mbers is presented in Bosanquet, _The
Family_. The family as defined in the mores has been described and
interpreted, as for example, by Thomas in his analysis of the
organization of the large peasant family group in the first two volumes
of the _Polish Peasant_. Materials upon the family in the United States
have been brought together by Calhoun in his _Social History of the
American Family_.

While the family is listed by Cooley among primary groups, the notion is
gaining ground that it is primary in a unique sense which sets it apart
from all other social groups. The biological interdependence and
co-operation of the members of the family, intimacies of closest and
most enduring contacts have no parallel among other human groups. The
interplay of the attractions, tensions, and accommodations of
personalities in the intimate bonds of family life have up to the
present found no concrete description or adequate analysis in
sociological inquiry.

The best case studies of family life at present are in fiction, not in
the case records of social agencies, nor yet in sociological literature.
Arnold Bennett's trilogy, _Clayhanger_, _Hilda Lessways_, and _These
Twain_, suggests a pattern not unworthy of consideration by social
workers and sociologists. _The Pastor's Wife_, by the author of
_Elizabeth and Her German Garden_, is a delightful contrast of English
and German mores in their effect upon the intimate relations of family
life.

In the absence of case studies of the family as a natural and cultural
group the following tentative outline for sociological study is offered:

1. _Location and extent in time and space._--Genealogical tree
as retained in the family memory; geographical distribution and
movement of members of small family group and of large family
group; stability or mobility of family; its rural or urban
location.

2. _Family traditions and ceremonials._--Family romance; family
skeleton; family ritual, as demonstration of affection, family
events, etc.

3. _Family economics._--Family communism; division of labor
between members of the family; effect of occupation of its
members.

4. _Family organization and control._--Conflicts and
accommodation; superordination and subordination; typical forms
of control--patriarchy, matriarchy, consensus, etc.; family
_esprit de corps_, family morale, family objectives; status in
commu