Book Description

The second volume of this major work examines the repercussions of various aspects of the modern age – religious, political, economic and social – upon the institution of the family, and compares the model of the western family with that of other cultures. It includes studies on the family in early modern Europe, colonial societies in the Andes and Meso–America, modern China, Japan, Africa and Arabia. The final section examines the position of the family in western industrialized societies, from the Industrial Revolution to the present day, including studies on modern America, Scandinavia and France. Focusing on contemporary developments in the family, contributors examine, among other issues, the rise in the divorce rate, the decline in marriages, the increase in the number of one–parent families and single people in urban environments, the emergence of surrogate mothers and diverse techniques of artificial insemination; and it questions the survival of the family as a modern–day institution.