In the last decades we have witnessed deep transformations in Portuguese society. Their pace and intensity in the various dimensions of national social life have diverse implications on different social groups, status groups, and gender categories, thus distinguishing practices and social values. Family has been a dimension where occurred the most significant changes in Portugal, particularly in the ways of perceiving conjugality, late age in marrying, decreasing number of children (with greater investment in their care and education) increasing number of divorces, and the establishment of new forms of organising the family (de facto unions – hetero and homosexual –, single parent, reconstructed households and adoption). However, changes in family relations are not restricted to these “new families” but also affect the ways in which relations within the so-called “traditional family structures” (nuclear heterosexual) are lived and perceived. \nSuch changes raise questions urging to be analysed: 1) present family practices in different formal organizations reveal the loss of importance of values associated with the traditional family (the affective and relational investment in familial relations– in the sharing of daily experiences and life planning – radically transforms the meaning of family, where interpersonal relations – and not consanguinity or alliance – become central elements to constitute relatedness); 2) cultural values and social representations associated with the traditional family model remain hegemonic in various domains of Portuguese social life (see the strong political opposition to proposals seeking to liberalise family law, abortion, and adoption).\nThis project aims to identify the values, meanings, and ways of living family relations in Portugal in order to reflect critically upon the presuppositions of normality of the nuclear heterosexual family in kinship studies. Research will be based on case studies, with long-term fieldwork among a significant number of families (diverse in its composition, social, economic and geographic insertion), thus allowing to escape the limitations of formal analysis, providing for the first time a national extensive empirical data on family practices. This national wide ethnography of familial practices will be accomplished with student collaboration, trained and supervised by senior researchers.\nThe present plurality of forms and meanings of family relations promotes a discrepancy between actual family practices and the legal framework that rules them. This project will analyse the meanings and implications of changes in Portuguese family laws (de facto unions – hetero and homosexual –, adoption and assisted reproduction). A case study of gay/lesbian marriage in the USA will bring a comparative ethnographic perspective.  

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