Inclou referències bibliogràfiques i índex.

Family demography is a recent and relatively under-developed branch of population studies which promises new ways of understanding demographic change and new models of family demography and family change attuned to the world's socio-cultural diversity. This volume looks particularly at marriage systems, how they have evolved and how they function in specific sociocultural settings and economic conditions. Other subjects discussed range from the experience of families under slavery, that of Malay households under pressure of urbanization, to the evolving institutions of consensual union and celibacy in Latin America.