-pa.per presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Anthropological Assn. April 6-9, 1977. San Diego, Calif. published in microfiche Boulder: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education. 1978 BEHAVIORAL VAWES AND FAMILY STRUC'IDRE IN AMERICAN SOCIETY Karl H. Schwerin University of New Mexico Sociologists have long stressed the importance of the nuclear family in American society and have emphasized that not only is it the dominant family form, but that the values and behavior attached to it permeate the society (Parsons 1943). Growing up in California, I seemed to find confir- mation of this in my own experience, as kin ties beyond the nuclear family seemed tenuous and intermittent. Yet it gradually became apparent that at a basic level there is considerable tenacity in these ties. Holidays are a time for extended family gatherings. Sporadic contact is maintained with a broad range of midwestern relatives, and there is an occasional gathering in of the extended family on occasions of life crisis. Once every 10 to 25 years there might be a family reunion where even distant relatives engage in a familial rite of intensification. The nuclear family may well be predominant, but clearly more extensive kin ties continue to retain some significance over long periods of time and considerable dispersal in s~ce • ..:, In the last 10 to 20 years, social research has begun to qualify the picttire of a monolithic nuclear family dominating kin and domestic relations throughout American society. The first questions were raised by Young and Wilmott (1957) who showed, in their study of East London working class families, how maintenance of extended family ties was important both affec- tively and economicaliy. More recent investigations in the United States have confirmed that similar arrangements occur among lower class groups in this country (Adams 1968). Reports by Moynihan (1965) and Stack (1974)