Unit 4: Families and Households

Different Types of Families

(mother, father and child or children)
(grandmother, grandfather , mother, father
and child or children
(mother or father and child or children)
this is a step family - where the mother and or father are divorced and then marry again so they have step children)
(this is the name for people who live under the same roof)
 Question
Can you name three types of
households that do not have families
living in them?
• Students/friends sharing a house
• Boarding school
• Nursing home
• Prison/Orphanage/Women shelters
 Family and Households

Family:
Relationship in which people live together with commitment,
form an economic unit and care for any young, and consider
their identity to be significantly attached to the group.
 Family and Households
Household: an individual or group of people defined by the fact
that they reside in a particular common property.

Not all households are based on family units.

The people living together may or may not share economic or

emotional burden.

Examples: friends sharing an accommodation, people living

alone, women living in a refuge for victims of domestic
violence.
 Family and Households
Nuclear Family:
A family composed of two heterosexual parents and
their dependent children, all of whom live apart from
other relatives.
Considered the smallest family unit
e.g. husband, wife and young off spring
 Family and Households
Extended Family:
Units larger than the nuclear family.

Such families are extensions of the basic nuclear unit,

either vertical extension- generations added or
horizontal extension- addition of same generation people
e.g. husband’s brother or additional wife.

Hence, it can be any grouping broader than the nuclear

family related by descent, marriage or adoption.
Nuclear Family is a universal institution

George Peter Murdock, a functionalist, studied a wide range of

250 societies and concluded that the nuclear family is a
universal institution, that exists in all societies (1949-Social
Structure).

Murdock’s Definition: the family is a social group characterized

by common residence, economic co-operation and
reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of
whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and
one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually
cohabiting adults.
 Is the nuclear family universal??
Murdock suggests that the true family :
 lives together
 Cooperates economically
 Works together
 Produces off-spring
 Has adults of both sexes.

However, there are several exceptions to this concept of family

that tend to negate Murdock’s statement that the nuclear
family is universal
 Exceptions to the Nuclear Family
1. The Nayar Society:
Kathleen Gough found that in the 18th century In Kerala, Southern India, there
existed a society which had a very different set of relationships between kins
as opposed to the usual nuclear family

Tali-rite: all Nayar girls were married to a man, before puberty. The tali- husband,
didn’t live with his wife, and had no obligation to have any contact with her.
The wife had only one duty to her husband: to attend his funeral to mourn his
death
At reaching puberty , the girls could take up to 12 visiting husbands. The Nayar
men were professional warriors, who spend most of their lives outside the
village fighting. During their brief time in the village they could bed any tali
girl.
The children born, were taken care of by the entire society.
 Exceptions to the Nuclear Family
Hence, in terms of Murdock’s definition no family existed in
Nayar society because:
• Husbands had no duty towards their wives
• Husband-wife formed no economic unit
• They didn’t live together
• Only women and children lived together

Conclusion: Either Murdock’s definition of family is too narrow

or the nuclear is not universal
 Exceptions to the Nuclear Family
2. New World Black Family:
In the islands of West Indies, and parts of Central America such as Guyana,
there exist societies of black families that do not include adult males.

The family unit consists of a woman and her dependant children.

The New World Black family is an entire community of single-mothers

taking care of children by themselves.

Yanina Sheeran and Gonzalez argues that the concept of a female-headed

or matrifocal family negates the view that Murdock’s definition of family
is universal.
 Exceptions to the Nuclear Family
3. The Oneida Community
It was found in Vermont in 1846 by John Noyes. He introduced a
system of complex marriage based on the assumption that all
men should love all women, Only persons approved by central
community were entitled to become parents.

However this community encountered resistance from the wider

society and broke up in 1880.

Nonetheless, its existence shows that some societies can have

setups that do not fit into Murdock’s definition of universal family.
 Exceptions to the Nuclear Family
4. The Israeli Kibbutz
It is an agricultural community where there is collective ownership
of all property, equality between the sexes and communal child-
rearing.
The individual couple works for the community than for their own
nuclear family. Parents are allowed to meet their children during
the ‘hour of love’ in the ‘children’s house’.
About 117,300 people live in 268 kibbutzim across Israel, from the
Golan Heights in the north to the Red Sea in the south.
The existence of this type of community strongly negates
Murdock’s statement regarding the universality of nuclear family.
 Exceptions to the Nuclear Family
5. Gay Households:
Gay and lesbian couples are being given ever-increasing
recognition and legal rights in the West.
They are able to form a household by having children
through new reproductive technologies or by
adoption.
According to Sidney Callahan such families meet all
requirements of Murdock's nuclear family except for
the condition of having to adults belonging to different
sexes.
 Is the nuclear family universal??
In light of the preceding evidence, Murdock’s definition of family
seems to be too narrow and his claim that the nuclear family
is universal is made redundant.
Yanina Sheeran suggests that the female carer core should be
considered the basic family unit.
Nonetheless, in Murdock’s defense it can be stated that the
nuclear family structure still continues to be the dominant
family type existing in most societies and exceptions to this
type do exist but are in minority.
 Is the nuclear family universal??
• Conclusively, whether or not the nuclear
family is a universal institution eventually
depends on the definition of the term
“family”.
• What one individual considers as his family
will depend on his particular culture, religion,
experiences and history.
 Home work: Define these Terms
• households
• family unit
• matrifocal family
• patrifocal family
• nuclear family
• extended family
• Kibbutzim
• reconstituted family
• single parent family