Characteristics of European family and household systems.

"This article establishes that there was considerable diversity in the size and composition of the kin group within the household that is not captured by the conventional classification of family systems according to the relative proportions of simple and complex household forms. Three case studies are presented from England, Corsica and Hungary. English households fulfilled an important welfare role in that they incorporated relatives and non-relatives who were not members of core families-- couples or parent(s) and unmarried child(ren). The societies of Corsica and Hungary provided a greater proportion of their populations with membership of a core family."