Mutual Aid

A Factor of Evolution

Peter Kropotkin

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780486449135
• eBook ISBN: 9780486121536
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

In this cornerstone of modern liberal social theory, Peter Kropotkin states that the most effective human and animal communities are essentially cooperative, rather than competitive. Kropotkin based this classic on his observations of natural phenomena and history, forming a work of stunning and well-reasoned scholarship. Essential to the understanding of human evolution as well as social organization, it offers a powerful counterpoint to the tenets of Social Darwinism. It also cites persuasive evidence of human nature's innate compatibility with anarchist society.
"Kropotkin's basic argument is correct," noted evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould. "Struggle does occur in many modes, and some lead to cooperation among members of a species as the best pathway to advantage for individuals." Anthropologist Ashley Montagu declared that "Mutual Aid will never be any more out of date than will the Declaration of Independence. New facts may increasingly become available, but we can already see that they will serve largely to support Kropotkin's conclusion that 'in the ethical progress of man, mutual support—not mutual struggle—has had the leading part.'" Physician and author Alex Comfort asserted that "Kropotkin profoundly influenced human biology by his theory of Mutual Aid. . . . He was one of the first systematic students of animal communities, and may be regarded as the founder of modern social ecology."

INDEX

Aachen

“Aba,” common hunt

Abbeville.

Abyssinia, village community

Adalbert, St.

Adlerz, Prof. Gottfried, on ants

Africa, animal population of; village community; barbarian monarchies; compensation laws of various stems; customary law; village community

Agricultural co-operation in Netherlands; in Belgium. See also Syndicats, Artéls.

Agricultural implements, improved in village communities

Aids, in guilds

Aids: in Kabyle villages; in Georgia.; amongst French peasants seq.; in Caucasia.; in Germany

Aire, “friendship” of

Alans

Aleoutes seq.; in stone age still; peacefulness; periodical distributions of accumulated wealth; code of morality

Alfurus, the

Algeria

Allthing, law recited at

Alpine Clubs

Altum, Dr. B., on destruction of the pine-moth; of mice

Amalfi

America, animal population of

America, Northern

Amiens.,.; acting as arbiter.

Amitas

Amkari

Amt

Amu river.

Amur river

Anabaptism seq.

“Anaya” custom

Ancher, Kofod, on old Danish guilds

Anglo-Saxon law

Annam, village community

Antelopes

Anthropological Society of Paris, questions answered; on cannibalism

Anticosti Island

Ants, mutual support with; feeding each other; agriculture and horticulture of; federations of their nests; their play; book of Pierre Huber on; Mr. Sutherland’s appreciation; Prof. Adlerz on; nations of

Antwerp.

Apes, sociability of; family relations

Aquatic birds; family habits of.; on St. Lawrence river

Arabs, invasion of

Aral, lake.

Arani, the

Arbiter, city acting as

Architecture, mediæval seq.; communal inspiration; mechanical achievements

Arctic America Eskimos

Arctic archipelagoes

Ardennes, re-allotting of land

Ariège, village life in seq.; communal culture

Armadillo

Arnold, Dr. Wilhelm.; on German cities

Art, mediaeval and Greek, communal inspiration of

Artél and note; modern developments in Russia

Arthur, King, legends of

Aryans, early

Asara, on sociability in the Tree-creepers’ family of birds

Asia, Northern

Assemblée Constituante

Associations of animals: family, group, society; in villages

Athens, Acropolis

Audubon; on parrots; packs of Labrador wolves; Canada musk-rats; his “Journals,”; on aquatic birds on St. Lawrence river; on eagles

Augsburg

Augustin, St.

Aunt, maternal, sacrificing herself to follow dead child; her duties in the tribe

Australasia, Southern

Australia; droves of cattle

Australians; The Folklore, Manners, etc., of A. Aborigines.; code of morality.

Austria, destruction of village community

Autumn, societies of birds

Babeau, old village in France.; old towns; village community.

“Baby language,”

Bachofen, on late origin of family

Bacon, Francis

Bacon, Roger

Baden

Bain, Eb., on merchant and craft guilds.

Baker, S. W., hunting associations of lions; societies of elephants

Bakradze, Dm., on common culture; on common ownership of serfs

“Balai,” or “barla,”

Balkan peninsula, village community

Bancroft, on common culture

Baptists

Barbarians, mutual aid among the; migrations dissociating them; village-community institutions worked out by; justice rendered by village folkmote; fred and wergeld; amount of composition payment; settling of peace; mild punishments; tribes now living under the institutions of seq.; clearing forests, colonizing

Barbarossa

Barrow

Barthold, German mediæval cities.

