FAMILY
Traditional Families
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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
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The family is a social group characterised
by common residence, economic cooperation 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
‘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
 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
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.
Kibbutz children’s house
The Mundurucu
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
 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.
What is meant by “family” is culturally, socially and
historically defined and therefore cannot be universal all
the time and in all places.
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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
Functions of the Family
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Sexual: the family provides environment for
regulating sexual desires.
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Reproduction: essential for survival of human
society
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Socialisation and education: learning the norms and
values of society.
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Economic: shelter, division of labour.
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To give emotional security
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Care of the sick and aged
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Recreation and companionship
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protection
ALTERNATE FAMILY FORMS:
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NUCLEAR
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SINGLE PARENT
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BLENDED and RECONSTITUTED
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EXTENDED
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COHABITING COUPLES
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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.
Cosby Show: 1984-1992
 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.
Leave it to Beaver 1957-1963
The Single Parent Family
Gilmore Girls: 2000-2007
Andy Griffith Show 1960-1968
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
Brady Bunch 1969-1974
Extended family
 based on common descent
commonly consists 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 parentchild tie.
newlyweds are assimilated into
an existing family unit.
The Waltons: 1972-1981
in-marrying spouses must
conform to the expectations of
the family in which they now live.
Extended family
extended perpetuates itself
family is always adding new
members who eventually become
the senior members of the
household.
extended families prevent the
Advantages:
•Companionship
•Economic stability
•Help with elder care and child care
•Flexibility
•Capital accumulation
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.
Disadvantages
•Loss of privacy
•Authority of elders
All in the Family 1971-1979
Complex Family
co-wives' economic
and political interests,
especially with
regards to their
children, their labour,
and their allegiances
to their kin, often
conflict.
causes organizational
problems
HBO 2006-
Complex Families
common solution is for each wife to have 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 (and 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
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
Will & Grace: 1998-2006
Three’s Company: 1977-1984

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
Beverly Hillbillies 1962-1971
Father Knows Best
1954-1958
Leave it to Beaver
1957-1963
Ozzie and Harriett
1952-1966
How have family
relationships
changed?
Malcolm in the Middle
2000-2006
The Simpsons 1989-
Family Guy 19992002, 2005-