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Communism is not so much an economic system as a product of sociological evolution determined by non-economic motives. Its significance can only be understood in relation to the historical evolution of social groups. In the light of Freud's dualistic theory of instinct, sociological evolution must be regarded as governed by two fundamental principles: (1) The cohesion of a social group depends upon its capacity to bind the individual libido; (2) the disintegrating factor in group life is individual aggression. The original group is the Family —the cohesion of which is constantly threatened by the aggressive rivalries involved in the Oedipus situation. Against this source of disintegration the patriarchal family adopts as its first line of defence the taboos on incest and patricide, and as its second line of defence the practice of exogamy. The ultimate effect of exogamy is to bind together a number of families into a new group—the Clan, which is itself organized on the family model under a chief, and which adopts the principle of inter-clan exogamy as a precaution against technical incest (marriage within the clan). The cohesion of the clan is endangered