Primitive society is divided into three stages: Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. Primitive society is also called "primitive commune" and "primitive communist society". The first social form in human history. The process of human production is also the process of the formation of primitive society. It has existed for two or three million years, which is the longest stage of social development in human history.

The extremely low productivity is the fundamental reason for the slow development of primitive society. The main symbol of social productivity is the use of stone tools. The combination of labor is mainly simple cooperation, and the division of labor between people is mainly the natural division of labor according to gender and age.

People can't fight against nature alone, but must work together to find living resources, which determines the common possession of the means of production. At the same time, people can only work in an equal relationship of mutual assistance and cooperation, and products are shared and distributed equally by all members of society.

general situation

Clan is a group formed by members of primitive society connected by blood relationship, and it is the basic economic and social unit of primitive social organization. It is a group of blood relatives handed down from a common ancestor. Intermarriage is prohibited within the clan, and property is jointly inherited. In its heyday, the clan system included clans, phratries, tribes and tribal alliances, which Engels called "the organic series of clans".

Clan is the basic unit of this organization series. Above the clan, there are several contented phratries, and above the phratries, there are several tribes composed of phratries. In some places, there are tribal alliances composed of several tribes. Clan organization has generally experienced two stages: "matriarchal clan" and "paternal clan", and matriarchal clan is a typical form of primitive commune system.