Guardianship, an old institute classified in law as pertaining to persons and family, functions within and outside the family. Family which is often regarded as a «natural» phenomenon, is a social construct, contingent on time, culture, class and place. The introduction puts emphasis on historical developments that on the one hand have limited the scope of ancient guardianship by bestowing legal independence or capacity to wider categories (e.g., women), and on the other hand expanded it to new categories within modern concepts of family (e.g., de facto adopted children). The modern concept of parenting which might be detached from coupling and biology is occasionally inter-related with de facto kinship. This trend could be traced back to old times, so that ancient guardianship might serve not only as a tool for comparison with current developments in law and society, but also as some source of insight and inspiration.
