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Urgesellschaft (meaning "primal society" inGerman) is a term that, according toFriedrich Engels,[1] refers to the original coexistence of humans inprehistoric times, beforerecorded history. Here, a distinction is made between thekind ofHomo sapiens as humans, who hardly differed from modern humans biologically (an assertion disputed byanthropology), and other representatives of the genusHomo such as theHomo erectus or theNeanderthal. Engels claimed "that animal family dynamics and human primitive society are incompatible things" because "the primitive humans that developed out of animalism either knew no family at all or at most one that does not occur among animals".[1] The U.S. anthropologistLewis Henry Morgan and translations of his books also make use of the term.[2]
In specificity, this long period of time is not directly accessible throughhistorical sources. Nevertheless, inarchaeology, the study ofmaterial cultures provides a variety of opportunities to gain a better understanding of this period, work that is likewise present insociobiology andsocial anthropology, and inreligious studies through the analysis of prehistoricmythologies.
The so-called primitive society, or more appropriately, the primitive societies, probably span by far the longest period in the history of mankind to date, more than three million years, while other forms of society have existed and continue to exist for only a relatively short period in comparison (less than 1 percent of the period).
TheStone Age is an archaeological term for the period in which stone tools (fist wedges) are the oldest chronologically classifiable and roughly datable finds.[3] Other, even oldertools andobjects made of natural or animal materials (wood, bones, skins) decayed and did not survive. This Stone Age also includes the development of newsocial structures about 20,000 to 6,000 years ago. Generally, the advent ofarable farming andlivestock rearing is considered to be the transition to theNew Stone Age and the end of this phase. TheNeolithic Revolution was followed in some areas by theBronze Age (around 2200 to 800 BC), but in some cases ran in parallel.
| Age | Period | Duration | Human species |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stone Age | Paleolithic | Lower Paleolithic: 3.3Ma–300ka Middle Paleolithic: 300–50 ka Upper Paleolithic: 50,000–12,000 BC | Homo habilis,Homo erectus,Homo heidelbergensis In Middle Paleolithic:Homo neanderthalensis,Homo sapiens |
| Mesolithic | Europe: 15,000–5,000 BC Middle east: 20,000–10,000 BC | Homo sapiens | |
| Neolithic | 10,000–4,500 BC (2,200 BC in Western Europe) | ||
| Bronze Age | Early Bronze Age Middle Bronze AgeLate Bronze Age | 3300–1200 BC (900 BC in Europe) | |
| Iron Age | Between 2000 BC and 800 AD, greatly varies per region |
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Asociety is formed by different-sizedsocial groups acting together. At different times in history, as well as in different climates andecozones, human societies were quite different.
The gradual dispersal of early human groups (estimated at 1 to 10 kilometers per year) initially placed few demands on them and theirgenerational succession-they did not perceive any changes, especially inequatorial regions. However, drastic environmental changes such asice and warm periods, to which the migrants were exposed in the target area, caused new forms of adaptation with corresponding social structures. Food gathering and weather protection as well as the use offire were socially successful. However, a highsocial differentiation of primitive social forms of organization cannot be assumed. The first graspable societies as well as similar present groups appear relatively equal (egalitarian).
The isolation of individual groups, e.g. during theglacial periods or in insular settlement areas, led to culturally different traditions as well as tophenotypic, alsoracial theoretical differentiations.[4] The comparatively rare contacts were found by a pedestrian, overall stationary society in the nearest vicinity. Whether theexogamy (external marriage) indicates that people became aware of reproductive biology (procreation) is doubted; exogamy is sociologically seen rather as a proving safeguard of (re-)integration of diverging groupings (for example, inlineage orclan alliances with intermarriage).
Some religious traditions also speak ofa primal society, referring to the preforms of later religions spread across all hunter-gatherer groupings, derived from the social practices of their members. Inwritten cultures, the distinction between shepherds and cultivators that persists to this day is evident, for example, in thebiblical Story ofCain andAbel.[5] Still, inmodernmacrosociological theories, there are sophisticated assumptions about common features ofa primitive society, for instance inThomas Hobbes,Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Engels.
Whether early humans liveddominion-free oranarchic or already formed consolidated leadership positions (chiefs) is in each case only a justifiable assumption, the same going for whether they organized themselves associal hordes, cultivated religiouscults (withancestor cult ortotemism?) and culturally already knew narrators or familially already theKernfamilie. Economically, this society is based on anoccupation economy, depending on the geological time or vegetation zone to dictate whether one takes the profession ofhunter, fisherman, or gatherer.[6] During the Ice Age, for example, their focus in Central Europe and North America was onhunting, while elsewheregathering andfishing also became important, as in Central Europe after the migration of large animal fauna in theMiddle Stone Age (compare Scandinavianmiddens).
InMarxist theory on the social development of mankind, especially inhistorical materialism, primitive society is also calledclasslessprimitive communism[7] because, just as in the "communism" that followedcapitalism, there was noprivate property in the means of production.