Scientists find prehistoric "nuclear" and extended family

The article begins: "LONDON (Reuters) – A 4,600-year-old grave in Germany containing the remains of two adults and their children provides the earliest evidence that even prehistoric tribes attached importance to the family unit, researchers said on Monday."

DNA evidence was used to support that this nuclear family included a mother, father, and two sons. One has to ask why the fact that nuclear families were important was surprising. First of all, infants are born to mothers who care for them. Fathers at times say around the help. This happens in all human societies and even in some other animal species. If kinship is central in all societies today, why wouldn't it have been important in the past? A second question might be why we have not found more such burials. First, it is likely that we have not found more of them because, plain and simple, we have not found many burials. Further, it may not have been common for all members of a family to be killed at one time and thus require burial at the same time.

A more important point here, however, is that extended kin are implied, not just a nuclear family. Although 13 individuals in total were buried at the site, no one mentioned an attempt to identify whether or not these individuals shared common ancestry and thus were more distant kin -- what we might today call extended family. It would not surprise me at all to find out that all these individuals shared a common ancestor, not so very distant an ancestor, and thus thought of themselves as kin. A second point is that the fact that these individuals were carefully buried together, not just thrown into a common grave, implies that extended kin were around and were able to bury their dead.

No one seems to appreciate the fact that extended kinship is important around the world, with the possible exception of the US and other industrialized societies. A burial ground implies extended kinship, that connects descendants trough time. Over a thousand year period males were buried at Broadbeach Cemetery. The majority of these males shared a genetic defect, inherited from a common ancestor.

Why do we focus on the singular - the nuclear family -- when a greater family is implied.