Updating Engels: Why Engels Was Right, Why Engels Was Wrong.

Updating Engels: Why Engels Was Right, Why Engels Was Wrong. (Free teach-in)
Led by Gene Ruyle, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Cal State Long Beach. Marx and Engels were keen students of the Anthropology of their day, but Anthropology has made significant progress since the Nineteenth Century. This workshop will cover some of the achievements of Anthropology which Marx and Engels would surely study if they were writing today. In particular, we will consider the relativist revolution led by Franz Boas in the early twentieth century as well as cultural evolutionists such as V. Gordon Childe, Julian Steward, Leslie White, and Gerhard Lenski. Suggested readings include Eleanor Leacock’s "Introduction" to the 1972 edition (International Publishers) of Engels, Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, and Ruyle’s article, “Anthropology for Marxists,” available on his website, cuyleruyle.com.