itution scarcely older than civilization, is the nucleus around
which society and state gradually crystallized.

"Mr. Grote will also please note," throws in Marx, "that the gentes,
which the Greeks traced to their mythologies, are older than the
mythologies. The latter together with their gods and demi-gods were
created by the gentes."

Grote is quoted with preference by Morgan as a prominent and quite
trustworthy witness. He relates that every Attic gens had a name derived
from its alleged ancestor; that before Solon's time, and even after, it
was customary for the gentiles (gennetes) to inherit the fortunes of
their intestate deceased; and that in case of murder first the relatives
of the victim had the duty and the right to prosecute the criminal,
after them the gentiles and finally the phrators. "Whatever we may learn
about the oldest Attic laws is founded on the organization in gentes and
phratries."

The descent of the gentes from common ancestors has caused the
"schoolbred philistines," as Marx has it, much worry. Representing this
descent as purely mythical, they are at a loss to explain how the gentes
developed out of independent and wholly unrelated families. But this
explanation must be given, if they wish to explain the existence of the
gentes. They then turn around in a circle of meaningless gibberish and
do not get beyond the phrase: the pedigree is indeed a fable, but the
gens is a reality. Grote finally winds up--the parenthetical remarks are
by Marx: "We rarely hear about this pedigree, because it is used in
public only on certain very festive occasions. But the less prominent
gentes had their common religious rites (very peculiar, Mr. Grote!) and
their common superhuman ancestor and pedigree just like the more
prominent gentes (how very peculiar this, Mr. Grote, in less prominent
gentes!); and the ground plan and the ideal fundament (my dear sir! Not
ideal, but carnal, anglice "fleshly") was the same in all of them."

Marx sums up Morgan's reply to this as follows: "The system of
consanguinity corresponding to the archaic form of the gens--which the
Greeks once possessed like other mortals--preserved the knowledge of the
mutual relation of all members of the gens. They learned this important
fact by practice from early childhood. With the advent of the monogamous
family this was gradually forgotten. The gentile name created a pedigree
by the side of which that of the monogamous family seemed insign