Republic of the Philippines

CARLOS HILADO MEMORIAL STATE COLLEGE

Talisay City, Negros Occidental

Teaching Social Studies in the Elementary Grades

(Culture and Geography)
Second Semester, SY 2021-2022

Charity Mae M. Dosayla

Assistant Professor

The Family as a Basic Social Institution

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

A. Explain the concept of family and its historical roots

B. Discuss theories about the family
C. Construct a learning activity in teaching the concept of the family to kindergarten learners
D. Identify assessment methods appropriate in teaching the concept of family

Introduction

As elementary pupils have explored their self and self-identity, the learning process will now engage
them in a clearer understanding of individuals and groups in their immediate surroundings with
whom they always interact. As a child’s opportunity for interaction expands, the number of
individuals and social groups they will encounter also increases. The family is the first of these
social groups. It is within the family context where a child is socialized and enculturated with the
culture and norms of the family and the larger society of which the family is a part. The family
inculcates in the child social skills he will need when he encounters people outside of the family
group. It is thus imperative that you are knowledgeable of the concept of family

The Concept of Family

According to American Anthropologist George Murdock, the family “is a social group characterized
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,
owned or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults.” Such is a definition of a typical family.

However, in modern societies, members of a family need not be living in the same house or have
similar residence. Members of a family may be scattered in many places, even abroad, for varied
reasons one of them being for the satisfaction of economic obligation. Nevertheless, the process of
reproduction is primarily delegated to the family. The family is the basic social institution responsible
for procreation and for providing new members to the society. A family is said to be composed
initially of two adults of opposite sex who are sexually cohabiting and whose cohabitation is socially
approved. One or more children, either biological or adopted, form another component of a family.

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In the Philippine Family Code, the family is considered as the “foundation of the nation, is a basic
social institution which public policy cherishes and protects” (Art.149). Family relations are governed
by law and no customs, practice or agreement destructive of the family shall be recognized or given
effect. The family is considered to be founded of marriage. Article 1 of the Family Code defines
marriage as

“a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered in

accordance with law for the establishment of a conjugal and family life. It is the
foundation of a family and an inviolable social institution, whose nature, consequences,
and incidents are governed by law.”

Taking this provision as example, marriage has been established as the legitimizing process of the
union of two persons as such, is a precondition or prerequisite to building a family life. This is true
for many states and governments around the world. However, there are unions not duly sanctified
by legal provisions. Such unions are still considered as a prelude to establishing a family.

History of the Family – from the Historical Materialist Perspective

(from Origin of the Family, State, and Constitution by Friedrich Engels)

The family is commonly viewed by people as a natural phenomenon through which males and
females reproduce society’s new members. The family is a social group understood to be composed
of a female who is normally assigned to nurture and care for the young and a male basically
delegated to provide food for his mate and offspring. These role assignments have been accepted
throughout generations and in many societies as taken-for-granted. Many anthropological sources
however show evidence that the modern-day family is an outcome of economic rather than
biological factors. Friedrich Engels used Karl Marx’s historical materialist lens to forward an
argument that the family developed in the course of people’s reaction to the changes in their ways
of living instead of it being a result of man’s satisfaction of his biological needs. Engels’ main
argument is that the form of a private bourgeoise family was established for the transmission by
man of his personal properties to his own biological children and for the subjugation of his wife.

Throughout each major stage of man’s historical development as savagery, barbarism, and
civilization, a specific type of marriage occurred. Group marriage was the defining characteristic of
the union between men and women during the stage of savagery, pairing family for the stage of
barbarism, and monogamy during the period of civilization. Primitive societies feature conditions
where polygamy and polyandry were simultaneously practiced. In this context, polygamy is a
condition where a man is “married” to several women while polyandry is its exact opposite – one
woman is “married” to several men. This network of relationships of sexual nature among various
men and women gave birth to what Engels considered as the first stage of family - the consanguine
family. In this type, marriage was confined within the same generation such that men and women,
even if they were brothers and sisters, were theorized to be husbands and wives to one another
thereby making their offspring brothers, sisters, and cousins to one another. Marriage did not exist
between an ancestor and a progeny and a parent and a child.

