Family and Household Structures in Guatemalan Society

In: Journal of comparative family studies, Band 14, Heft 2, S. 229-255

Abstract

This article is concerned with convergencies and radiations of the family and household structures in Guatemalan society and their possible relation to sub-cultural styles and personality types. Survey procedures with formal analytical devices are combined in an effort to supersede methodological difficulties making compatible the analysis and quantification of a large number of cases with a systemic view of the family. Kinship, consanguinity-affinity, lineality-collaterality, and generation are used as structural variables in the description, analysis, and comparison of the families of the five major social segments of Guatemalan society. These segments are: Traditional and Modified Indians, Rural Ladino (nonIndian) and Low, Middle, and High Urban. Comparisons across stages of the household-family cycle were made possible by the subdivision of the total 1,105 family sample into two comparable sub-samples defined by the age of the female head of the household. The results obtained contradict a variety of misconceptions and prejudices regarding the family in various social segments including the Traditional Indian and the Middle Urban, and they may provide a useful platform for gaining a better understanding of how Guatemalan society is assembled and works, and for identifying sources of tension and conflict within it.