History of the family History of the family The history of the family is a branch of social history that concerns the sociocultural evolution of kinship groups from prehistoric to modern times. The family has a universal and basic role in all societies. Research on the history of the family crosses disciplines and cultures, aiming to understand the structure and function of the family from many viewpoints. For example, sociological, ecological or economical perspectives are used to view the interrelationships between the individual, their relatives, and the historical time. The study of family history has shown that family systems are flexible, culturally diverse and
A Study of History 23 civilizations identified by Toynbee in vol. Vii. This table does not include what Toynbee terms primitive societies, arrested civilizations, or abortive civilizations. Civilizations are shown in boldface. Toynbee's "Universal Churches" are written in "italic" and are chronologically located between second- and third- generation civilizations, as is described in volume VII. The social scientist Ashley Montagu assembled 29 other historians' articles to form a symposium on Toynbee's "A Study of History", published as The book includes three of Toynbee's own essays: "What I am Trying to Do" (originally published in "International Affairs" vol. 31, 1955); "What the Book is For: