This paper presents issues pertaining to the current debate on the present and the future of the "institution of the family", and of the "value" of the family vis à vis the generalization of individualism. In Brazilian society, the code of personal relations transforms relatives and the family into a value that permeates all of society, and that is articulated with the individualist code, leading to a variety of kinds of family organization that abide by the principles of reciprocity and hierarchy, according to class situations and positions. The frail generalization of the conditions of citizenship can transform the principle of individual equality of rights into the universalization of anonymity, of indifference and of desensitization.
Family; individualism; reciprocity
