ABSTRACT
The concept of the family is a relatively new one. Otto Brunner, for example, has argued that in the German context people began to use the term in the eighteenth century. Previously, concepts such as dasganze Haus (‘the whole house’) and ‘household’ were common usage,1 indicating that family structures are not fixed entities but are subject to historical change. This applies both to reality and to the definition which we as social scientists use to describe this reality. It follows that we must look at the family historically and get away from assumptions about ‘typical’ structures for particular countries and forms of society. The form and structure of a family in a society cannot be separated from the way in which its members earn their living, or from their position in the production process. We cannot assume that a certain family type is characteristic for an entire society, as has been done by both functionalist and Marxist sociologists. We must differentiate between the different sections of the population. This means, logically, that several forms of family can coexist within a society at any given stage of development.
