ABSTRACT
Generalists seek that which is common to the human experience and to understand phenomena across the variable spans of time and space, in diverse contexts, with different actors on the stage. Comparativists are like generalists in that they use categories for description and analysis that they assume are general in their applicability. It must be recognized that in a number of respects China in the modern era, including China under Mao, did gradually introduce, albeit in limited ways, many of the elements that collectively constitute the institutional syndrome identified as modern. Changes in family patterns are among the best understood theoretically and among the most fully documented processes accompanying modernization. Modernization theory points to certain distinct structures as the more likely means of meeting certain functional needs, nominating them on the basis of their established compatibility with other features of large-scale, and particularly of industrial, societies.
