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“ideal” and “real” behavior in the Mesoamerican nonresidential extended family
Author(s) -
TAGGART JAMES M.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1975.2.2.02a00100
Subject(s) - ideology , solidarity , ideal (ethics) , sociocultural evolution , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , sociology , psychology , political science , anthropology , communication , law , politics
Redfield's (1941) notion that rapid sociocultural change brings about a discrepancy between “ideal” and “real” behavior in the Mesoamerican nonresidential extended family is revised with data from the Nahuat area. The author shows that chronic family tensions unrelated to rapid change can affect the solidarity of the agnatically related males upon whom nonresidential extended family unity depends and that informants express these tensions in their ideology of family behavior.