The book be prominent Russian sociologist T. is a study of the social relations of the aboriginal people of Australia. Starting from the principle of the development of society, according to which “the productive forces of people and the forms of labor to provide them with their most essential needs are the primary condition that determines both the social structure of these people and their world of concepts”, T. focuses his attention on “the social life and the world of concepts” – which he proposes to distinguish from “the outer side of the primordial culture”. The researcher sets his task “to reproduce with the greatest accuracy and clarity the most complete picture of primordial society and its main social institutions”, and to trace their further evolution and changing of forms. He considers general issues of the stage development of society through the prism of primordial social relations, the survivals of which he finds in the most vivid form among the tribes of Australian aboriginal people. Analyzing their economic structure and the way of life, ideas of family, marriage, and law, the system of Animistic and Totemic beliefs, and initiation rites, the author comes to the conclusion that Australians and their institutions help us “to compose the most accurate and visual concept of the primordial state of mankind”, which, in turn, is the starting point for the further development of humanity and culture.