Social Institutions

What are social institutions?

 Institutions develop around human needs that are essential
to the individual

 Habits, or traditional ways of doing things that have

eventually become established patterns of behaviour
Universal or pivotal social institutions
(these are common to all societies)

 The family - helps provide the basic needs of daily life

 Educational institutions – provides a means to transmit

culture & train new generations through formal education

 Religious institutions - so people can express their religious

beliefs and join in worship with others who express similar beliefs

 The economy - provides a means to obtain food, shelter and

clothing

 Government - provides peace and order around society

FAMILY
The Family
 The oldest of all social institutions

 Exists in some form in all societies, past &

present

 The most important element in the

socialization process
Family features
All families share the following features

 They are social groups that originate in marriage

 They consist of husband, wife and children

 Members are bound by legal, economic & religious bonds, as well as duties &
privileges

 They provide sexual privileges and prohibitions, as well as love, respect & affection
Historically, the family has taken two chief forms

The extended family The nuclear family

 Husband, wife, children +  Father, mother & children
other relatives living together
as a family unit  Typical of urban industrial
societies in which there is
 Typical of traditional geographic & social mobility
agricultural societies where
cooperation is important for
production
 What are the special features of the extended
family?
 Shared child rearing responsibilities
 Children form affectionate relationships with many persons
 Socialization is a shared process
 The welfare of the family unit has priority over the personal goals &
desires of the individual
 There is a well defined hierarchy of authority
Why is there a trend towards nuclear
families?
 Individuals are attracted to urban centers in search of work & form
new family units

 Many of the functions previously performed by extended families

(education, healthcare) have been taken over by separate institutions
in urban industrialized societies

 Housing is scarce & expensive in urban centre

 Achieved status - what a person does through his/her own effort – is

important in industrial societies (cf. ascribed status – depends on the
family’s social position)
What are the Functions of
the Family?
Family Functions
1. Regulation of Marriage
• No known society leaves regulation of sex to chance
• Marriage is encouraged and married persons are given high status in
most societies
• Marriage is socially & legally sanctioned in most societies
Family Functions
1. Regulation of sex
2. Controls reproduction
• Ensuring there is always a new generation growing up
• Reproduction outside the family has not been sanctioned
by any society, despite changing norms in some societies
Family Functions
1. Regulation of sex
2. Controls reproduction
3. Main agent of socialization
 Most societies depend on the family to socialize their children in
preparation for living in the wider society
 Schools & peer groups have taken over part of this process
Family Functions
1. Regulation of sex
2. Controls reproduction
3. Main agent of socialization
4. Provides care, affection & companionship
1. Fundamental human need for survival

 While companionship may be provided by other groups, affection is more often found only within
the family.
Family Functions
1. Regulation of sex

2. Controls reproduction

3. Main agent of socialization

4. Provides care, affection & companionship

5. Economic cooperation
 A family must work to provide sustenance & other needs for its
members. i.e. shelter, food
Marriage?
 A legally defined & sanctioned relationship (cf. the family,
which is socially defined)
 The union of a man & a woman, or various
combinations thereof, living together in a sexual
relationship with the expectation of producing
offspring

 In every society, the definition of the marriage

relationship includes guidelines for sexual
behaviour, obligations to children & in-laws,
division of labour within the household & other
duties and privileges of married life.
Marriage pattern variations
 Monogamy – union of one man with one woman

 Polygamy - plural marriage

 Polyandry: the union of one woman with two or more men
 Polygyny: union of one man with two or more women
 Group marriage: several men living with several women
Selection of marriage partners

Who is eligible?

 Every society regulates its members’ choices of mates

 All societies require that marriage occurs outside a certain group

[exogamy] . (e.g. outside the family/village).

 The incest taboo – a universal prohibition of sexual relations between

mother & son, father & daughter, sister & brother, grandparents &
grandchildren.

 Societies also require that their members marry within specified groups
[endogamy]. E.g. within a person’s own race, religion or social class.
: Selection of marriage partners
Who is eligible?

Arranged marriages
•
Parents plan the marriage of their offspring …
 - based on the idea that a marriage is as much a concern of the
 families as of the individuals involved
 - to consolidate wealth, property or political power
 - based on the belief that young people are too immature,
inexperienced or impulsive to make suitable choices
Choosing a marriage partner
 Interesting Trivia

In Feudal times, bride-capture was an accepted means for

obtaining a wife in many parts of the world, and the practice
continued into the nineteenth century. A man wishing to
marry a woman would enlist the help of his best friend, the
first "best man", and together they would set off for the hunt.
Many women, knowing in advance of their pending
"capture," didn't bother putting up a fight.
“A – HUNTING WE
WILL GO!”
The family & social change
 “Modernization & the affluence it has brought
in industrial societies greatly changed the
structure and substance of family life”
 [Perry & Perry 2000: 285]
Choosing a marriage partner

 Romantic love is a modern idea; previously

marriage was an economic arrangement

 Where do you suppose you might meet a

future wife or husband?
The role of power
 Is egalitarian status possible within a marriage?

 Resource theory [Blood & Wolfe 1960] - argues that the

distribution of power depends on the resources each spouse
brings to the marriage.

 New issues to decide

 When both partners have careers – whose career will come first?
 What happens if one partner is transferred on promotion?
Robert Bellah
 Individualism  Relationships (like
 Preoccupation with marriage & having
self children) that
demand
commitment
Do our conceptions of love and marriage (as self fulfillment)
conflict with the older social functions of the family that
acted as a tie to the larger society (unselfishness and concern
for others)?

Today…
 Marriage today does not necessarily imply having children
 Social pressure to marry is not as strong as it was previously
 Divorce is more acceptable
Divorce
 high rates of divorce in urban industrial societies

 Is divorce a natural product of social change?

 the nuclear family is more vulnerable to conflict
 liberalized sexual norms
 changing attitudes to marriage – i.e. “the focus of marriage has
moved away from the idea that it is the duty of everyone to
marry to replenish society. Increasingly, marriage is entered into
for affection and companionship” [Perry & Perry 2000:299].
Is divorced status becoming a social norm in some
societies?
 Divorce laws in many societies have become simpler

 Support organizations

 “How to” books

 Community Courses

 “no fault” divorce

The changing form of the family
 Remaining single
 Living together (cohabitation)
 The one parent family
 The blended family
 The small family
 Partnerships
New phenomena
 Mail order brides

 Pre-nuptial agreements
Problems for the family
Problems for the family
 Child care

 hard to find, expensive and often of poor quality

 As yet, we don’t know the long term effects on children
(especially very young children) who are cared for by
strangers
 Possible solutions: government funded/subsidised day
care; employers provide day care facilities for children of
employees
Problems for the family
 Child care
 Family violence
 disagreements are an outcome of people living together
 definition of violence within the family differs between
cultures and changes over time
Problems for the family
 Child care
 Family violence
 Child abuse
 Sexual, physical, neglect
 Children who are abused more likely to become troubled
adults
Problems for the family
 Child care
 Family violence
 Child abuse
 Teenage pregnancies
 the proportion per population greatly increased
 Impacts on 2 generations –the mother and the child
The family survives
 “In spite of all its faults, the family is still the most
efficient and satisfactory transmitter of culture,
socializer of children and nurturer of old and young
that has ever been devised” [Perry & Perry
2000:299].
 WASH YOUR HANDS REGULARLY,
 KEEP YOUR DISTANCE,
 STAY SAFE
 THANK YOU