ABSTRACT
The pervasive assumption in studies of the history of the family is that there is a close relationship between the process of urbanization and industrialization, and the reorganization of familial bonds of affection. These processes, it is pointed out, steadily undermine the prevailing conventional wisdom until the new understandings and the accom panying sentiments are institutionalized within a "new" style of family organization (Goode 1963; Parsons and Bales 1955; Whyte 1988). Much of this research builds on the work of William Goode, who found that within large urban centers there is a worldwide pattern of a shift from arranged marriages to marriages based on free choice and mutual affection. The husband-wife relationship, in short, shifted from a purely instrumental posture toward one organized around idealization, affection, and companionship (Macfarlane 1987; Stone 1977, 1987; Whyte 1988).
