Family, Networks, and Survival on the Threshold of the 21st Century in Urban Mexico

In cultural terms, the grand-family represents a value idea, a cultural category that implies a set of norms governing expected behavior between kin. It is a part of the “grammar” of behavior that reinforces the economic, social, and ritual aspects of solidarity. This idea is shared by members of the culture who attempt to conform their lives through repeated acts of ritual, exchange, and ideological commitment, although actual behavioral manifestation is subject to variations resulting from class differences and the specific conditions of an individual’s life.