ABSTRACT
The most pivotal human institutions are the family, religion, education, economy, and government. Other pivotal institutions, as well as less important ones, have gradually emerged, usurping some of its functions, yet the family has remained a pervasive force in human lives, the most relevant of primary groups, and the most important element in the socialization process. A number of people who are related by common descent, by marriage, or through adoption form a kinship system. Kinship systems vary from society to society: the number of marriage partners, who may marry whom, where newlyweds live, and authority patterns all vary tremendously across cultures. The nuclear family is typical of urban industrial societies in which there is significant geographic and social mobility. Just as the nuclear form followed the dramatic changes in society due to industrialization and urbanization, so a new form will eventually take shape in adaptation to the post industrial information society that is currently in the making.
