pFirst published in 1884, The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State is the groundbreaking treatise on the history of the nuclear family unit by Friedrich Engels. Largely based on notes written by Karl Marx found by Engels after his death, the treatise examines the findings in American anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan's book Ancient Society, which posits that human progress may be divided into three stages savagery, then barbarism, and finally modern civilization. Morgan argued that primitive human cultures were matrilineal in nature and that power in tribal societies was controlled by women. Influenced by Morgan's research, Engels contends that the institutions of private property and inheritance have led to the creation of the nuclear family and the patrilineal system found in most modern societies. The work argues that the status of women as property of their husbands is a result of this transformation and only by eliminating private property and converting to communism