Human Families

This detailed study maps variations in family systems throughout the world, focusing on the ways families cooperate and interact with their societies. Harrell describes families in nomadic bands, traditional African societies, Polynesian and Micronesian societies, native societies of the Pacific Northwest coast, preindustrial class societies, and modern industrial societies. His extensive case studies are clearly illustrated with unique diagrams that allow comparison of complex groups and family processes extending over a generation. }This detailed study maps the variations in family systems throughout the world, focusing on the ways families interact with their societies. Tracing the developmental cycle of families in a wide range of times and places, Stevan Harrell shows how family members in different societies must cooperate to perform various activities and thus organize themselves in particular ways. Within six major divisions, the book describes families in nomadic bands, traditional African societies, Polynesian and Micronesian societies, native societies of the Pacific Northwest coast, preindustrial class societies, and modern industrial societies. Within each group, the authors copious examples demonstrate the variation from one family system to another. His case studies are clearly illustrated with a unique set of diagrams that allow comparison of complex groups and of family processes extending over a generation. Scholars and advanced students alike will find this ambitious book an invaluable resource. }

"The 2020 annual volume of the College Theology Society, with essays on the theme of families and Christianity in such areas as migration, race, and economic inequality"--

This detailed study maps variations in family systems throughout the world, focusing on the ways families cooperate and interact with their societies. Harrell describes families in nomadic bands, traditional African societies, Polynesian and Micronesian societies, native societies of the Pacific Northwest coast, preindustrial class societies, and modern industrial societies. His extensive case studies are clearly illustrated with unique diagrams that allow comparison of complex groups and family processes extending over a generation. }This detailed study maps the variations in family systems throughout the world, focusing on the ways families interact with their societies. Tracing the developmental cycle of families in a wide range of times and places, Stevan Harrell shows how family members in different societies must cooperate to perform various activities and thus organize themselves in particular ways. Within six major divisions, the book describes families in nomadic bands, traditional African societies, Polynesian and Micronesian societies, native societies of the Pacific Northwest coast, preindustrial class societies, and modern industrial societies. Within each group, the authors copious examples demonstrate the variation from one family system to another. His case studies are clearly illustrated with a unique set of diagrams that allow comparison of complex groups and of family processes extending over a generation. Scholars and advanced students alike will find this ambitious book an invaluable resource. }

In Philosophical Essays concerning Human Families, Stanley Vodraska describes a principle of moral practice that he calls “the principle of familial preference.” The essays examine this principle in practices of love or charity, mercy, justice, and prudence, as well as in religion, morals, and politics.

Modern anthropology would be radically different without this book. Published in 1871, this first major study of kinship, inventive and wide-ranging, created a new field of inquiry in anthropology. Drawing partly upon his own fieldwork among American Indians, anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan examined the kinship systems of over one hundred cultures, probing for similarities and differences in their organization. In his attempt to discover particular types of marriage and descent systems across the globe, Morgan demonstrated the centrality of kinship relations in many cultures. Kinship, it was revealed, was an important key for understanding cultures and could be studied through systematic, scientific means. ø Anthropologists continue to wrestle with the premises, methodology, and conclusions of Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity. Scholars such as W. H. R. Rivers, Robert Lowie, Meyer Fortes, Fred Eggan, and Claude Lävi-Strauss have acknowledged their intellectual debt to this study; those less sympathetic to Morgan?s treatment of kinship nonetheless do not question its historical significance and impact on the development of modern anthropology.

Modern coverage of world events suggest that war and violence are key to contemporary society. History can convince us that it has ever been so, and many theorist of international relations argue that nothing is likely to change. Roy Weatherford argues that a profound change in social relations is imminent as national sovereignty yields to a democratic world culture, speaking a world language and living as a world wide family - the human family. For too long world peace has seemed a noble but unattainable ideal. Weatherford shows that it is now both economically and politically possible and is therefore our moral duty.

In its second edition, this accessible health and human services manual offers a critical overview of the issues and challenges that families face and provides practical strategies for promoting resilience and positive family functioning. Through clinical and sociological perspectives and employing a strengths-based approach, this revised edition provides a broad overview of factors affecting Canadian families such as diverse family structures, healthy and unhealthy forms of communication, family culture and beliefs, couple dynamics, addiction, and developmental and psychiatric disabilities. Covering a wide range of topics, the author draws special attention to LGBTQ and military families, the effects of violence and trauma, and professional ethics and self-care. An indispensable resource for students and practitioners of social services, child and youth work, and early childhood education, the revised edition of Working with Families, Second Edition reflects current research and practices in the field and features updated statistics and accessible language.

This book bridges the gap that has separated the social sciences from biology by examining the anthropological & sociological thinking in the field of kinship, marriage & reproduction.