FAMILY

Heterosexual relationship between 2 parents Married (preferably first marriage) Children (2.4) Live together Father head of the family Division of labor by sex

• Father = breadwinner

• Mother = homemaker

Wife and Children take father’s name More than merely a social unit. It is given almost

“holy” status. Any questioning of this unit is rejected

Traditional Families

The family is a social group characterised by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults’

Murdoch 1949

a now-married couple (with or without never-married sons and/or daughters of either or both spouses), a couple living common-law (again with or without never-married sons and/or daughters of either or both partners), or a lone parent of any marital status, with at least one never-married son or daughter living in the same dwelling. Statistics Canada

A Family is a social unit characterized by economic cooperation, the management of reproduction and child rearing, and common residence. It includes both male and female adults who maintain a socially approved sexual relationship. Family members, both adults and children, recognize certain rights and obligations toward one another”Ferraro 2005

‘The nuclear family is a universal human social grouping. Either as the sole prevailing form of the family or as the basic unit from which more complex forms compounded, it exists as a distinct and strongly functional group in every society’.

Murdoch 1949

Is the nuclear family Universal?

Family Ties 1982-1989

Kibbutz children’s house

The early idealists felt that the nuclear family unit was obsolete, and the entire kibbutz should be one big family unit.

Children slept in communal children's houses with a caretaker to tend to their night needs.

Parents and children alike found it distressing.

Today, children on every kibbutz live and sleep with their parents, at least into their teen years

Kibbutz

The children's houses have become day care and activity centers. Most of their waking hours are still spent with their peers in facilities adapted specifically for each age group.

live in isolated communities in Brazil.

Men all live together in a single house with all boys over the age of 13.

Women live together with their children and younger boys in 2 or 3 houses grouped around that of the men

When boys are 13 they move in with the men of the village

The Mundurucu

Because men and women do not live together as members of discrete residential units, it cannot be said that families are present in their society.

The functions of the nuclear family can be equally performed in different family structures.

SO

1. What are the functions of the family

2. And what are the various family structures

What is meant by “family” is culturally, socially and historically defined and therefore cannot be universal all the time and in all places.

Sexual: the family provides environment for regulating sexual desires.

Reproduction: essential for survival of human society

Socialisation and education: learning the norms and values of society.

Economic: shelter, division of labour. To give emotional security Care of the sick and aged Recreation and companionship protection

Functions of the Family

Functionalist Perspective

Focuses on stability and cooperation Each partner performed certain functions Husband worked outside the home Wife did housework and childcare Breadwinner-Homemaker Model

Functionalists believe that the traditional/nuclear family is essential for performing these functions

Functionalists often seen as pessimists (the family is “in decline”)

What functions of the family are now handled by other institutions in our society?

From a functionalist perspective, such changes have weakened the family unit.

The fewer functions that family members have in common, the fewer are their ‘ties that bind.’ With these bonds removed, or weakened, the family more fragile. Divorce, then, is common—the inevitable consequence of eroded functions in a context of great social strain” (Henslin 2002:376).

ALTERNATE FAMILY FORMS:

NUCLEAR SINGLE PARENT BLENDED and RECONSTITUTED EXTENDED COHABITING COUPLES COMPLEX FAMILY (POLYGAMY)

Nuclear family

                      

adapted to a life that requires high mobility.

neolocal residence tends to isolate husbands and wives from their kin.

kin unavailable to help look after the children and so arrangements must be made to have the children looked after by non-kin.

an independent unit that must fend for itself; this creates a strong dependence of individual members on one another

Nuclear family

nuclear family is impermanent - goes through a cycle.

nuclear family disintegrates with the death of the senior members

once children gone, who cares for parents in their old age?

problem does not arise in extended families where care is from womb to tomb.

The Single Parent Family

Majority are female headed households

Generally poorer than other family types

for comparative purposes the basic domestic unit from which others constructed consists of mother and her children

The Reconstituted Family

formed by adults who have married previously and who bring children from their previous marriage to the new marriage, forming a new family unit

Extended family

based on common descent

consists most commonly of a married couple and one or more married children

all living in the same house or household.

the constituent nuclear families are linked through the parent-child tie.

newlyweds are assimilated into an existing family unit.

in-marrying spouses must conform to the expectations of the family in which they now live.

•Loss of privacy•Authority of elders

Extended family

extended perpetuates itself

family is always adding new members who eventually become the senior members of the household.

extended families prevent the ruinous division of property especially land

found where the work a woman must do makes it difficult to look after the children and also other household chores. i.e. it makes for an effective division of labour.

