Families in Multicultural Perspective
Editorial Reviews
Review
"The coverage is comprehensive--issues of mate selection, marital structure and breakdown, kinship patterns, child socialization, gender, and social inequality are all comprehensively discussed from a number of perspectives....Ideological viewpoints are deliberately contrasted so that readers can appreciate the strength (and weaknesses) of each and thus reach their own conclusions about the validity of different perspectives....A good text and a salutary reminder for those working in the family relations area as to the diversity of families throughout the world as well as the inaccuracy of many of our stereotypes about families in other cultures. It is certainly a text that I will recommend to my students." --Robin Goodwin in Contemporary Psychology
"Ingoldsby and Smith have compiled a new text that allows instructors to lead discussions on differences between cultures using the family as the primary unit of comparison....This text provides a bank of exercises for the student, guidelines for the instructor, and an appendix for selected international comparisons." --Dona Schneider in Soc. Sci. Med.42:12
"Families in Multicultural Perspective is a good, basic, comparitive text on families in the modern world...." --Rosalyn Benjamin Darling, Dept of Sociology, Univ of Pennsylvania in Disabilities Studies Quarterly
"Families in Multicultural Perspective is a well-written, fascinating broad brush-stroke treatment of the world's families. This well-documented tome, written from a North Aermican perspective, places families in historical and cultural context in a way that introduces the reader to factors contributing to the rich diversity of family life found around the globe. At the same time, the reader gains a sense of patterns of behavior that unite us as humans. Theoretical frameworks are interwoven throughout to describe and explain similarities and differences in family behavior. Cross-cultural research advantages and limitations are explained. The result is a very readable and interesting text for those who want to gain a broader understanding of the diversity of the world's families." --Ramona Marotz-Baden, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Health and Human Development, Montana State University-Bozeman
"Families in Multicultural Perspective is the most comprehensive and up-to-date comparative family text currently available. Editors Ingoldsby and Smith have done a masterful job of collecting and integrating the works of an impressive group of scholars, all experts in their respective areas.
Ingoldsby and Smith are at the forefront of new ways of thinking about family diversity. Other texts, which attempt to provide a multi-cultural perspective, tend to focuses on culture first and family second, and organize content by culture. This text focuses on family first, and organizes multicultural content in ways that correspond more closely to the theoretical and empirical literature on the family. Indeed it makes a unique contribution to the literature by integrating the cross-cultural family focus into topics traditionally considered important in family courses at the college and university level. Family diversity is presented in the context of foundations such as family theory and research methods, conceptual frameworks such as family development over the life cycle, and contemporary concerns such as social inequality, gender and class stratification, racism and poverty. Instructors of family courses at the university level should find this approach to be very helpful. It should also make the text appropriate for traditional family courses as well as for specialized courses which focus more narrowly or exclusively on cultural diversity.
Families in Multicultural Perspective makes a unique contribution to the family diversity literature by focusing on theory and research methods as well as cultural differences. Each theory provides another theoretical or conceptual framework for understanding diversity in families. And diversity in families provides a good test of the generalizability of theory.
There is little doubt that readers will be left with a greater appreciation for family science as well as for family diversity around the world.
Reviewing this book has been a pleasure. I look forward to its publication in the near future, and expect to be using it myself." --John W. Engel, Ph.D., Professor and Chairman of Family Resources at the University of Hawaii
Families in Multicultural Perspective,Bron B. Ingoldsby,Suzanna D. Smith,The Guilford Press,0898623073,Anthropology - Cultural,Cross-cultural studies,Family,Family & Relationships,Family/Marriage,General,Kinship,Marriage customs and rites,Psychopathology - Compulsive Behavior,Sex role,Sociology,Sociology - Marriage & Family,Psychology & Psychiatry / Family Therapy,Psychotherapy
Book Contents:
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