The Explanation of Ideology: Family Structure and Social Systems (Family Sexuality and Social Relations in Past Times)

About this book

Some parts of the world are dominated by communism others by Catholicism or by Islam and yet others by liberal doctrines. Why should this be? And why has communism triumphed in Russia China and Cuba yet failed in Poland Cambodia and Indonesia? No one knows. Certainly no clear answer lies in variation of climate environment race or even economic development. The argument of this book is that world variations in social ideology and belief are conditioned by family structure. The author analyzes the distribution of family forms throughout the world and examines the relations between particular structures and (for example) communism totalitarianism and individualism as well as the links between these forms and a variety of social phenomena - illegitimacy suicide infanticide marital stability and inheritance laws. He offers evidence to support the belief that family structures and kinship patterns lie behind the ideologies that have shaped the history of the 20th century.