Basel; cathedral

Bassano.

Bassoutos.

Bastian, Adolf, on blood-revenge and justice; obligation to aid travellers; Oceania islands.

Batavians.

Bates, W., on Darwinism; “campos” of termites; on Brazil vultures.; destruction of winged ants; on swarms of butterflies; scarcity of animal population in Brazil; bird-societies

Baudrillart, A., on rural populations of France

Baudrillart, H., on rural populations of France

Bavaria

Bears, sociable in Kamtchatka; in Tibet

Beaumont chart

Beavers, colonies of

Becker, A., on sudden disappearance of Sousliks

Bede

“Bee,” .

Bees, mutual aid with; anti-social instincts among them

Beetles, burying: mutual aid among

Behring, his crew and polar foxes

Belgium, forced sale of communal lands; farmer’s unions

Bentham

Berkshire

Bern

Besançon

Besseler, on formation of private land-ownership

Bink, G. L., on New Guinea Papuas

Bird-mountains

Birds; breeding associations; autumn societies of; migrations

Blanchard, on insect metamorphoses

Blavignac, J. D., on labour in Fribourg.

Bleck, W., on Bushmen.

Blood covenant

Blood revenge—a conception of justice; its survival amongst ourselves.; a tribal affair; Ad. Bastian on.; “head-hunting,”; with the barbariansseq.

Boars, societies of

Bock, Carl, on “head-hunting” among Dayaks; grossly exaggerated.

Bogisic, on joint family with the Serbs and the Croates

Bogos.

Bohemia, cities

Boileau, “Livre des métiers,”

Bolivia

Bologna

Bonnemère, village institutions in France.

Borneo

Botta and Leo: early accumulations of wealth; Lombardian code.

Bratskiye

Braunschweig.

Brazil, ants; falcons; natives; common culture

Brehm, A.; on fight of hamadryas against his caravan; on sociable life of monkeys.

Brehon laws

Bremen

Brentano, L., on trade-unions; struggle within cities.

Brescia

Breslau; bell-tower

Brighton Aquarium

Bristol miners

Brittany, common culture

Bruges

Buchenberger, A., on destruction of village community in Belgium; on agricultural co-operation in Germany

Bücher, K., addenda to Laveleye’s Primitive Property; agricultural co-operation in Germany

Büchner, Dr. Louis; on animal intelligence; “Love,”; on compassion among animals

Budding of new communities

Buffon on rabbits

Bulgares

Buphagus. See Sea-hen.

Burchell

Burgdorf.

Bürgernutzen

Burghers, struggle against feudalism

Burgundy

Burial, private property destroyed at

Burrichter

Buryates: joint families; common meals; confederations; brotherly habits; common hunts

Bushmen

Butterflies, swarms of

Buxbaum, L.

Buzzards attacked by lapwings

Byelaeff, Prof., Russian History.

Cæsar, Julius

Cæsarism, development of seq.

Calonne, A., de, on communal purchases.

Cambrai.

Canada, musk-rats

Cannibalism: discussion at Paris Anthropological Society; probably originated during Glacial period; religious character of, in Fiji and Mexico

Capponi, Gino, history of Florence.

Caprides, sociability of

Capuchins

Carnivores, sociability among

Carpes

Casalis, on common law of Bassoutos

Caspian Sea, previous extension.

Cassiques, mocking eagles

Cathedrals, mediæval

Caucasian Mountaineers, common culture; growth of feudalism; joint stock feudalism; criminal law; folk tribunals; “aids” in villages.

Celt-Iberians

Celts

Central America, common culture

Central Asia, herds of mammals; dessication of.

Centralization, growth of ideas of seq.

Centralization in France

Ceylon

Chakars, singing in concert

Chambers’ En...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• PREFACE TO THE 1914 EDITION
• INTRODUCTION
• I. MUTUAL AID AMONG ANIMALS
• II. MUTUAL AID AMONG ANIMALS
• III. MUTUAL AID AMONG SAVAGES
• IV. MUTUAL AID AMONG THE BARBARIANS
• V. MUTUAL AID IN THE MEDIÆVAL CITY
• VI. MUTUAL AID IN THE MEDIÆVAL CITY
• VII. MUTUAL AID AMONGST OURSELVES
• VIII. MUTUAL AID AMONGST OURSELVES
• CONCLUSION
• APPENDIX A
• APPENDIX B - THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE IN HUMAN SOCIETY
• INDEX