Kinship groups, because of their nomadic nature, frequently encountered other kinship groups as they moved. Interaction between groups was therefore inevitable, but not permanent. Goods, members, and ideas were exchanged for the benefit of both parties, but in the end the groups moved on, as in Paleolithic times there was not yet agriculture to allow them to stay in one place.

During his long and strange career, Alcibiades fell in and out of favor in Athens, at one point even fleeing to Sparta (something no other Athenian leader ever did). He would eventually become an Athenian general in the Peloponnesian War. He was assassinated in 404 BCE. 

During the fifteenth century, most Western Europeans lived their lives according to the regulations and cycle of the Catholic Church’s official calendar. This fact holds true for members of all social classes– rich and poor, noble and peasant, merchant and farmer. Instead of revolving around the ebb and flow of the different seasons the Church calendar was structured around different religious occasions, including feast days for particular saints, times of fasting, and other intervals of specific acts of religious observance such as Lent. It is estimated that nearly a third of every year, on average, was cumulatively spent on some sort of religious celebration, rite, or observance. This calendar was not any sort of official or formally written document but was instead a regular schedule, unchanging year after year, decade after decade, explained and enforced by the Church’s tight integration within most communities. The rhythm of life was therefore very much a religious one.

Over the course of the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, the institution of marriage in Western European society underwent a rather dramatic transformation. It became increasingly common for both men and women, of all social classes, to get married later in their lives – on average, most men now got married in their mid to late twenties, while most women entered into matrimony during their early to middle twenties. This stood in stark contrast to the average marital ages in past decades, as well as to established Catholic Church rules, which permitted legal marriage to take place as early as age twelve for females and age fourteen for males. Previously, it was not at all unusual for both men and women to be married by their fifteenth or sixteenth birthdays – this was especially acceptable for women. However, as the fourteenth century proceeded onward, Western Europe began to experience a sort of economic crisis, which had the collective effect of making it more and more difficult for men and women to establish themselves as financially independent adults. In turn, these new hardships naturally motivated people to postpone entering into matrimony, while they first attempted to earn enough money, secure a good job, or otherwise improve their social standing. Consequently, the practice of arranged marriages also altered – it became much more usual for couples to have known each other, or to at least have been somewhat familiar, before being paired up by their parents. This new addendum to the parental arrangement of marriage was at least partially inspired by the poor economic climate; as more and more people had less, wealth became a much more fluid and flexible category.

To properly understand the sociopolitical climate of the time, it is useful to examine the conventional familial arrangements in sixteenth century Western Europe. The average household consisted of a married husband and wife (both Catholicism and Protestantism stressed the absolute importance of matrimony). Generally, families of the time were rather large, with about six to seven children. Tragically, however, it was very common for at least one (if not more) of these children to perish before they reached adulthood – it has been estimated that over a third of all children died before they could reach the age of five. Those children who were fortunate enough to survive their toddler years still had more hurdles to overcome, as one half of these children would go on to perish during their teenage years. Most infant and child deaths were due to either disease, malnutrition, or some combination of both, and this held true for all social classes, rich and poor alike. In addition to all surviving children, the average household also consisted of a great many relatives, such as in-laws, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Wealthier families also lived alongside their domestic servants, slaves, and/or laborers.

Towards the end of the Industrial Revolution the use of child labor began to fall into disrepute. Many nations began to campaign for the end to the practice and by the latter half of the 1800's the practice began to wane. This movement was based on the terrible conditions in these mills and the extremely dangerous work that children were forced to do.

During the Cultural revolution, Mao instituted a new social group known as the "Red Guards." Comprised of young people, especially high schoolers, these Red Guards were given free reign to attack representatives of bourgeois order. Those who were older were automatically considered counterrevolutionary enemies because they had been tainted by their experience with landlords and aristocrats.

Mao's was a totalitarian regime; every aspect of life, including family and kinship, was under the auspices of the government.

Mao Tse-Tung was against the traditional Chinese concept of filial piety; respect for ones elders simply because they are elders.

Mao Tse-Tung taught children to be wary of elder generations, especially those who conflicted with the Communist party.

During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Tse-Tung's cult of personality grew immense, but his family, and especially his children, were largely kept out of the spotlight. In no way was Mao's family a public example of kinship.

The beginning of the Great Depression took place during the presidency of Herbert Hoover who, like many Presidents when the economy is in a bad state, was widely blamed for the disaster. Many Americans were forced from their homes and unable to find work and set up slums and shantytowns throughout American cities. In the early 1930s hundreds of thousands of Americans lived in these “Hoovervilles.”