Two kinds of stem-family system? Traditional Japan and Europe compared
Osamu Saito
In 1935 John Embree, an American student of Radcliffe-Brown, entered Suye mura, a village in the Kyushu island Japan. He was to live that for year and half conduct field survey his Ph.D. dissertation. During stay there he determined ‘The primary social unit buraku [hamlet] life is household’, ‘This household includes small family, perhaps retired grandfather or grandmother, one two servants help farm labor.’ Since by ‘small family’ meant group ‘master, wife, eldest son (own adopted), son's any unmarried children master, adopted)’, what described stem family household.Being Radcliffe-Brownian anthropologist, Embree more interested functions various forms interaction between households than statistical analysis size composition village. His published monograph no table showing classification there, nor does it contain information from which we can calculate, example, mean number particular kin living within Suye. Nonetheless, account merits attention reasons.
Continuity and Change