Family: Patriarchy in China

Abstract

The economic literature on the countries of the Third World rarely deals with the family in an adequate way. In most cases the family is not mentioned at all, mainly because it is assumed that households do not produce for the market (e.g., Eckstein 1968). If the economic role of the family is taken into account, its behaviour is explained in terms of sociological categories, that is, in terms of “values”, “roles” and “tradition” (see e.g., Parsons 1966; Eisenstadt 1973).