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Kozhanovsky A. Master, Breadwinner and Others: The Family in Post-Authoritarian Spain

Alexandr Kozhanovsky
M. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the RAS
Мoscow, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0003-1699-3660
E-mail: ankozhan49@yandex.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. In the late 20th — early 21st centuries the way of life and mentality of Spanish society underwent a deep and comprehensive transformation. Eventually the traditional patriarchal family was completely undermined. The male position of the master of the house, the head of the family has lost its material and ideological basis because the wife took an equal place with husband in the labor market, providing a second necessary source of family in- come. In addition, traditional ideas were replaced by norms of political correctness that deny the hierarchy of family roles. However, despite the drastic changes, relationships in Spanish family demonstrate spontaneous gravitation toward seemingly obsolete forms, even where spouses sincerely profess “progressive” views. Increasingly frequent situations, when wives earn more than their husbands or even become the only breadwinners in the family, trigger a mechanism of psychological discomfort and discord which is detrimental to the family. For the sake of saving     it spouses consciously or by default resort to behavior that creates the appearance of a marriage where the husband is the main earner and the central figure while the wife is on the sidelines. In current Spanish society, the coexistence of contradictory principles and attitudes in family relations is recorded, which indicates the rootedness of tradition in the collective consciousness of the people. At the same time, it is obvious that time inexorably levels Spanish specificity in favor of Western Europe socio-cultural uniformity.

 

KEYWORDS: Spanish patriarchal family, transformation, new forms, sustainability of tradition

 

FOR CITATION: Kozhanovsky A. Master, Breadwinner and Others: The Family in Post-Authoritarian Spain. Kunstkamera. 2025. 3 (29): 55–70. (In Russian). DOI: 10.31250/2618-8619-2025-3(29)-55-70

 

* The paper was written in accordance with the research plan of the N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2025-3(29)-55-70
УДК 316.42:316.472(596)

 

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