Expanding the Household

Abstract

Studies on households can be divided into three major trends: a functional view focusing on hierarchical households, an economic view, and a demographic view. Recent research has shown that the normal household in pre-industrial agrarian societies was based on the nuclear family. The Scandinavian ideal appears to have been the stem-family. The extended family was very uncommon in practice. Different kinds of households are discussed on the basis of three different sites: a 13th-century castle, a deserted medieval forest farmstead and a deserted farmstead of the Finns practising forest swidden in early modern times.

The outland use of the forest farmers required several adjustments from the households in order to preserve the ideal stem- and nuclear-family-based households. The strategies of the forest farmers included seasonal planning, the participation of women in non-traditional activities and organizing the work in cooperation or through division of labour.