This type of family was later gradually effaced beginning with the prohibition of sexual relationship
between brothers and sisters and between cousins. Tribes which forbade this practice were
observed to develop more fully compared to those who allowed the continuance of such practice.
This prohibition led to the development of the gens, a circle of people related by blood in the female
line, among whom marriage was not allowed. The gens formed the foundation of the social order of
most barbarian peoples of the earth. The emergence of the gens was also made possible by the
practice of living in a primitive communal household which dictated the maximum size of the family.
This later led to the development of what Morgan called as the punaluan family which emerged from
the consanguine family. The punaluan family is characterized as formed by a group of sisters or

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cousins who are common wives of their common husbands except their brothers. These husbands
need not call themselves as brothers but punalua. In a sense, the punaluan family is equivalent to
group marriage and is its highest form. In this familial arrangement, the mother knows perfectly well
all her biological children, but fathers do not. It can therefore be established that in group marriage,
descent can be traced on the mother’s side therefore recognizing only the female and not the male
line.

Group marriage was later displaced by pairing family. Preliminaries of pairing family were
documented as already existing within group marriage as in the case of a husband who chooses the
chief wife among his many wives. The pairing family however became the more dominant family
structure later replacing group marriage. It is characterized by a man and woman living together,
although the polygamous nature of man still pervaded while to the woman, utmost fidelity to the
man is expected, lest she be punished. In this type of union, natural selection was gradually at work
for persons not related by blood and who produce offspring tended to produce a physically and
mentally stronger stock. The pairing family however can be dissolved by either partner and after
separation, children will belong to the woman. But although there is relative exclusivity in partners in
a pairing family, households still remained communistic. In a communal housekeeping, women
commanded supremacy in the house due to the fact that paternity of children cannot be clearly
established. Women were held in high respect, with their position not only free but also honorable.
In the words of Ashur Wright, “the women were the great power among the clans (gens), as
everywhere else.” The communistic household, composed of several families living together in a
literal long house, is a material manifestation of the supremacy of women which was a general
practice in primitive societies. The transition from group marriage to pairing family was also
triggered primarily by women. The development of economic conditions and the increasing
population density caused the renunciation by women of group marriage and their quest to practice
chaste relationship and therefore marriage with one man. The pairing family could have been the
pinnacle form of family structure, except that there were other social forces that operated that
caused the emergence of monogamous family.

The monogamous marriage or family evolved from the increase of properties that formerly entirely
belonged to the gens. These properties consisted not only of personal effects such as hunting tools
and crude implements, but also of domesticated animals which were multiplied through careful
animal husbandry. Private ownership of these herds of animals may however have been remotely
practiced. As herds of animals multiplied, supervision to guarantee continuous production and thus
a steady supply of food such as meat and milk was called for. The need to employ additional help to
tend to herds of animals introduced into society the practice of slavery. And once these properties
were considered private ownerships of families, this increasing wealth ushered in a transformation
of social relations that destabilized the position of pairing marriage and the matriarchal gens. First,
pairing marriage more or less warranted the paternity of the child, which is a new element
introduced into the family. Within this emerging family structure, division of labor was such that
women were attached to household management and therefore owned household goods, while
men were deployed to procure food and therefore owned the instruments of labor required to satisfy
this purpose. Thus, man possessed the cattle and later the slaves. But these properties did not pass
to the man’s children, for the norm of inheritance abided with the rule on maternal descent. A man’s
properties instead passed on to members of his own gens, that is to his maternal blood relations,
and not to his children for they do not belong to him but to their mother’s gens. The increasing value
of man’s wealth later became directly proportional to his position and importance in the family which
he exploited to subvert the existing institution of inheritance through the mother’s gens. The long-
standing mother-right descent however stood as the barricade to this aspired male supremacy. To
dissolve such impediment, an arrangement was facilitated such that a man’s offspring remained
with his gens and those of his “wife” will now be transferred to his. The dissolution of maternal
descent and the law on matriarchal inheritance is now complete and the patriarchal descent and the
paternal law of inheritance replacing their formerly esteemed position. But although the exact period
as to when this revolution occurred cannot be pinpointed, this idea still remains enforceable based
on traces of mother-right practices collected by anthropological studies. Engels contends that the

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overthrow of the mother-right to inheritance and maternal descent marked the beginning of the
historical defeat of the female sex.

