ABSTRACT
In his study on Bachofen, 1 Walter Benjamin mentioned the ties between the great anarchist geographer Elisée Reclus and the Swiss scholar. 2 Such a relationship did not surprise Benjamin, since “communism even seemed to him (Bachofen) inseparable from gynaecocracy”. 3 Benjamin therefore highlighted the influence that Bachofen had on Engels and Lafargue, and joined the debates about maternal rights published in the German social-democratic organ Neue Zeit.
