Sociology of Family and Religion

Endogamy: Marriage between people of the same social category

Exogamy: Marriage between people of different social categories

Polygyny Polyandry Polygamy

Polygyny: A form of marriage uniting one male and two or more females

Polyandry: A form of marriage joining one female with two or more males

Monogamy: A form of marriage joining two partners

Family unit: A social group of two or more people, related by blood, marriage or adoption who usually live together.

Family: social institution found in all societies, that unites individuals into cooperative groups that oversee the bearing and raising of children

Kinship: A social bond, based on blood, marriage or adoption that joins individuals into families

Marriage: a legally sanctioned relationship, involving economic cooperation as well as normative sexual activity and child-bearing that people expect to be enduring

Families of choice: People with or without legal or blood ties who feel they belong together and wish to define themselves as a family

Carrington study

The Swedish case

1500 1530: open lineage, lack of close relationships, lack of privacy 1530 1640: Loyalty to state and church and less to kin and community 1640 1800: closed domesticated families (Stone 1977)

Nuclear family patterns in 1950s UK (Willmott and Young 1957)

Family 1900 2000 (Therborn 2004) 1. Degree of male dominance 2. The need for marriage in sexual regulations 3. Fertility and birth control

Family types (Therborn 2004)

1. The West Asia/North Africa Family (Islamic) 2. The Subsaharan African Family (Animist)

3. The South Asian Family (Hindu)

4. The East Asian (Confucian) Family

5. The European/North American (Christian)

Family

Classic approach
1.
2. 3.

4.

Socialisation Regulation of sexual activity Social placement Material and emotional security

Conf lict theory

1.
2. 3.

Property and inheritance Patriarchy Race and ethnicity

Feminist approach
Family as an economic system

Critiques