In summary, the development of the monogamous family from the primitive societies was
characterized by the shrinking of the tribe previously formed through group marriage due to the
continuous exclusion of close to even the remotest of relatives in acts or process of marriage. Group
marriage eventually became impracticable and pairing family became the trend of the epoch. A
male and a female maintained a relatively exclusive relationship that paved the way for the
emergence of a practice of correct identification of the paternity of an offspring. Females at this
point still reigned supreme in the communal household and inheritance was traced to the female
line. But while females were socially required fidelity to their male partner, the same cannot be
expected of males who continue to indulge in promiscuity and other guarantees of group marriage.
The final transition to monogamous marriage was caused by the acquisition of personal properties
by the male on whose hands depended the subsistence of the female and their offspring. This
division of labor obtained for the male substantial economic wealth which he used to challenge
female ascendancy and command from her utmost faithfulness to ensure that children to whom he
will bequeath his wealth are biologically his. From this vantage point, the monogamous family
therefore is a product of the impact of a changing material relations to social arrangements which
final product is the subjugation of the female to the male sex.

Theories on the Family

1. Functionalist View on the Family

Talcott Parsons viewed the family as a subsystem within the larger social system. This
theory posits that the family, particularly the parents, functions as the primary socializing
agent of a child. As socializing agents, parents articulate their skills and perform their roles
as well as allow their performance of their functions in the larger social structure to influence
their manner of socializing children. Several subsystems also exist within the subsystem of
the family, in which the child is a component thus is expected to perform his roles. Within the
family, there are the subsystems of the married couple, father-children, mother-children, and
brother-sister. Children are not only socialized within the family group but also introduced
and socialized in a network of interpenetrating sub-systems such as the school, religion,
peers, and the community. The family serves as the training ground of children in their
assumption and practice of multiple roles expected of them by these other subsystems. The
child undergoes progressive learning through actual participation in this network of roles
offered beyond his family of orientation. The family’s socialization of children therefore is
crucial in the ability of a child to later assume adult personalities and fulfill a repertoire of
adult roles withindifferentiated but interdependent subsystems.

American Anthropologist George Murdock theorizes that the family functions to ensure the
control of adult sexual relationships making it socially acceptable. A representation of this is
the monogamous heterosexual relationships. The family also serves as society’s only means
of biological reproduction of the succeeding generations. It also socializes young members
with social norms and values deemed significant in the perpetuation of the society and
instruments for these members’ full social integration. Finally, the family provides for the
economic needs of its members and by extension, society’s members. The family provides
its members’ basic needs as food, shelter, and clothing.

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 Retrieved: https://revisesociology.com/2014/02/09/functionalist-perspective-
family/
For Talcott Parsons, the family is a subsystem of a larger system which is the society itself.
The family performs two basic functions: Socialization and Stabilization of adult
personalities. Talcott is in one with Murdock in considering the essence of the family in the
primary socialization process. The family is also responsible for giving individuals emotional
security attained primarily within the marital relationship of two adults. The family de-stresses
workers in industrial societies described as stressful. In the process of doing so, the family
prevents conflict from occurring in the society. Stabilization of personalities is achieved
through expressive and instrumental biologically determined roles.

2. Marxist View on the Family

The prevalence of private property being concentrated on the male and his objective of
transferring his wealth to his own biological children made marriage dependent on economic
considerations so that not only females had a bride price but also that males were sought for
the amount of wealth they possess. Mutual romantic love that should be the paramount
consideration for marriage is not much considered among the ruling class. Marriage
remained as class marriage although within the class, individuals are said to possess a
certain degree of freedom of choice. However, the ruling class became entangled with the
requirements of a capitalist production system that their amount of wealth must be expanded
and never diffused. This objective of economic expansion impedes individuals from actually
realizing free contracted marriage founded on love. Therefore, the family validates and
materializes the capitalist ideology beginning with the bequeathal of private property to
children followed by class marriage that warrants the enlargement of such capital. An
absolute freedom of marriage can only be achieved when heritable private property that
serves as factors of production is transformed into social property and the capitalist system
and all property relations that emanate from it has terminated all deliberations economic in
nature in the selection of a marriage partner.

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3. The Family as Determinant of and Influenced by Gender

Let us first define gender and differentiate it from sex. Sex is a biological make-up. It is a
feature upon birth that stays permanent albeit relatively for some individuals upon their
choice. Categories like male and female are in relation to sex. Gender on the other hand is a
psychosocial and cultural construct. It is based on how one's personal and cultural
orientations determine how one should behave in society. Terms of masculine and feminine
are the basic categories of gender.

Family constructs gender. It is where gendered identities are formed through its various
agencies of socialization. Not only the primary socialization of a child contributes to the
formation of his gendered identity but also the over-all family practices that include larger,
patterned structures such as sexual division of labor and family obligations over the life
course. The sexual division of labor within the family has situated women in the confines of
the home and perennially tied them to domestic chores. Men on the other hand are deployed
outside of the home and socially assigned to procure necessities for living. Exposure to this
sexual division of labor through explicit and implicit instruction influences the formation of
gendered identities of children. And these gendered identities extend to the larger society
and manifested in terms of the economic position and subordination of women. Why and
how the sexual division of labor is being perpetuated is examined in terms of the value of
women’s work to the propagation of capital. In the wage labor market, women are typically
associated with less strenuous and physically taxing types of jobs and those that connect
them to their nurturing role within the family. They are stigmatized to be less skilled and
thereby prevented from engaging in income-generating ventures. Women are thus exploited
in terms of lower wages received. Men on the other hand are assigned to hurdle physically
laborious and competitive types of employment. Their labor is highly valued and equated
with higher salaries and wages.

4. The Postmodernist View on the Family

Postmodernist theory is a theory that rejects grand narratives that attempt to explain social
life as if it always neatly fits into a pattern. Postmodernism is an evasive approach in
studying human existence. It critiques modern society, but which criticisms can be
considered invalid as postmodern theorists are devoid of a normative basis with which to
make sound judgments. Knowledge produced by postmodernists may not be viewed as
comprising a corpus of scientific facts, hence it would be best to view postmodern social
theory as an ideology. Postmodernism commences from experiences of pluralism,
disorganization, and fragmentation in modern-day culture that are not foreseen by a model
of universal reason. Postmodernists do not aim for a reorganization of social life. Instead,
they presuppose that incessant production of instability is the defining characteristic of the
postmodern world.

Cheale (1991) enumerated basic assumptions of postmodern social theory that can be
utilized in examining the changes that occur in the family structure (cited in Kidd, et al.,
1998:227). These assumptions are:

a. The end of progress and the idea that we have lost faith in the future.
b. The saturation of society by mass media
c. A decline in emotional commitment to the family manifested in parents’ inability to relate
with their children’s experiences in a rapidly changing world

The differences and diversities found in mainstream culture have the ability to explain the
chaos that are happening in many family relationships. Norman Denzin (1987) espouses

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 that traditional notions and definitions of family are no longer applicable in the postmodern
world. The modern world defines a nuclear family as composed of two parents who protect
their children in an emotionally secure environment. Denzin (1987), however, defines the
postmodern family as “a single-parent family, headed by a teenage mother, who may be
drawn to drug abuse and alcoholism. She and her children live in a household that is prone
to be violent” (cited in Kidd, et al., 1998:229). He further identified two defining features of a
postmodern family: (1) children are now cared for by other persons aside from the parent;
and (2) the television being a prominent feature at home that teaches children cultural
myths. He concludes that the postmodern child is “cared for by the television set, in
conjunction with the day-care center” (cited in Kidd, et al., 1998:229). Denzin further explains
that mass media sets the family in soap operas and situational comedies as an entity totally
different from its realistic nature and situation. In these mass media productions, Denzin
considers the family as a cultural fantasy which does not prescribe practical approaches on
how life should be lived in the present-day society.

Characteristics of a Family

1. The family as a social group is universal and is a significant element in man’s social life.
2. It is the first social group to which the individual is exposed. It is the basic autonomous unit in
a society.
3. Family contact and relationships are repetitive and continuous.
4. The family is a very close and intimate group.
5. It is the setting of the most intense emotional experiences during the lifetime of an individual
6. The family’s influence on personality and character is significant and pervasive.
7. The family affects the individual’s social values, dispositions, and outlook in life.
8. The family is the source of the individual’s ideas, aspirations, and basic motivations in life.
9. The family serves a role to link the individual to a larger society.
10. The family is unique in providing continuity of social life.
11. It is the meeting ground of generations not only in terms of biological traits but also in socio-
cultural heritage.

Classifications of a Family

A. According to Organization, Structure, and Membership

1. The Nuclear Family

a. This is also known as the Primary or Elementary Family.
b. It is composed of a husband and his wife, and their children in a union recognized by
the society.

Family of Orientation – family into which one is born, reared, and socialized.

Family of Procreation – family established by the person through marriage.

2. The Extended Family

This is composed of two or more nuclear families related to each other economically and
socially.

