History of the Family and Household

This topic studies the family and household in the past—their size, structure, and functions, and how marriage, kinship, and domestic arrangements changed over time.

Definition

The historical study of families and households—their composition, formation, and functions—including patterns of marriage, kinship, inheritance, and domestic life.

Scope

This topic covers the historical structure and dynamics of families and households: their composition and size, patterns of household formation and marriage, kinship and inheritance, and the changing emotional and economic roles of the family. It examines the household-listing studies that overturned the myth of the universally large extended family, distinctive marriage regimes such as the northwestern European pattern, and debates about change in family sentiment. The treatment is descriptive and analytical.

Core questions

• How large and how complex were households in different societies?
• How did patterns of marriage and household formation vary?
• How did kinship and inheritance structure family life?
• Did the emotional character of family relationships change over time?

Key theories

Household structure in past time

Laslett and Wall's comparative finding that small, nuclear households predominated in much of pre-industrial northwestern Europe, challenging assumptions about a shift from extended to nuclear families.

The European marriage pattern

Hajnal's identification of a distinctive northwestern European regime of late marriage and significant non-marriage, with major consequences for household formation and fertility.

Kinship, marriage, and the Church

Goody's argument that the medieval Church's rules on marriage, inheritance, and kinship reshaped the European family in ways that served the Church's interests and distinguished European family structures.

History

The history of the family was transformed in the 1960s and 1970s by the household-listing studies of Peter Laslett and the Cambridge Group, which showed that pre-industrial English households were typically small and nuclear, and by John Hajnal's work on European marriage patterns. Lawrence Stone's controversial account of changing family sentiment and Jack Goody's anthropological history of European kinship widened the field, which now spans demography, economics, and cultural history.

Debates

Did family sentiment change historically?

Lawrence Stone's claim that affection between spouses and toward children intensified over the early modern period has been contested by historians who find evidence of strong family bonds in earlier periods, raising the question of how far emotional life has a measurable history.

Key figures

• Peter Laslett
• Richard Wall
• John Hajnal
• Lawrence Stone
• Jack Goody

Seminal works

• laslettwall1972
• hajnal1965
• stone1977
• goody1983

Frequently asked questions

Were pre-industrial families large and extended?

Contrary to a common assumption, household-listing research by Peter Laslett and the Cambridge Group showed that in much of pre-industrial northwestern Europe households were typically small and nuclear. Large, multi-generational households were more characteristic of some other regions, so household structure varied considerably.

What is the European marriage pattern?

Identified by John Hajnal, the European marriage pattern refers to a distinctive northwestern European regime characterized by relatively late ages at first marriage and a substantial share of people who never married. This pattern affected household formation and helped restrain fertility.