollars in the late 19th century. He left his business and fortune to his children and the Rockefellers became one of the most powerful families in America as their wealth was passed from generation to generation.

3. Laws and customs ensure that the system of generational inheritance is protected, such as primogeniture, which states that the first born son receives his father's inheritance.

4. Criticism: Evidence has been found of monogamous marriage and the nuclear family in non-capitalist, hunter-gatherer type societies. This suggests that monogamy and the nuclear family are not caused by capitalism.

   • Therefore his theory is era-dependent, as even in modern society, there are greater trends towards leaving money to charities or businesses.