ABSTRACT
The distinction between the inductive and deductive approaches in anthropology is now a matter of relatively little concern, except perhaps in courses on the history of anthropological theory. Friedrich Engels wrote an article entitled "The Part Played by Labor in the Transition from Ape to Man". In it he described, in a terminology that surprisingly parallels the modern one, the process by which "labor created man himself". Engels' conclusions were not based on any palaeontological evidence, but on the deductive application of Marxist theory. Engels bases his argument on the Marxist assumption that labor is the "prime basic condition for all human existence". Turning to social development, Engels notes that since modern apes are social, humanity's simian ancestors probably were also. Nevertheless, the development of labor helped to multiply "joint activities" and thus bound groups closer together. Engels' theory of human origins is a tour de force of deductive reasoning.
