Primitive communism

Why this idea is as seductive as it is wrong. Marx's notion of 'primitive communism', which states that societies were naturally egalitarian and communal before farming is, for Manvir Singh — an anthropologist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulousewidely — clearly influential but also quite wrong. In this comprehensive essay, Singh studies why the things that make it appealing are also why it needs to be questioned.