ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the family, as well as constrains, agency of men and women. Families can stimulate or limit individual agency in many ways. People are socialized within families and they learn the basic rules of interaction, negotiation, dominance and submission. Family status can be enhanced by women displaying proper behaviour, or by having a specific class or caste origin. Finally, apart from position within the family's hierarchy and status, an individual's more practical 'value' to the family might enhance his or her bargaining power. The hierarchical nature of Chinese families can be explained by religious and political developments. In ancestor worship, a central element of Confucianism, performing the proper rituals could only be done by agnatic kin closest to the deceased ancestor. The position of women in India is strongly influenced by the impact of religion on interpersonal relations, by the stratified nature of Indian society, and by the interplay between family and geography.
