Family and Power in the West

Civilization came much later to the West. The first great western culture, that of Greece, peaked in the fifth century bc, many centuries after the great Egyptian or Mesopotamian civilizations did.

However, this relative backwardness would later be made up for by the devel­opment of more sophisticated social structures. Whereas in the East power gener­ally preceded from above, and in connection with a divinity (in the cases of Mesopotamia and Egypt) in the West it was structured from below, based on kinship ties. The family is the cornerstone of western culture.

2.3.1 The Indo-Europeans Lay the Linguistic and Social Foundations of Western Culture

Beginning in the second millennium BC a series of peoples began to appear on the European continent about which little is known, except that they spoke languages which proceeded from a common linguistic branch: what has been called “Proto­Indo-European”, a language that is thought to have fragmented into different ones between 3000 and 2000 bc, evolving into Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, among others.

In addition to a shared language, the Indo-Europeans boasted a high degree of social structuring, considerably higher, in any case, than that of the indigenous peoples they encountered as they settled across the European continent.^[22] This greater degree of social structuring generally allowed the Indo-Europeans to estab­lish themselves as a superior caste ruling over the indigenous populations of Greece, Rome and the Iberian Peninsula.^[23]

2.3.2 Indo-European Family Structure and the Formation of Society in the West: From the Tribe to the City

Little is known of the Proto-Indo-European societies, and we still rely heavily on the studies of linguists and anthropologists. The classic works by Fustel de Coulanges (2001) and Morgan (2003) are still extremely interesting in spite of the fact that they can only be considered to offer likely, though not certain,

suppositions about past eras about which we can never be sure because of the scarcity of the historical sources available.^{[24] [25]}

2.3.2.1 Family and Gens

Today the family is a restricted human group which, essentially, features people linked by blood ties who relate to each other during their lifetimes, that is, pro­genitors and their progeny (parents-children, grandparents-grandchildren) and their closest collateral relatives (brothers, uncles and cousins).

The family was understood as a group of people sharing a common predecessor, usually designated in ancient sources by the Latin term gens (genos in Greek), from which comes the Castilian term gentilicio, a synonym of the word apellido (last name). Thus, all those bearing the same gentilicio, or surname, belonged to the 17

same gens.

2.3.2.2 The Urban Origins of the State: Clientela, Phratry, Curia and Tribe as Precursors of the City

In Indo-European society the gens formed the basis of society. Thus, isolated individuals who did not belong to any gens sought to become part of one to survive. Hence, the old gens encompassed not only blood descendants of a common ancestor, but also included people who did not share kinship ties. First, forming a natural part of the gens’ main family group were their servants and slaves. Sec­ondly, there were also those who joined the gens by virtue of a pact or agreement. This pact, called a “clientela relationship” was of a sacred character and, once sealed, was binding upon the “clients” and their descendants. Through it primitive Indo-European families were reinforced, forming more extensive groups.^{[26] [27]}

Thus, there came a time when a certain number of families joined to form a group called the phratry, from the Greek phratria, or the curia, from the Latin.

The process by which the gens were grouped did not cease, and several phratria or ended up forming tribes, which also had their own rite, with their own leader (tribuno), assemblies (comitia tributa) and tribunals. Vestiges of this tribe-based organization are still visible in the political and legal institutions of the ancient Greek cities. In Athens, for example, there were ten tribes, which each chose 50 members forming part of the Council of 500. There was also a magistrate for each tribe, and it was within them that citizens were chosen to serve in judicial capacities.

The integration process continued, gathering momentum, with the tribes ulti­mately grouping into cities when different ones came to live in one place: the urbe¹ Over time cities’ social and legal organization became increasingly structured. The first “urban” model to develop was the city-state, the Greek polis standing as the quintessential example. In fact, it was then when the word “politics” appeared in the history of western society.

2.4