Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution by Peter Kropotkin

Contents

Editor's Introduction 1

Further Reading 11 [see EI]

Preface to the 1914 Edition 13 [see EI]

Introduction 17

1. MUTUAL AID AMONG ANIMALS

Struggle for existence. - Mutual aid - a law of Nature and chief factor of progressive evolution. - Invertebrates. — Ants and bees. - Birds: Hunting and fishing associations. - Sociability. -Mutual protection among small birds. - Cranes; parrots. 27

2. MUTUAL AID AMONG ANIMALS

(continued) Migrations of birds. - Breeding associations. - Autumn societies. - Mammals: small number of unsociable species. — Hunting associations of wolves, lions, etc. - Societies of rodents; of ruminants; of monkeys. - Mutual aid in the struggle for life. - Darwin's arguments to prove the struggle for life within the species. - Natural checks to over-multiplication. - Supposed extermination of intermediate links. - Elimination of competition in Nature. 50

3. MUTUAL AID AMONG SAVAGES

Supposed war of each against all. - Tribal origin of human society. - Late appearance of the separate family. - Bushmen and Hottentots. - Australians, Papuas. — Eskimos, Aleoutes. — Features of savage life difficult to understand for the European. - The Dayak's conception of justice. - Common law. 83

4. MUTUAL AID AMONG THE BARBARIANS

The great migrations. - New organization rendered necessary. - The village community. - Communal works - Judicial procedure. - Inter-tribal law. - Illustrations from the life of our contemporaries. - Buryates. - Kabyles. - Caucasian mountaineers. - African stems. 113

5. MUTUAL AID IN THE MEDIEVAL CITY

Growth of authority in Barbarian Society. - Serfdom in the villages. - Revolt of the fortified towns: their liberation; their charts. - The guild. - Double origin of the free medieval city. - Self-jurisdiction, self-administration. - Honourable position of labour. - Trade by the guild and by the city. 141

6. MUTUAL AID IN THE MEDIEVAL CITY (continued)

Likeness and diversity among the medieval cities. - The craft-guilds: State-attributes in each of them. — Attitude of the city towards the peasants; attempts to free them. - The lords. -Results achieved by the medieval city: in arts, in learning. -Causes of decay. 167

7. MUTUAL AID AMONGST OURSELVES

Popular revolts at the beginning of the State-period. - Mutual-aid institutions of the present time. - The village community: its struggles for resisting its abolition by the State. — Habits derived from the village-community life, retained in our modern villages. - Switzerland, France, Germany, Russia. 194

8. MUTUAL AID AMONGST OURSELVES (continued)

Labour unions grown after the destruction of the guilds by the State. - Their struggles. - Mutual aid in strikes. - Cooperation. - Free associations for various purposes. — Self-sacrifice. - Countless societies for combined action under all possible aspects. — Mutual aid in slum-life. — Personal aid. 223

Conclusion 246

Index 275