Kinship and social structure of early Roman society: Substitution in function: The father and the son

Abstract

The king’s family in Rome represents the model of social relations in the early period of Roman history. Roman mythology and legends offer examples of kinship and the social interaction of persons which are not characteristic of Indo-European societies. Early social structure, in the time of the seven kings, left vestiges in both the legends and the language. Parallel to that in existence in Rome and some other countries is the structure in primitive societies, which were investigated by L. H. Morgan, B. Malinowski, and other early anthropologists, who based their conclusions on direct contact with communities in America and the Pacific in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and anthropologists today who conducted their research in Africa. The elementary family type, father - mother - children, characteristic of the Indo-European society from antiquity until to-day, is not attested as a social entity in the legends concerning the Roman kings.