Family and household as work group and kin group: areas of traditional Europe compared

In this final chapter we find ourselves returning to the issues raised in the introduction by Richard Wall and taken up by several of our contributors, especially by John Hajnal in chapter 2. If we are to compare family and household as work group and kin group among areas of traditional Europe, we shall have to lay down exactly what it is which is being compared. This means reopening the problem of the definition of the household, and the extent to which it is justifiable to suppose that it is best regarded, as we shall regard it, as a residential group. The resemblances, and the slight differences, between the view we shall take and that of earlier chapters should become evident as we proceed.