ABSTRACT

The family appears to be an easy object to study. Each of us tends to think that his or her experience of the family can be readily understood by others whose own family experiences coincide with our own type of family, which also happens to be the most prevalent type of family in our own historical period. A historical perspective, based on the long view, immediately belies this commonly held misconception. Even a cursory reading of the evidence plainly reveals the difference between the current organization of the so-called nuclear family, clearly demarcated from relatives and geographic community, and the premodern family, whose boundaries are extremely permeable to external influences. In the latter family type, the married couple, under the husband’s authority, was often undifferentiated from relatives and the community. As Laslett and Wall (1972) clearly demonstrated in their studies on European families, over the centuries we have seen the demise and resurgence of many types of family (nuclear, without structure, extended, multiple, complex): the list goes on to include today’s broken families, stepfamilies and immigrant families from various cultures that, thanks to our global society, find themselves living in proximity to each other with increasing frequency.