THE FAMILY AS A

SOCIAL INSTITUTION
 Definition of Family:
 The word ‘Family’ has been derived from Latin
word, ‘Famulus’ which means a servant.
 Burgess and Locke defined family as “a group of
persons united by ties of marriage, blood or
adoption constituting a single household interacting
and intercommunicating with each other in their
respective roles of husband and wife, father and
mother, son and daughter, brother and sister,
creating a common culture”.
Sociologist perspective:
 According to the functionalist perspective, the
family is universal because it serves six essential
functions: economic production, socialization of
children, care of the sick and aged, recreation,
sexual control, and reproduction.
 Conversely, conflict theorists focus on how
changing economic conditions affect families,
especially gender relations.
 Interactionists focus on the contrasting
experiences and perspectives of men and women
that are played out in marriage.
 Characteristics of Marriage
 Marriage is a universal social institution
 Marriage regulates sex relations between man and woman
 Marriage leads to the establishment of family life
 Marriage bond is enduring (long lasting)
 Marriage requires social approval
 Marriage is associated with some civil or religious ceremony
 Marriage creates mutual obligations
 Marriage aims at social solidarity
 Marriage contributes to emotional and intellectual stimulation of
the partners
 Family life cycle

 Love and courtship

 Marriage
 Childbirth
 Child rearing
 Family in later life
 Types of family
 Family may be classified broadly in terms of the
extent of prevailing kinship patterns.
 A conjugal (nuclear) family consists simply of
husband, wife, and children. It emphasizes marriage
ties.
 A consanguine or extended (joint) family structure is
made up of persons related by common lineage and
blood ties.
 Single parent family
 Blended family
 Family may also be categorized on the
basis of the form of marriage prevalent in
a society.
 Monogamy, where one man marries one
woman, it is the prevailing pattern in the
western culture.
 Polygamy is another form of union, relatively
rare in the West, where there is a plurality of
‘either males or females in the marital unit.
 Polygyny describes the form of marriage
where one man has two or more wives.
 Polygyny is of two types:
 a) Sororal polygyny – a type of marriage in
which the wives are invariably the sisters,
and
 b) Non-Sororal polygyny – in which the
wives are not sisters.
 Polyandry, which is quite rare throughout the
world, is a marital bond composed of one
woman and several men.
 Polyandry is of two types:
 a) Fraternal polyandry – a type of marriage
in which the husbands are invariably the
brothers, and
 b) Non-Fraternal polyandry – in which the
husbands are not brothers.
 Group marriage where there is both a
plurality of husbands and wives. It is a form
which is exceedingly rare.
 Same sex marriage where marriage takes
place between the partners belonging to the
same sex (male-male; female-female).
Certain countries in the West have given
legal permission to such marriages.
 Advantages of monogamy

 Universally practicable
 Economically better suited
 Promotes better understanding between
husband and wife
 Contributes to stable family and sex life
 Helps better socialization of children
 Aged parents are not neglected
 Provides better status for women
 Families can also be described by their
locus of authority.
 Patriarchal families are characterized by
dominance in the male head.
 When the female head possesses the most
power and authority, a matriarchal family is
said to exist.
 An equalitarian family divides dominance
and authority fairly equally between the
sexes.
 Type of descent provides an additional
basis for differentiating families.
 Patrilineal families compute ties through the
male line.
 Matrilineal families trace blood relationships
through its females.
 Bilateral families figure lineage through both
sides.
 Even location of residence can be utilized to
distinguish different forms of residence.
 A patrilocal family describes the situation in which
the couple resides in the male's family and/or
village.
 Matrilocal residence is just the opposite, where
location of the husband and wife is in the female’s
family and/or village.
 Neolocal residence describes the location of a
family in an entirely new area, away from either side
of the families of the spouses.
 Sociologists have also introduced the
concepts of the family of procreation and
the family of orientation
 family of procreation is formed by marriage
and dissolved with the death of the last
partner.
 family of orientation is the family we are
born into and to which we give some form of
allegiance throughout our life.
 Families differ as to marital choice as well.
 In some societies, one’s mate may be automatically
fixed at birth through kinship or decided -upon by
the person’s parents — in which case relatively little
choice is exercised by the individual.
 In other societies, such as advanced countries a
choice may be granted to the individual in fixing
upon a future mate.
 When choices are necessary, they may be made in
many ways (purchase of the wife, wife-capture,
dating a large number of potential candidates, etc.).
 Divorce may also result because of wrong
choice.
 The impact of marriage dissolution also varies by
the basis of union and type of family characteristic in
the society.
 In Western countries, where love and emotional
attachment are the grounds for marriage, and where
the nuclear family is the rule, divorce is likely to
have a disruptive effect on all concerned.
 Where an extended family exists to care for the
children of a divorced couple, and where the basis
of marriage is not emotional attachment, divorce has
few negative consequences.
 Two sides of the Family life
 Use:
 There are a number of factors that make marriages
work. These include:
 Spending time together
 Appreciating one another
 Having a commitment to marriage
 Using good communications
 Willing to confront and work through problems
together
 Willing to put more into the marriage than you take
out
 Abuse:
 Child Abuse
 Battering
 Marital rape
 Incest
 Modern trends in Family in the advanced
countries of Europe and USA:
 Postponement of marriage
 Cohabitation
 Increased number of unmarried mothers
 Emergence of sandwich generation
 The Nuclear family
 Nuclear family can be defined as “A small group
composed of husband and wife and immature
children which constitutes a unit apart from the rest
of the community”. (Duncan Mitchell; Dictionary of
Sociology)
 Functions of Modern Nuclear Family:
 Stable satisfaction of sex need
 Procreation and upbringing of children
 Socialization of children
 Provision of home
 Recent Trends in Nuclear Family
 More than a production unit it has turned into a consumption unit
 Migration to urban centers
 Democratic outlook
 The decline of the influence of Mores and Religious beliefs
 Spread of secular attitude
 The spirit of individualism and romantic love
 Economic independence of women
 Emancipation of women
 Decline in Birth rate
 Increased rate of Divorce and desertion
 Parent-youth conflict
 The Joint or Extended Family
 The Joint or Extended Family consists of members
who at least belong to three generations: husband
and wife; their married and unmarried children; and
their married and unmarried grand children. The
joint family system constituted the basic social
institution in many traditional societies, particularly in
the eastern societies.
 The Joint family may assume two forms:
 a) Patriarchal joint family (Father centered)
 b) Matriarchal joint family (Mother centered)
Characteristics of the Joint Family
 Depth of generations
 Common roof
 Common kitchen
 Common property
 Exercise of authority by the elders
 Arranged marriages
 Higher rate of births
 Obligations towards the joint family
 Unit of production
 Relatively higher level of self sufficiency
 Merits of the joint family
 Stable and durable
 Ensures economic progress
 Ensures economy of expenditure
 Secures the advantages of division of labor
 Serves as a social insurance company
 Provides social security
 Provides leisure
 Provides recreation also
 Helps social control
 Provides psychological security
 Promotes cooperative virtues
 Demerits of the joint family
 Retards the development of personality
 Damages individual initiative and enterprise
 Narrows down open mindedness
 Promotes idleness
 Not favorable for savings and investments
 Increased quarrels and bickering especially among women
 Denies privacy
 Affects socialization of children
 Undermines the status of women
 Encourages litigation
 Favors uncontrolled reproductions
 Limits social mobility
 Encourages nepotism