Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State: in the light of the researches of Lewis H. Morgan is a historical materialist treatise written by Friedrich Engels and published in 1884. It is partially based on notes by Karl Marx to Lewis H. Morgan''s book Ancient Society. The book begins with an extensive discussion of Ancient Society which describes the major stages of human development as commonly understood in Engels'' time. In contrast to other contemporary essays on the subject, Engels emphasizes the importance not of primitive psychological development but rather of social relations of power and control over material resources, sometimes related to the development of new technologies.