The Marxist conception of history - which originated within Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) - holds that society has evolved through a series of progressive stages. The first of these was primitive communism, which Marxist theorists believed was held by classless, hunter-gatherer societies. According to Marxist doctrine, most of these however evolved into slave-based societies, then feudal societies, and then capitalist societies, which Marxists note is the dominant form today.