•Companionship•Economic stability•Help with elder care and child care•Flexibility•Capital accumulation

Advantages:

Disadvantages

Complex Family

Thomas Arthur Green, loving father and husband to five women, was charged with four counts of bigamy April 2000.

co-wives's economic and political interests, especially with regards to their children, their labour, and their allegiances to their kin, often conflict.

causes organizational problems

most common solution is for each wife to have her own household

husband plays a secondary role in each.

households seldom fully independent economically

a principal motive for polygyny is to create a joint work force and pool the productive efforts (as well as the reproductive efforts) of several women.

Each household may be a partly separate unit in production and consumption.

in many ways they are separate social units.

polygynous households represent a control by the established senior men over both the labour and the fertility of women and over junior men.

Complex Families

Household: Consists of people who occupy the same housing unit; Apartment, house, etc.

While most families live in households, not all households correspond to a family unit

Family is...• a cross-culturally universal social institution • cross-culturally variable in its constitution• the basic unit of social organization in terms of

• identity construction• economic production

– distribution of goods– labor demands– inheritance

• reproduction– biological– cultural

A Brief History of the Family4th Century AD Christian church prohibited close marriages, discouraged adoption, condemned polygyny, concubinage, divorce, and remarriage

this strengthened the conjugal tie between a man and a woman at the expense of blood ties.

also ensured many people would be left with no male heirs, since many families have only female children and others have no children at all.

By eliminating polygyny, concubinage, divorce and remarriage and by discouraging adoption, the church removed the means by which people overcame these odds and made sure that they would have male heirs. result was to facilitate the transfer of property from families to the church.

Economic Primacy in the Pre-Industrial Family

Marriage was a contract that revolved around economic concerns.

Having children was an economic decision based on need (for labor) or old age support.

All family members had an economic importance to the family’s survival.• everyone worked

Family represented the main mode of production—mostly farming—and it used what it produced.

Power of patriarch was based on resources that would flow to younger generations.

Sons could only marry when father turned over some land to them

Who Had Power in the Pre-industrial Family

Relations between parents and children were autocratic and based on control of this valued resourceChildren were viewed more in instrumental than in sentimental terms (as “little adults”)

Patriarch of family—oldest male—controlled land, the most valuable resourceThis power commanded veneration—profound respect—but not necessarily love

Cornelis de Vos c 163-35 Family portrait

Conjugal family: mother, children,and usually father

Extended family: conjugal family plus other relatives such as grandparents, aunts/uncles

Stem family: parents and one adult child who remains at home

Types of Family Structures

Three-generation household were common, but less common than you would think• Children waited until they could be independent

before marrying• Parents didn’t live long enough to live with

grandchildren• Unmarried child was usually living with parents• Only about 20% of households in pre-industrial

North America were extended

Extended Family: Over-idealized?

“The single most significant event to affect the family is the industrial revolution.” (Henslin 2003:362).

1. Fathers now worked outside the home 2. Children became economic liabilities 3. Demand for education

• makes children more dependent on parents for a longer period of time

4. Lower birth rate• vulcanized rubber

5. Settlement patterns 6. Loss of traditional functions

Family and the Industrial Revolution

7. Traditional role of women changed8. Greater Equality emerges between men and women9. Increase in divorce10. Increased health and decline in mortality rates11. Women join the work force

Is the family dead (or dying)?

The family is not “dying,” but it is changing2001 census showed a continued decline of the traditional family - mom, dad and the kids,“

Households consisting of four or more people - typically mom, dad and their two kids - accounted for only a quarter of all Canadian households in 2001.

Two decades earlier, they accounted for a third

The decrease would be even steeper if only married moms and dads with kids considered

According to Statistics Canada's Census (1996)

THERE ARE 7.8 MILLION FAMILIES IN CANADA

•45% are married couples with children

•29% are married couples without children

•5% are common-law couples with children

•6% are common-law couples without children

•15% are lone-parent

•(83% of lone-parents are female)

Postmodern Family

No form of family is best No pattern of gender division of labor No one person is left to parent the children

– parenting is among many caring others• Greater acceptance of daycare/fathers at home• Both parents may want to have careers

Father Knows Best 1954-1958

Ozzie and Harriett1952-1966

How have family relationships changed?

Malcolm in the Middle 2000-2005

Family Guy 1999-2002

Leave it to Beaver 1957-1963