Study conducted by James K. Murtha,
University of Notre Dame, Class of 2013

Published April 2010

Picture
Picture
Picture
This website aims to reveal what parallels and distinctions can exist between a particular cultural element in two very different models of modern human society.  The cultural element selected for study is the collective body of dynamics that characterize the relationship between the parents and children within a nuclear family unit.  The societal models are the foraging, or hunter-gather, society, and the post-industrial society.  In order to avoid the sweeping generalizations inherent in an attempt to describe the parent-child relationship for an entire model, specific representatives of each model have been chosen for the comparison.  The Ju'/hoansi people (top photograph) of southern Africa and the Yanomami (bottom photograph) of Amazonia are the subjects of investigation for the foraging society.  The suburban middle class of the United States represents the post-industrial society.