抄録
In this paper the writer attempts to consider some problems concerning kinship relations in modern industrial society from the view-point of fit relationship between industrial society on the one hand, and family, kin on the other hand. Especially three themes, namely the significance of kinship relations, the structure of kinship relations in modern industrial society, and the changes of kinship relations in Japan, are considered.
1 The significance of kinship relations in modern society :
Kinship relations are secured their viable possibility and effectiveness to the goal-attainment by their functional sharings with the bureaucratic organizations and adaptation to the professional and geographical mobility. And they also have an important function to the tasks which need no face-to-face encounter but need long-term commitments, namely personal careers and attitude formations.
2 The structure of kinship relations in modern industrial society :
Firstly, the character of elements which compose modern kinship relations and the logical relationships between a unit family and kinship relations, secondly, the basic structure of modern kinship relation as a kinship system are considered. In this attempt Talcott Persons' “isolated nuclear family” theory is examined. As the result, the concept of isolation is explained as a situation that lacks principles of grouping on specific decent lines, and has the primacy of kin obligation in a person's own family of procreation. Therefore “isolation of nuclear family” is a kinship set which fullfils the prerequisites of systemness and does not reject more wider kinship bondages. Then the concepts of network and kindred indicating the basic structure of modern kinship relations are considered. The former is useful in explaining relationship forms of modern kinship, and the latter, a concept supposing functions of ego-centered bilateral kinship system in contrast with ancestorcentered unilateral kinship is also indispensable in explaining the basic structure of the families today.
3 The changes of kinship organization in Japan
The traditional kinship organization in Japan is characteristic of a coexistence of Dozoku and Shinseki. The former is a patrilineal decent group, and the latter is a prescriptive kindred but is influenced its structure by Dozoku. And the change of kindship organization in Japan is supposed as a transition from a point dominated by Dozoku and coexisted Shinseki with it to a point where the Dozoku is disorganized and a new Shinseki relation as a optimal system gets to appear. Between these points there is a continuous process in which a type of kinship changes little by little to another is supposed. Therefore the structural characteristics of kinship organization of contemporary Japan can be made clear when they are properly placed on this continuum.
