在当代的一些欧美社会里,人们认为正常的家庭是一个共同居住的群体,它是由已婚夫妇和他们自己的子女所组成,并与其他亲属分开生活。这就成为比较研究的参照类型。人们还认为,在现代高度分化的社会诸如北美和欧洲社会里,家庭已成为一种高度专门化的机构,它显示出作为具有跨文化比较研究意义的基本的、不可忽视的特征。在所有的人类社会里,只要社会继续存在下去,就必须为生物繁殖和社会再生产作准备, In some modern European and American societies, normal families are considered as a cohabitation group, consisting of married couples and their own children and living separately from other relatives. This becomes the reference type for comparative research. It is also argued that in modern and highly differentiated societies such as North America and Europe, the family has become a highly specialized institution that has emerged as a fundamental and indispensable trait that has the potential for cross-cultural comparative research. In all human societies, as long as society continues to exist, it must prepare for the reproduction of organisms and social regeneration,