ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a reconceptualization of the construct "familism." This reconceptualization is based upon the belief that rural familism may be treated fruitfully as a structural phenomenon rather than as a set of activities interpreted solely within a family-as-a-group context. Past and present treatments of familism have assumed that family life could be treated as a set of group activities and interactions located within the confines of the household. Most studies on American familism have either ignored or dealt in an unsystematic way with familism as a kinship phenomenon. Western families organized in terms of primary-kin-oriented familism are expected to manifest a quite different set of behavioral and attitudinal characteristics. The more traditional nuclear family orientation, conversely, may work better in areas where strong nuclear family identity is emphasized.
