ABSTRACT
The critical examination of the household concept in the last two decades has opened up new lines of enquiry for scholars who view it as central to an understanding of the position of women and men in the process of social change. As households are considered to mediate between individuals and society, the way in which scholars view and define households, shapes the way in which this process of articulation occurs. The critique against the universality of the nuclear family-based household has been set up on the realization of variations in domestic and kin-based units that function to care for the daily maintenance of its members and their social reproduction. The (non-nuclear) co-residential extended family (F. and K. von-Ben da Beckmann this volume), the non-co-residential extended family and the women-based kin networks (Lamphere 1974; Stack 1974; Yanagisako 1977) are such examples. Within this framework, scholars attempting to identify trends and changes in household composition are confounded by the difficulties in measuring and placing boundaries. This has led to an emphasis on activities rather than boundaries; on function rather than form (Yanagisako 1979; White 1980).
