ABSTRACT
The family patterns of Western societies, and in particular those of the societies of North-Western Europe and the United States, were found to differ from other family patterns in that the organization of individual and social life revolved around the family in its nuclear form. In the shorthand fashion of academics, social scientists dubbed the enduring structures of conduct and the corresponding social expectations and symbolic meanings "the institution of the family." To be sure, in their research in the far corners of the globe, ethnographers also came across some borderline cases that led them to question the universality of the institution of the family. In focusing the laser beam of their attention on those aspects of modern family life that could help to legitimate countercultural claims, they set out to deconstruct what in essence is difficult, if not impossible, to deconstruct. As the countercultural revolution gained momentum, its claims and visions came to be ever more radicalized.
