ABSTRACT
In premodern societies of all types, the interdependency between the procurers and processors has often been at the base of family economic organization. At the same time, however, there seems to be a kind of cultural resistance to elimination or substantial reduction in processing labor. This resistance seems to have two sources. First, there is the pursuit of standard of living, which is built into the prestige structure of modern societies. Like family procuring, processing, and control of sexuality, socializing children is less important in most adults' lives in modern societies than it was in earlier times. With children no longer valuable in spheres other than the emotional, and even their emotional value somewhat lessened, and with contraceptives readily available, it is no surprise that fertility has dropped in many modern societies: people want and have fewer children than before.
