FAMILY
CSI – UNIT 4 - 2015
DEFINITION
Family – people who consider themselves related by
blood, marriage, or adoption
 Not just people you live with
 Includes people you only see occasionally
Household – people who occupy the same housing unit
Check the difference: Are these groups families,
households, or both?
 Cast of Finding Carter
 The Simpsons
 Cast of New Girl
 Cast of The Real World
 The Kardashians
FUNCTIONS OF FAMILIES
Brainstorm:
What are the benefits to organizing people into
families?
What purposes do families serve individuals
and society?
What do they DO?
FUNCTIONS OF FAMILIES
Economic production – husband & wife (or partner) can specialize their labor
Socialization – raise & teach youth in society
Take care of sick & elderly
Recreation – have fun; feel safe
Sexual Control – parents protect offsprings’ “purity”
Reproduction – ensure children are supported
TWO FAMILIES
Family of Orientation – one you’re born into
 Nurtures you
 Socializes you
Family of Procreation – one you marry into
 At basic level, exists to produce children
TYPES OF FAMILIES: NUCLEAR
Family structure containing husband, wife, and children
~25% of households are nuclear families
TYPES OF FAMILIES: EXTENDED
Family structure containing wife, husband, children, and
other relatives
 Grandparents
 Aunts & uncles
 Cousins
People are increasingly living with their extended families (2+
adult generations in the home)
 Unemployment
 Arrival of immigrants
How big is your extended family? Count grandparents, aunts,
uncles, first cousins, and immediate family
(mom/dad/siblings)
TYPES OF FAMILIES: UNFAMILIAR
Most of us are familiar with nuclear & extended families
In other cultures, there are other family systems:
 Polygamy – Greek translation ‘often/many married’
 Polyandry – wife has multiple husbands
 Polygyny– husband has multiple wives
Reading: Nepal’s wife Sharing Custom Fades
PRO/CON ACTIVITY
1.
2.
What are the benefits & costs of nuclear families ?
What are the benefits & costs of polygamous
families?
Discussion – Should polygamy be legal?
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Video Clips (time permitting)
Modern Polygamy (ABC News) 11 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcH3XyobtBw
My Five Wives (ABC News) 8 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-Pm5092a0c
MARRIAGE & DESCENT
Gender Roles
WHO ARE YOU RELATED TO?
Also known as kinship systems
Bilateral Descent – consider relatives from
both mother & father to be family
 Common in the US (and most societies today)
Matrilineal Descent – consider relatives from
mother’s side
 Sometimes associated with polyandry & matriarchal
families
Patrilineal Descent – consider relatives from
father’s side
 Sometimes associated with patriarchal families
SHARING THE RESPONSIBILITY
Matriarchy – rule by women
Patriarchy – rule by men
Egalitarianism – equality between the sexes
Considered to be the ideal in Western nations today
Is the US an egalitarian society?
WHO DOES THE WORK IN YOUR
HOUSE?
Cooking
Cleaning
Laundry
Outdoor chores
Repairs
Gardening
Animal care
Paying bills
Reflects gender roles – assumed responsibilities for individuals based on gender
THE SECOND SHIFT
Women’s housework after returning home from work
STRATEGIES OF RESISTANCE
Waiting It Out
 Not volunteering
 Showing irritation
 Wives dislike nagging or begging
Playing Dumb
 Become incompetent at housework
 Burn food, forget groceries, etc.
Needs Reduction
 “Cereal is fine for dinner”
 “I don’t care if the shower is dirty”
Flattery
 Express appreciation as replacement for
actual work
Activity: Write 2 short stories
(a few sentences) that
demonstrate a strategy of
resistance.
Pass them to your neighbor to
see if they can identify the
strategy!
ARTICLE: MILLENNIAL MEN AREN’T
THE DADS THEY THOUGHT THEY’D BE
Before reading:
Do you intend to share home responsibilities like chores &
child-rearing with your spouse?
How would you feel if your spouse made more money than
you?
What challenges could get in the way of an egalitarian
marriage?
MARRIAGE
WHO CAN YOU MARRY?
Exogamy – marry outside of your social
group/family
 Brings in new genes
 Make ties with neighboring tribes
Endogamy – marry inside of your social
group/family
 Keeps genes more homogenous
 Maintains traditions
 Examples
 Bans on interracial marriage
 Bans on inter-religious marriage
 Incest
INCEST TABOO
Most societies have an incest taboo – why?
Avoid role confusion (sibling or mother?)
Forces people to look outside family for marriage = forge alliances
Extends social network of bride & groom
Children who co-reside show avoidance toward inbreeding, even if technically
unrelated
 Taiwanese ‘minor’ marriage example
Likely discovered early on in agricultural communities
 Saw connection between domesticating plants & animals to yield results and incestual
relations yielding low birth weights & decreased fertility
Should children born from sperm donors be given two birth certificates to avoid
confusion?
ARRANGED MARRIAGES
Still somewhat common around the
world
 More prominent through the 18th century
Standpoint = parents know best
Traditional Marriage = parents
choose spouse, but if son/daughter
refuses, they’ll find someone else
Forced Marriage = can be punished or
killed for refusing marriage
Factors
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Reputation of family
Vocation of spouse
Wealth
Appearance
Values
Caste/religion
Horoscope
Medical/Hereditary Diseases