Démographie, famille et reproduction familiale : un dialogue en évolution

The most recent trends of historical research relating to family reproduction sheds light on the progressive elaboration of an interdisciplinary dialogue which mixes individuals', families' and communities time. During the last few years, historical demography on the one hand, family history and ethnology on the other hand, have built still narrower links. The first one concentrated itself on the influence of demographic processes on family forms; the second ones tried to illustrate the impact of family system on demographic dynamics. The results largely illustrated the variety of solutions put into effect by families to ensure their reproduction. Far from being a limit for the interpretation possibilities of family systems, this variety represents on the contrary a real wealth and this even more since new methods, among which event history analysis, should make it possible to estimate the impact of short run on strategies on the long run at the family level, i. e. those of transmission between generations.