Part III

Family
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However each culture may define what constitutes a family, this social unit forms the basic cooperative structure that ensures an individual’s primary needs and provides the necessary care for children to develop as healthy and productive members of the group and thereby help ensure its future.
Family: two or more people related by blood, marriage, or adoption.

Household
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An effective way to facilitate economic cooperation between men and women and simultaneously provide for a close bond between mother and child is through the establishment of residential groups that include adults of both sexes.
Household: basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out.

Household
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A household is not the same as family, although a household may contain related people, non-kin may also be part of the household group.
– In addition, members of a family may be spread out over several households

Question

Family and household are not always synonymous.
A.
True
B.
False

Question

Family and household are not always synonymous.
A.
True

Forms of the Family

Conjugal family: a family established through marriage
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Consanguineal family: related women, their brothers, and the women’s offspring.

Forms of the Family
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Nuclear family: a group consisting of one or more parents and dependent offspring, which may include a stepparent, stepsiblings, and adopted children.
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Extended family: a collection of nuclear families, related by ties of blood, that live in one household.

Nuclear Family
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The family form that most Americans,
Europeans, and many others now regard as the normal or natural nucleus of larger family units
Industrialization and market capitalism have played a historical role in shaping the nuclear family most of us are familiar with today.
Larger kin groups are not involved in any substantial way in mate selection or the transfer of goods

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Among Inuit people in Canada who still hunt for much of their food, nuclear families are typical. Their isolation from other relatives is usually temporary. Much of the time they are found in groups of at least a few related families.

Question

The nuclear family is typically found in
A.
The Nayar society
B.
The Mbuti society
C.
The United States and Canada
D.
India

Question

The nuclear family is typically found in the
United States and Canada.

Extended Family



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Extended family: two or more closely related nuclear families clustered together into a large domestic group.
Common in traditional horticultural, agricultural, and pastoral societies around the world
Typically consists of siblings with their spouses and offspring, and often their parents.
Extended family is a way of keeping land intact, providing additional security for individuals in times of crisis


Extended families have built into them particular challenges.
– Among these are difficulties that the inmarrying spouse is likely to have in adjusting to his or her spouse’s family.

In many societies, the extended families are the primary unit of social organization.

Question

One explanation for the existence of extended families in many cultures is that
A.
Raising children is more difficult in traditional societies
B.
Religious beliefs make it difficult for children to leave home.
C.
A lack of money or wealth makes it impossible for family members to leave.
D.
The need for a large labor pool and cooperation in economic activities keeps family members together.

Question

One explanation for the existence of extended families in many cultures is that the need for a large labor pool and cooperation in economic activities keeps family members together.


In North America and parts of Europe, increasing numbers of people live in nonfamily households, either alone or with nonrelatives.

Many others live as members of what are often called nontraditional families.
– These include single-parent households.

Household Types in the United
States in 2000

Five Basic Residence Patterns
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Where some form of conjugal or extended family is the norm, family exogamy requires that either the husband or wife, if not both, must move to a new household upon marriage.
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Five common patterns of residence: patrilocal, matrilocal, ambilocal, neolocal and avunculocal.

Residence Patterns
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Patrilocal residence: a residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the locality associated with the husband’s father’s relatives.
– This arrangement is favorable in situations where men play a predominant role in subsistence
– Where patrilocal residence is customary, the bride often must move to a different band or community.
– 80% of societies are patrilocal and patrilineal

Residence Patterns
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Matrilocal residence: a residence pattern in which a married couple lives in the wife’s mother’s place of residence.
– Is likely to result if ecological circumstances make the role of the woman predominate for subsistence.
– Found most often in horticultural societies, where political organization is relative uncentralized and where cooperation among women is important.

Residence Patterns
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Ambilocal residence: a pattern in which a married couple may choose either matrilocal or patrilocal residence.
– For people like food-foragers, who find their food in nature and who maintain an egalitarian social order
– Can be a crucial factor in both survival and conflict resolution.

Residence Patterns
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Neolocal residence: a pattern in which a married couple may establish their household in a location apart from either the husband’s or the wife’s relatives.
– Occurs where the independence of the nuclear family is emphasized

Avunculocal residence: a residence pattern in which a married couple lives with the husband’s mother’s brother.

Question

The residence pattern in which a woman leaves her family after marriage to live with the family in which her husband grew up is the
A.
Patrilocal residence pattern
B.
Neolocal residence pattern
C.
Matrilocal residence pattern
D.
Ambilocal residence pattern

Question

The residence pattern in which a woman leaves her family after marriage to live with the family in which her husband grew up is the patrilocal residence pattern.

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In many countries marriage, family, and household forms have become more varied in recent decades.

Contributing factors include new reproductive technologies
– In vitro fertilization
– Open adoption