If all that Duhring wanted to show is that human history has proceeded as a result of class struggle, of exploiter and exploited, he would have been saying nothing new that was not already outlined in The Communist Manifesto. But, the whole point is to analyse and explain the material basis of these relations, and to explain how they are transformed into new relations.
“... if Herr Dühring's only answer is always the single word “force”, we are left exactly where we were at the start. The mere fact that the ruled and exploited have at all times been far more numerous than the rulers and the exploiters, and that therefore the real force has reposed in the hands of the former, is enough to demonstrate the absurdity of the whole force theory. The relations of domination and subjection have therefore still to be explained.” (p 228)
Engels, therefore, sets out a summary of this process, starting from the separation of humans from the animal kingdom, as the first modern humans evolved “still half animal, brutish, still impotent in face of the forces of nature, still ignorant of their own; and consequently as poor as the animals and hardly more productive than they.” (p 228)
Amongst these early humans, a certain equality prevailed, in their condition of existence, “and also a kind of equality of social position for the heads of families— at least an absence of social classes — which continued among the primitive agricultural communities of the civilised peoples of a later period.” (p 228-9)
Even with herds, and packs of animals, they protect themselves as a whole, by chasing off predators. Regularly, I watch murders of crows, for example, chasing off buzzards that fly overhead. Within early human communities, this requirement continues, and, with humans not having the same physical capabilities of other animals, it is their intelligence, the ability to produce weapons and tools, as well as, later, fire, that becomes significant, as well as the ability to communicate via language.
“In each such community there were from the beginning certain common interests the safeguarding of which had to be handed over to individuals, true, under the control of the community as a whole: adjudication of disputes; repression of encroachments by individuals beyond their rights; control of water supplies, especially in hot countries; and finally when conditions were still very primitive, religious functions.” (p 229)
Every anthropological study shows this. So, we see certain individuals arise who have prowess in fighting, in knowledge of herbs, and so on, also often related to a supposed ability to communicate with the spirits.
“It goes without saying that they are endowed with a certain measure of authority and constitute the beginnings of state power.” (p 229)
The actual extent to which that state power develops is conditioned by material conditions, and historical development. For a state to develop, there must first be a ruling class or caste, which itself requires that this class or caste has been able to qualitatively separate itself from the other classes or castes in society, to have appropriated to itself a significant proportion of society's production, and that it is able to perpetuate itself. For a ruling-class, the means by which this is achieved, is via its ownership of property, whereas, for a ruling caste, it is achieved by the creation of a panoply of taboos, and rules that solidify and prescribe the membership of each caste, and prevent any movement from one to another.
But, this, in itself, requires a minimum level of development of productivity, and of society. A tribe of hunter-gatherers is not going to have a sufficient level of production to enable any qualitative difference in the proportion of its distribution to enable the formation of a ruling class or caste. They may have chiefs and Medicine Men, and various councils, but these are functional roles, and forms of division of labour and administration, not the existence of a state separated from society, representing the interests of a ruling class or caste. Indeed, a communist society, with no classes, in the future, will also require administration, and administrative bodies without that constituting a state.
“The productive forces gradually increase; the greater density of the population creates common interests at one point, and conflicting interests at another, between the separate communities, whose grouping into larger units again brings about a new division of labour, the setting up of organs to defend common interests and guard against conflicting interests. These organs which, as representatives of the common interests of the whole group, already occupy a special position in relation to each individual community—in certain circumstances even one of opposition—soon make themselves still more independent, partly through heredity of functions, which comes about almost as a matter of course in a world where everything occurs spontaneously, and partly through their growing indispensability with the increase in conflicts with other groups.” (p 229)
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