Social Cohesion, Lineage Type, and Intergenerational Transmission

A theory is presented that cultural transmission through the family is greater in same-sex than cross-sex lineages due to the greater social cohesiveness of the former. The theory is further specified as to which normative areas will show the most intergenerational continuity in all-male or all-female lineages. The theory is examined in the light of data obtained from a sample of three-generation families composed of grandparents, parents and married children. The findings offer support for several aspects of the theory. C ontiiuity from generation to generation is essential for the maintenance of group life. Simnimel wrote that the preservation of the "unitary self of the group" is nadle possible by the "physiological coherence of successive generations."1 The process of transition whereby older members of society disappear ancd are replaced by persons of the next generationi is a gradual one. There is ample opportunity for the initiated to introduce the young into the ways of society. Thus the group maintains its identity despite the coItinuiIng change in its membership.2 Karl Mannheim was concerned with the specific continuities that linked successive generatiolns and their consequences for the young. The "basic inventory of group life"-traditional beliefs and behaviors that constitute the cultural heritage-wlhich the previous generation passes on gives the recipient the resources that will enable him to function satisfactorily in new situations.3 At the same time the "social remeembering" resulting fromn use of the inventory insures the continuance of society.4 There are no sharp breaks between the generations. Simmel and Mannheim, therefore, saw the intergenerational continuities that make possible an enduring society as dependent upon the socialization of each generation by its predecessors. Faris went beyond Simmel and Mannlleinm to examine one of the agencies of socialization. He focused oIn the family as the "central meclhanism for the transmission of culture,"5 and discussed the intangible elements of capital which the faamily passed on to its descendants. Prior to the twentietlh century, for example, family apprenticeship was the surest means for acquiring the techniques of such occupations as farming, carpentering, plunmbing, and printing. Even today occupations exist that require "tricks of the trade" rarely imparted with the formal job skills. Other forms of folk wisdom which family elders present in daily life give the members of the younger generation concrete demonstrations of how to conduct social relations. The young learn criteria of mate selection, metlhods for maintaining the authority necessary to rear children, and teclhniques for encouraging group unity.6 Despite general agreemeent that socialization of the members of the new generation is one of the primary functions of the family, there has been little theory or researclh trac* Revision of a paper read at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August, 1963. The research was carried out while the senior author was holdinig a Predoctoral Research Fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health. 1 George Simmel, "The Persistence of Social Groups," Amiiierican Journal of Sociology, 3 (March 1898), p. 669. 2Ibid., p. 670. 3 Karl Mannheim, "The Problenm of Generations," in Paul Kecskemeti (ed.), Essays on the Sociology of Knowledge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952), p. 299. 4 Ibid., p. 294. 5 Robert E. L. Faris, "Interaction of Generations and Family Stability," Atnei-ican Sociological Review, 12 (April 1947), p. 159. 6Ibid., p. 161. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.173 on Thu, 19 May 2016 06:25:55 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms