HISTORY OF THE FAMILY
The Changing Structures and Roles
Within the Family
The Etymology of Family
• Etymology is the history of the formation or
derivation of a word
• The word family is relatively new. Prior to 300
years ago, there was no word in any European
language that meant a living arrangement
based on parents and children living together.
• The English word family is derived from the
Latin word familia, which was derived form a
word that meant house.
Families in History
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Beginning with the ancestors of Canada’s First Nations peoples, different
cultural groups all over Canada have organized their family structures in a
variety of ways
Development has happened over hundreds of years but at a different
paces
Specifically, cultural anthropologists study isolated human societies both
from the outside and on the inside
As a result many theories have been developed to explain the
development of human civilizations and the origin of the human family
unit
Our brain distinguishes us from other animal species and enables us to
think, problem-solve, to use language as a means of communication, to
invent, and to feel emotions
Humans may not have survived as a species unless some form of family
grouping developed to provide care and protection and socialization
Families in History
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First family groupings may have been hordes or bands
- Loose groupings of males and females and their offspring
- Perhaps they were similar to social organizations of chimpanzees
But, unlike primates we have developed taboos against certain
kinds of aggression and sexual activity
We created relative peace and cooperation necessary for the
survival of the horde
Later, a system of social organization based on kinship replaced a
social hierarchy based on the size and strength of the dominate
male
Likely, the earliest human family form was a kind of group
marriage within the horde, in which informal pairing occurred for
various lengths of time
HUNTER-GATHERERS
- estimated that for 99%
of human history, h/g
was the major means of
subsistence (you ate
what you killed/grew)
- daily quest for food –
made sense to keep
moving (nomadic)
HUNTER-GATHERERS
– Men:
• hunters and toolmakers
• often left family to hunt for
long period of time (took days
to tire out larger animals for
easier kill)
– Women:
• gathered fruits, nuts, grains,
herbs and small prey
• responsible for nurturing
young
• learned to use plants for
medicine
• b/c of these 3 roles, women
were seen as essential to
survival – had high status
within group
HUNTER-GATHERERS
• small nomadic groups
• typically 5-80 members
• related by consanguinity:
by blood, or by informal
relationships
HUNTER-GATHERERS
Men/Women Roles:
Differences:
- Though different, tasks - Women:
of men and women
- Gathered plants/herbs/small
prey
shared equally
- Birthed/nurtured children
- Learned to use plants for
medicine
- Men:
- Hunters/toolmakers
HUNTER-GATHERERS
FAMILY FUNCTIONS
- Physical Maintenance:
- Women took physical care
of children
- Women used plants for
medicine
- Production/Consumption
- Purpose of each day to find
(produce) food for group
(distribution/consumption)
AGRICULTURAL FAMILIES
• once our ancestors
domesticated animals
and grew plants for
food, need for
hunting/gathering
eliminated
–  made more sense to
stay in permanent
settlement
AGRICULTURAL FAMILIES
• agricultural settlements
required more labour
(working land/tending
to animals)
–  more people needed
= have more babies!!!
AGRICULTURAL FAMILIES
• The beginning of societal roles
and wealth:
– Areas of high agricultural yield =
more people settling there =
development of towns/cities
– Concept of “owning land” emerged
– Families could acquire more land =
wealth
– Food surpluses had to be
controlled/distributed =
merchants/builders
– All of these new roles needed to be
organized = politicians
– women became more focused on
the personal household (looking
after children/house)
– Monogamy: having one marital
partner, became preferred in most
parts of the world
AGRICULTURAL FAMILIES
Patriarchy: men are the
rulers and decision-makers
of family, established to
ensure fatherhood and
inheritance of property
• Unfortunately, this new
organization = gender
power imbalance
– Women had few legal
rights
– Seen as husband’s
property
– Very successful men
could afford several
wives – polygamy:
having more than one
wife, became popular
AGRICULTURAL FAMILIES
- Need for labour kept
young adults in parent’s
house after marriage, to
continue to work land,
creating households
with extended families:
families consisting of
all relatives (parents,
children, grandparents,
aunts, uncles, cousins,
etc.)
AGRICULTURAL FAMILIES
Changing Roles of
Men/Women:
- Women became
property of their
husbands/had few
rights
Factors Causing Changes
- Ownership of land
created concept of
“wealth”
- Patriarchy established
to ensure inheritance of
land
AGRICULTURAL FAMILIES
FAMILY FUNCTIONS
- Addition of New Members
- (necessary for working land;
sometimes had more than
one wife and family to
increase this even more)
- Production/Consumption
- (you consume what you
produce)
PRE-INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES (1600’s-1700’s)
• as towns and villages
formed, so did commerce,
technology and crafts.
• Merchants/artisans began
working from the home
(with family’s help)
• These families less able
than farms to sustain large
households, so marriages
were monogamous and had
fewer children
PRE-INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES (1600’s-1700’s)
• Marriage not about love
as much as economic
necessity
– No work for single
woman
– No house keeping for
single man
– Children economic
necessity
PRE-INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES (1600’s-1700’s)
Changing Roles of
Men/Women
(Children)
- Sharing of roles in
family
Factors Causing Change
- men/women/children
all needed to work in
home
PRE-INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES (1600’s-1700’s)
FAMILY FUNCTIONS
- Production/Consumption
- (everyone in family
involved)
URBAN INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES
Phase 1: Industrial Nuclear Family
• industrial revolution
changed family system
– especially women
– shift from
agriculture/commerce
(at home work) to
factory work to earn a
wage (outside home)
– family unit no longer
produced, but rather
consumed
URBAN INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES
– industrial nuclear family:
Phase 1: Industrial Nuclear Family
• woman’s sole purpose is
nurturer at home, supported
financially by husband
• man’s sole purpose to
work/provide for wife and
children
• no need for children in factories
– education compulsory under
14 (1871, Ontario)
• home no longer centre of
economic activity, but rather
place of love and emotional
contentment
URBAN INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES
Phase 2: Consumer Family
– early 1900’s:
• family sizes shrink
• delayed marriage until own house
could be afforded
• increasingly became consumer
family:
– husband is exclusive
provider/link btwn family and
society
– wife = homemaker (thought that
women reached potential ONLY if
married with children)
» new products made for her
to make home more
comfortable for husband
and children
– peaks in 1940’s-50’s
URBAN INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES
Changing Roles of
Men/Women
- Traditional roles of
men as sole
providers and
women as nurturers
of
children/housekeepe
rs established
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Factors Causing Change
Men returned from war,
taking back jobs
Baby Boom (1946-1967)
T.V. portrayed ideal nuclear
family became popular and
strived for
“Mystique of Motherhood”:
belief that women only
reached full potential once
they had children
URBAN INDUSTRIAL FAMILIES
FAMILY FUNCTIONS
- Physical Care & Affective
Nurturance
- (Mother as Nurturer/Housekeeper)
- Addition of New Members
- (seen as “worth”, and baby boom!)
- Production/Consumption
- (very clear roles (Husband =
producer; Wife = Consumer
CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN FAMILY
• by 1960’s-70’s:
– became difficult for family to afford
“necessities”
– women begin to work outside home to
supplement family income
• birth rate declines
• women less financially dependant on men =
increased status of women
• transitional family emerges, mother
temporarily leaves work to raise small
children (mat leave)
• as well as dual-family income, both
spouses work full-time
• with increased women’s rights came new
divorce laws, creating blended families,
divorced partners with children remarry.
CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN FAMILY
– Family formation in last 40 years
reflects broader multicultural
influences from increased
immigration
• Brought diverse family systems
(arranged marriages, matriarchal
families, etc.)
• Influence next generation
– Some cynics say these changes
mean end of “the family”, but
“family institution” endures
because of ability to change
CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN FAMILY
Changing Roles of
Men/Women
- Increased status of
women
Factors Causing Changes
- supplementary income
needed, leading to
women in going to work
- Financial independence
of women leads to
change in divorce laws
- Birth control pill (gave
women power to
choose motherhood)
CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN FAMILY
FAMILY FUNCTIONS
- Affective Nurturance
- both in families and intimate
relationships
- Production/Consumption
- we are BIG spenders, and rely
heavily on our income