Households

Comparative and Historical Studies of the Domestic Group

Robert McC. Netting, Eric J. Arnould, Richard R. Wilk

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780520365636
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520322943
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic History
• Index: Economics

Households: Comparative and Historical Studies of the Domestic Group examines the concept of households as a fundamental social and economic unit across cultures and time. The book challenges traditional assumptions, tracing the evolution of the household concept from its roots in anthropological and sociological theories to modern interdisciplinary studies. It emphasizes the dynamic nature of households, highlighting their role in adapting to economic, social, and demographic changes. The authors argue that households are not static or universally defined; instead, they vary in size, composition, and function depending on cultural norms, economic systems, and historical contexts. By incorporating detailed historical and ethnographic case studies, the book sheds light on how households mediate between individuals and broader societal structures, acting as both sites of cooperation and negotiation in the allocation of resources and responsibilities. Through its collection of essays, the book explores methodological and theoretical approaches to studying households, distinguishing between their morphological (structural), functional (activity-based), and symbolic (conceptual) dimensions. It advocates for a nuanced understanding of households that integrates empirical observation with cultural analysis, emphasizing the interplay between norms, behaviors, and economic factors. This approach reveals the fluidity of household boundaries, the variability of roles within them, and their significance as both practical and symbolic units in human societies. Households offers a comprehensive framework for analyzing one of the most fundamental yet complex social institutions, making it an essential resource for scholars in anthropology, history, sociology, and related fields. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.

Many titles in the Voices Revived program are also newly available as ebooks, offered at a discounted price to support wider access to scholarly work.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 1
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Introduction
• PART I Studying the Household: Method and Theory
• 1 Households: Changing Forms and Functions
• 2 On the *** of Studying Household Form and Function
• 3 Household Histories
• 4 Family Structure and the Generation of Thai Social Exchange Networks
• PART II Household Morphology and Activity
• 5 Sheep Ranchers and Sugar Growers: Property Transmission in the Basque Immigrant Family of the American West and Australia
• 6 Marketing and Social Reproduction in Zinder, Niger Republic
• 7 Nuclear Is Not Independent: Organization of the Household in the Pays Bigouden Sud in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
• 8 The Urban Household in Dependent Development
• 9 Households in Process: Agricultural Change and Domestic Transformation among the Kekchi Maya of Belize
• 10 Serf Emancipation and the Changing Structure of Rural Domestic Groups in the Russian Baltic Provinces:
• PART III Households as Persisting Cultural Forms
• 11 Family Life and the Life Cycle in Rural China
• 12 Cultural Ideals, Socioeconomic Change, and Household Composition: Karen, Lua’, Hmong, and Thai in Northwestern Thailand
• 13 Explicating Residence: A Cultural Analysis of Changing Households among Japanese-Americans
• 14 The Family as a Knot of Individual Interests
• PART IV Synthetic Models of Household Change
• 15 Households in the Early Middle Ages Symmetry and Sainthood
• 16 Households among the Diola of Senegal: Should Norms Enter by the Front or the Back Door?
• 17 Family and Household: Images and Realities: Cultural Change in Swedish Society
• Index