The Evolution of Families and Marriages

F amilies are essentially care institutions that vary across cultures and change over time. Their essential function, historically, has been to contribute to the basic economic survival of family members; thus, the structure of families often adapts to the economy, and cultural ideologies and laws are created to reinforce that adaptation. Over time, societies grow and become more complex and stratified, and the nature and quality of life among families becomes differentiated based on varying economies and the particular position of the family within the economic system. Broadly speaking , social scientists have identified four major economies that have existed across the span of human history: hunting and gathering (or foraging), agrarian/agricultural, modern/industrial, and service/knowledge-based economies. All these economies still exist in various parts of the world, and nations often have mixed economies. Families of some sort existed and continue to exist in all of these economies and, as social institutions, are perhaps as old as humankind. Marriage, on the other hand, is a more recent institution. Because hunting and gathering societies existed for millennia, it is quite likely that some form of marriage, or at least temporary partnering between women and men, emerged in the early versions of these societies. In foraging societies, however, marriage as a stable partnership between men and women probably took a backseat to family ties. Indeed, it was membership in the family that best ensured physical and economic survival. This chapter has several purposes. The first is to briefly define the family and marriage, discuss their origins, and explain how they evolved in tandem