Abstract

The article addresses the general problematic which is at the heart of the Genealogy of Family Morality. It seeks to give a precise answer to two very general questions : how did the family come to be the lynchpin of the overall system of the instruments of reproduction of the social structure? Is it possible for us to address the « family » conceptually, outside the categories which would seem to predetermine both its ordinary and the academic representations, and which impregnate all aspects of the social order?