Kin is a prime factor in the way in which exotic societies are organized and a dominant one in rural societies, but seems of secondary importance in urban, industrialised ones. Do such societies, which are dominated by an industrial mode of production and divided by social class and associations of all kinds, have a place for kinship outside the domestic groups, which has been reduced in size and ‘nuclearised’ in structure, as we have seen?

Let us look briefly at how ideas about kinship within the context of industrialisation have developed, and then investigate, with the help of recent research, the importance of kinship in urban societies. After that we will consider the tenacious myth of the dominance of the nuclear family that persists despite the fact that historians, sociologists and anthropologists are once again coming to see just how important kinship is.

SOCIAL AND KINSHIP CHANGE

A great deal of literature has been devoted to the study of the relationships between social changes brought about by industrialisation, urbanisation and cultural developments and changes in the family.

Talcott Parsons's thesis

One of the most influential theories has been that put forward by Talcott Parsons, which was introduced into France in the 1960s by François Bourricaud. It should be noted that the title of the article that summarises Parsons's suggestions refers to the anthropological concept of kinship, a fact the sociologists discussing his ideas subsequently blurred. What Parsons said can be summed up in a certain number of propositions that sparked off a still-smouldering and often violent ideological debate.