ABSTRACT
General Comparison of Primitive and Civilized Family Systems. America's material culture is far more advanced and complex than that of the Trobriands. Also, a description of the American economic system would require much more space than a description of the Trobriand economic system. Yet, in comparing family systems, America does not seem to require a much greater space than does the more primitive people. Family systems in general have a certain complexity, a certain wealth of detail in their pattern, which is much the same in civilized as in primitive societies. Civilization does not elaborate the family system as it does the material culture and the economic organization. In some respects many primitive family systems are more complicated than our own. On the other hand, it cannot be said that the family system as a whole tends to become more impoverished as civilization advances. It grows thinner in spots, but more elaborate elsewhere.
