This article addresses issues involved in the usefulness of cross-cultural research in family sociology. Cross-cultural research is defined as comparative research in which the data base consists of quantified ethnographic reports. The article argues that the method has been underutilized by family researchers, and that studies that have employed the method have not been taken seriously by family scholars. Possible reasons for this situation are explored. The basic conclusion is that although there are indeed many limitations on the cross-cultural method, its potentials have not yet been fully realized or exploited by students of the family.
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