Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T13:07:53.442Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2009

Get access

Summary

In the era marking what some might regard as a ‘rebirth’ in studying the history of the family – inaugurated formally in 1972 by the publication of the essays in Household and Family in Past Time and extended both methodologically and geographically in Family Forms in Historic Europe – a preeminent place was reserved for the measurement of the household or the co-resident domestic group. Indeed, in the context of an emerging and increasingly ‘positivistic’ approach to social history, it was almost inevitable that the household with its tangible qualities should become the focus of attention of family historians with a commitment to the quantitative analysis of historical social structures. Yet a doubt has been frequently raised as to the status of ‘residence’ as a criterion for the analysis of the family, whether comparisons are being made over space or through time. There are nonetheless perfectly sound reasons for considering that the knot of persons who sleep and frequently, if not invariably, take meals together under the same roof constitutes a unit for social analysis, and can form a basis for revealing inter-society comparisons, particularly if due attention is given to the means by which that unit has been brought together (e.g. whether initiated by marriage or through the fission of a pre-existing group). But this mode of analysis, Michael Anderson might say, is still reminiscent of studying the ‘family in a thermos flask’, and is certainly inadequate in its interpretation of households or kin groups in the matter of the economic behaviour of their members.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×