447▶ family
introduction
Th roughout most of the ancient world the family was the ba-
sic unit of social organization. “Family” included not just the
nuclear family of mother, father, and children but typically a
much more extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, and, if
they survived to an old age, grandparents. Th e responsibil-
ity for raising children was oft en shared by members of the
extended family. Ty pically, too, a family considered itself part
of a much more extended clan of people who were linked by
blood or marriage. In places like ancient Europe it was not
uncommon for clans to be at odds with one another and en-
gage in extended feuds. In some cultures, such as that of the
Chinese, ancestor worship was practiced as a form of religion
and as a way for people to remain linked to the wisdom of
those who had gone before them.
Marriage in the ancient world was primarily a social, po-
litical, and economic institution. Rarely did modern concepts
of romantic love play any role in the formation of a marriage
and family, and marriage was usually regarded as a contrac-
tual arrangement rather than an expression of love. In the
ancient world, for example, it was common for grooms to pay
a bride-price to compensate a family for the loss of a daugh-
ter; alternatively, it was common for the bride’s family to pay
a dowry to the husband as a way of compensating him for, in
eff ect, taking the girl off of the family’s hands and promising
to support her.
Marriages were oft en arranged as a way of linking the
resources of two families, and it was not uncommon for hus-
bands to be considerably older than their brides; the older
husband had resources that enabled him to support his wife
and family, and the younger bride had years of fertility to help
ensure the birth of children and the survival of the family
name. Further, marriages were arranged according to social
class, with the bride’s parents, in particular, doing every-
thing possible to ensure that the husband-to-be was of the
right class. Th is was particularly true in ancient India, where
people were unable to marry members of a diff erent caste.
Before the advent of Christianity in some parts of the world,
though, polygyny, or the practice of a man’s having two or
more wives, was common. Divorce, too, was relatively com-
mon in the ancient world.
Most ancient cultures were male dominated. In ancient
Rome, for example, the concept of paterfamilias, whereby the
father was the source of authority in the family, was com-
mon. In most other cultures women were regarded as infe-
rior or subject to their husbands. Th eir primary role was the
production of children, specifi cally a healthy male heir; in
some cultures, babies who were not healthy were left to die.
If the woman and child survived childbirth, the woman’s role
was to raise the children and maintain the home, perform-
ing such domestic chores as cooking and cleaning. Most an-
cient cultures were “patrilocal,” meaning that at marriage the
woman left her family and moved in with her husband and
his family.AFRICA
BY SAHEED ADERINTO
Th e family in Africa is as old as the history of human existence
on the continent. Th e agricultural revolution that took place