INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAMILY

The question of the present status of the investigations on the sociology of the family presents some difficulties. The sociological research on the family is as yet not very uniform. Its study has been influenced by very heterogeneous interests, it has been executed according to diverse methods, and the points of departure of the investigations have had very little in common. It is no wonder that the results do not combine into a uniform picture but present a rather variegated mixture.

Here we have, above all, the well-known and fertile field of investigations into the general ontogenesis of the family. Here the methods and the evidence are already very different. Added to this are numerous studies partially determined by practical viewpoints of the position of the family in society: of its ethical, pedagogical and general value. Here the discrepancies are much stronger; some of these studies pursue a purely scientific goal and employ purely scientific methods; others have nothing to do with science. Filled with religious, political, Biblical or communistic ideals, the authors seek to secure for themselves the support of science, in ways which deviate from science.

Moreover, mention should be made of writers who choose in their studies of the family a scientific but not purely sociological point of departure. Belonging here, first of all, are studies emanating from jurisprudence, then studies of legal history, moral history and general cultural history. We are interested in such works only in so far as they shed light on general sociological questions like the ontogenesis and development of the family, but not in their purely technical and specific details.