When rebuilding society:
I think it would be useful to adopt ideas that have proven to be useful throughout history. Reject the bad, keep the good, and all that.
Maybe it seems obvious, but most successful civilizations operate with two separate categories of people - an in-group, and an out-group. For example, war-brides come from the out-group... whereas brides from the in-group (the female offspring of a man of the in-group) may have elaborate courtship customs.