Family History (Full Three Volumes)

Author: Anne Birkhead
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2003-08-01
Features: This work is unprecedented. To build A History of the Family, we had to start from scratch without any model, taking the risks of doing so and accepting the opportunities it presented。——[French] Georges Duby This book will greatly interest today's readers. People will no longer believe that the family evolved from ancient forms along a single line toward its present form. On the contrary, it is highly likely that humanity's powerful creative spirit has already imagined and laid out almost all forms of family organization。——[French] Claude Lévi-Strauss Twenty-nine authors with specialized expertise contributed to the two volumes of this work. They respond to each other, aiming to sketch the broad outlines of various family forms and norms, combining continuity and discontinuity; at the same time, they hope to compare cultural choices and different historical processes, presenting the conclusions. The first volume discusses ancient societies, uncivilized Europe, medieval Europe, and the classical stage of non-European civilizations. This volume is characterized by its origin nature, covering a long time span. The second volume discusses the impact of modernization—religious, political, economic, or social—as well as comparisons with the dominant European model.