ABSTRACT
Deliberate national efforts to raise the birth-rate seem but the largest result of a long trend. This trend, apparently a unilinear series of changes in our reproductive institutions, began as far back as the Middle Ages, when busy towns first appeared in the interstices of the feudal system. This trend, apparently a unilinear series of changes in our reproductive institutions, began as far back as the Middle Ages, when busy towns first appeared in the interstices of the feudal system. The thesis maintained in this chapter is the declining birth-rate that has resulted from a ripening incongruity between the reproductive system (the family) and the rest of modern social organization, and that this incongruity offers a comprehensive means of interpreting contemporary neo-Augustan measures. Contrary to common assumption, the family is not the only conceivable form of reproductive institution. Several features, which together constitute a typical complex form (a gestalt), distinguish it from other imaginable types.