Conjugal Family – This considers the spouses and their children as primary
important. The marriage bond is important and stressed.

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 Consanguineal Family – This considers the nucleus of blood relatives as more
important than the spouses. The relationship of a person with his/her blood kin is
important.

B. According to Place of Residence

1. Patrilocal Family
The residence of the couple is with or near the husband’s family which occurs in
patrilineal societies.

2. Matrilocal Family
The residence of the couple is with or near the wife’s family which occurs in
matrilineal societies.

3. Bilocal Family
Marital residence is near both the husband and the wife’s family.

4. Neolocal Family
Permits the newly-wed couple to reside independently of their parents.

C. According to Descent

Descent is the tracing of kinship relationships through the parents. It creates a line of people
stretched across time from whom an individual is descended.

1. Patrilineal Descent
Affiliates a person with a group of relatives related to him through his father.
Closeness is more on the father’s kin. In a patrilineal system, only male children are
considered part of the kinship, while female children are married out and considered
members of their husbands’ lineage.

2. Matrilineal Descent
Affiliates a person with a group of kinsmen related to him through the mother. In
matrilineal descent, only female children are considered part of the family while male
children cease to be members once they marry.

3. Bilineal Descent
Affiliates a person with a group of kinsmen related to him in both the father and
mother side.

D. According to Terms of Marriage

1. Monogamy
Permits the man to have only one spouse at any time.

2. Polygamy
It is a type of marriage wherein one person is married with 2 or more individuals.

a. Polygyny – marriage of one man to 2 or more women at a time.

b. Polyandry – marriage of one woman to 2 or more men at a time.
c. Group marriage – marriage of several men and women at a time.

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Teaching the Concept of Family to Kindergarten Learners

There are competing and complementing frames explaining the concept of family especially in these
postmodern times. However, as educators, we should be the last group to abandon archetypal
characteristics and traditional norms surrounding a family for we are socially obligated to contribute
in the achievement of the mission of the educational system. The basic premises of functionalism
will take precedence in our teaching of the concept of family, but knowledge of other theories will
capacitate us to explain to our pupils changes that the family undergoes in the most objective
manner possible when necessities arise.

Teaching the concept of family to elementary pupils may use alternative assessments that are
anchored on constructivist theory such as genealogy or family tree, timeline, and concept maps.

Genealogy can be used to assess elementary learners’ knowledge of members of their family
beginning from the generation that they can recognize traced down to their own generation.
Learners’ analysis can be harnessed in their attempt to illustrate the relationship of one member to
another using a set of symbols. Also, the theme time, continuity, and change can be emphasized in
the making of family tree as learners become familiar of the generation each member belongs and
the continuity or changes in relationships of these members. The overall task of producing a family
tree also provides an opportunity for learners to showcase and enhance their drawing and creative
skills as they will design their own genealogy using materials of varying types, colors, textures, and
sizes

Using timeline in teaching life and family events that are significant to learners will also prove
effective. Making timelines will train learners’ time and chronology skills. Continuity and change
skills will also be articulated by learners as they identify family traditions that are still practiced to the
present and those which have undergone change.

Concept maps can be used both in teaching the topic members of a family and their respective
roles and in assessing learners’ knowledge and analysis level in this topic. In a concept map, the
concept family is written at the center figure, while the connected figures are left blank. Learners
need to supply the missing words or concepts which represent the members of a family. Concept
maps can also be used in teaching roles of family members. For instance, we write the word father
in the center figure and the surrounding figures connected to the central figure is where learners will
write their descriptions of what their fathers typically do or are expected to do.

Using project-based learning, teachers can assign learners to make a photo album of members of
their family which they will later present in class. We achieve three learning targets in the process:
(1) the identification of family members; (2) the enhancement of their creative skills; (3) and the
improvement of their oral presentation skills.

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References:

Engels, F. 1820-1895. 1942. The Origin of the Family, State, and Constitution. New York:
International Publishers

Kidd, W. et al. 1998. Readings in Sociology. London: Heinemann Educational Publishers.

Miller, B. 2017. Cultural Anthropology. 8th Edition. Pearson Education. United States of America.

Ritzer, G. 2011. Sociological Theory. 8th Edition. McGraw Hill. New York, USA

Sivakumar, R. 2018. Methods and Resources in Teaching Social Studies. Journal of Contemporary
Educational Research Innovations. Vol.8, No.2, pp.207-216

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