The history of the family is a branch of social history that concerns the sociocultural evolution of kinship groups from prehistoric to modern times.Hareven 1991, p. 95. The family has a universal and basic role in all societies.van den Berghe 1979, p. 16. Research on the history of the family crosses disciplines and cultures, aiming to understand the structure and function of the family from many viewpoints. For example, sociological, ecological or economical perspectives are used to view the interrelationships between the individual, their relatives, and the historical time. The study of family history has shown that family systems are flexible, culturally diverse and adaptive to ecological and economical conditions.van den Berghe 1979, p. 50.
Definition of family Co-residence and organization by kinship are both important in the development of the concept of the family. A co-residential group that makes up a household may share general survival-goals and a residence, but may not fulfill the varied and sometimes ambiguous requirements for the definition of a family. (In Latin, – the source of the English-language word "family" – meant "household" or "slave staff". The Latin word meant both "family" and "household".)
Historiography The history of the family emerged as a separate field of history in the 1970s, with close ties to anthropology and sociology.Tamara K. Hareven, "The history of the family and the complexity of social change," American Historical Review, Feb 1991, Vol. 96 Issue 1, pp. 95–124 The trend was especially pronounced in the U.S. and Canada.Cynthia Comacchio, "'The History of Us': Social Science, History, and the Relations of Family in Canada," Labour / Le Travail, Fall 2000, Vol. 46, pp. 167–220, with very thorough coverage. It emphasizes demographic patterns and public policy. It is quite separate from genealogy, although it often draws on the same primary sources such as censuses and family records.see Journal of Family History, quarterly since 1976 An influential pioneering study came in 1978 called Women, Work, and Family. The authors, Louise A. Tilly and Joan W. Scott, broke new ground with their broad interpretive framework and emphasis on the variable factors shaping women's place in the family and economy in France and England. It considered the interaction of production and reproduction in an analysis of women's wage labor and thus helped to bring together labor and family history.Thomas Dublin, "Women, Work, and Family: The View from the United States," Journal of Women's History, Autumn 99, Vol. 11 Issue 3, pp. 17–21. Much work has been done on the dichotomy in women's lives between the private sphere and the public.D'Ann Campbell, Women at War with America: Private Lives in a Patriotic Era (1984) online For a recent worldwide overview covering 7000 years, see Maynes and Waltner (2012).Mary Jo Maynes and Ann Beth Waltner, The Family: A World History (Oxford University Press, 2012) online review
Family history methods History of the family What is the proper unit for the study of the history of the family — the individual? Group? The civilization? The culture? Are there broad patterns and progress? How to present a universal family history? Historical perspectives of family studies These are some approaches through which family history can be viewed:
Ancient history : the family in ancient times until the Early Middle Ages. Anthropology: the family in cultural context. Archaeology: the study of the family culture. Art history: the family representation in visual art. Chronology: the science of localizing family/events in time. Comparative history: the historical analysis of the family not confined to national boundaries. Contemporary history: the study of historical/social events that are immediately relevant to the present time. Cultural history: the study of the family in the cultural context. Ethnography: the study of family customs. Genealogy: names of people in lines of descent. Gender history: the family in the perspective of gender. Immigration: the study of the family and nationalities. Legal history: the study of the law of the family. Modern history: the study of the modern family. Migration: the study of the family pattern of global movement. People's history: the family from the perspective of common people. Psychohistory: the study of the psychological motivations of family events. Social history: the study of processes of social change. Theater history: the family representation in the theater arts. Women's history: the study of females and the family. World history: the study of the family from a global perspective.
Early scholars of family history applied Darwin's biological theory of evolution in their theory of the evolution of family systems. American anthropologist, Lewis H. Morgan, published Ancient Society in 1877, based on his theory of the three stages of human progress, from savagery through barbarism, to civilization.Morgan 1877 Morgan's book was the "inspiration for Friedrich Engels' book", The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, published in 1884. Engels expanded Morgan's hypothesis that economic factors caused the transformation of primitive community into a class-divided society. Engels' theory of resource control and later that of Karl Marx was used to explain the cause and effect of change in family structure and function. The popularity of this theory was largely unmatched until the 1980s, when other sociological theories, particularly structural functionalism, gained acceptance.
The book, Centuries of Childhood by Philippe Ariès, published in France in 1960, had a great influence on the revival of the field of family history studies. Ariès used the analysis of demographic data to draw the conclusion that the concept of childhood was a concept that emerged in modern nuclear families. The history of childhood is a growing subfield.Peter N. Stearns, "Social History and World History: Prospects for Collaboration." Journal of World History 2007 18(1): 43–52. in Project MUSE, deals with the history of childhood worldwide. See Peter N. Stearns, Childhood in World History (2005), A.R. Colon with P. A. Colon, A History of Children: A Socio-Cultural Survey across Millennia (2001), and Steven Mintz, Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood (2006).Joseph M. Hawes and N. Ray Hiner, "Hidden in Plain View: The History of Children (and Childhood) in the Twenty-First Century," Journal of the History of Childhood & Youth, Jan 2008, Vol. 1 Issue 1, pp. 43–49.
Research methodology Since the early 20th century, scholars have begun to unify methods of gathering data. One notable book by W.I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918), was influential in establishing the precedence of systematic longitudinal data analysis. Gathering church files, court records, letters, architectural and archeological evidence, art and iconography, and food and material culture increased the objectivity and reproducibility of family reconstruction studies.Wrigley 1977, p. 74. Studies of current family systems additionally employ qualitative observations, interviews, focus groups, and quantitative surveys.Daly 2007.Bengston 2006.
Family of origin
In most cultures of the world, the beginning of family history is set in creation myths.Rosenberg 1986 In Works and Days, the ancient Greek poet Hesiod describes the epic destruction of four previous Ages of Man.Hesiod 1985. The utopia that was the Golden Age was eventually replaced by the current Iron Age; a time when gods made man live in "hopeless misery and toil." Hesiod's second poem Theogony, described the Greek gods' relationships and family ties.Hesiod 1997 Ancient Greeks believed that among them, were descendants of gods who qualified for priesthood or other privileged social status.
The Judeo-Christian tradition originates in the Bible's Book of Genesis. The first man and woman created by God gave rise to all of the humanity. The Bible reflects the patriarchal worldview and often refers to the practice of polygamy. In biblical times, men sought to prove their descent from the family of the prophet Moses in order to be accepted into the priesthood.
Roman families would include everyone within a household under the authoritarian role of the father, the pater familias; this included grown children and the slaves of the household. Children born outside of marriage, from common and legal concubinage, could not inherit the father's property or name; instead, they belong to the social group and family of their mothers'.Letourneau 1904.
Most ancient cultures like those of Assyria, Egypt, and China, kept records of successors in the ruling dynasties to legitimize their power as divine in origin. Both the Inca king and the Egyptian Pharaoh claimed that they were direct descendants of the Sun God, and until the British Civil War, monarchs in England were considered second only to God and as God's representative on earth. Many other cultures, such as the Inca of South America, the Kinte of Africa, and the Māori of New Zealand, did not have a written language and kept the history of their descent as an oral tradition.
Many cultures used other symbols to document their history of descent. Totem poles are indigenous to the people of the Pacific Northwest. The symbolic representation of the pole goes back to the history of their ancestors and the family identity, in addition to being tied with the spiritual world.
European nobility had long and well-documented kinship relationships, sometimes taking their roots in the Middle Ages. In 1538, King Henry VIII of England mandated that churches begin the record-keeping practice that soon spread throughout Europe. Britain's Domesday Book from 1086, is one of the oldest European genealogy records. In ancient and medieval times, the history of one's ancestors guaranteed religious and secular prestige.
Christian culture puts notable emphasis on the family. There were two distinct family patterns that emerged in Christian Europe throughout the Middle Ages. In most of Southern and Eastern Europe, marriage occurred between two individuals who had lived with their parents for a long period of time. The man involved was older, usually in his late twenties, and the girl was often still a teenager. Their household would contain several generations, an occurrence demographers denote as a "complex" household. In contrast, areas in Northwestern Europe gave rise to a familial structure that was unique for the time period. The man and woman were typically around the same age, and would wait until they were in their early twenties to marry. Following the marriage, the couple would set up their own independent household (termed a "nuclear" household structure). This led to a lower birthrate, as well as greater levels of economic stability for the new couple. This also served as a check on the increasing population in Europe. Many women in this region during this time period would never marry at all.Wiesner, Merry E. “The Family.” Gender in History: Global Perspectives, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, p. 38. Historically, extended families were the basic family unit in the Catholic culture and countries.