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THE FAMILY: GLOBAL VARIETY, Marriage Patterns, Patterns of Descent |
| << SOCIAL MOBILITY:Structural factors, Individual factors, Costs |
| FUNCTIONS OF FAMILY:Reproduction, Social placement >> |
Introduction
to Sociology SOC101
VU
Lesson
27
THE
FAMILY: GLOBAL VARIETY
The
family is a social institution
that unites individuals into
cooperative groups that oversees the
bearing
and
rearing of children. Marriage may be one
of the important rituals that are
instrumental in uniting
individuals.
Whereas the marriage and
family appear to be universal
there is a global variety in this
institution.
Let us look at some of the
basic concepts related to
family and marriage and see
some global
diversity
in each.
Family:
A
social group of two or more
people, related by blood,
marriage, or adoption who
usually live
together.
In other words it is a group of
persons directly linked by
kin connections, the adult
members of
which
assume the responsibility for caring
for children.
This
is a conventional definition of family.
In the technologically advanced societies,
today, some people
object
to defining only married
couples and children as
"families" because it implies
that everyone should
accept
a single standard of moral conduct. More
and more organizations are
coming to recognize families
of
affinity, that
is people with or without legal or
blood ties who feel they belong together
and wish to define
themselves
as a family.
Household:
It
consists of all people who
occupy the same housing unit a
house, an apartment, or
other
living
arrangement.
Kinship:
A
social bond, based on blood,
marriage, or adoption that
joins individuals into
families.
Connections
between individuals established either
through marriage or through
lines of descent that
connect
blood relatives (parents,
siblings, children, cousins,
in-laws).
Nuclear
family: Two
married adults living together in a
household without their children. This is
also called a
conjugal
family.
Extended
family: When
close relatives other than a
married couple and children
live either in the same
household
or in a close and continuous relationship
with one another. It may
include grandparents, brothers
and
their wives, unmarried sisters,
aunts, uncles, nephews, and
cousins. It is also called a
consanguine
family.
Family
of orientation: A
family in which an individual
grows up, usually born in it as well.
This family is
central
to
a child's socialization and
orientation.
Family
of procreation: Family
formation by the individuals themselves.
It is the family that you
create through
marriage
or remarriage and then
procreate as well. This family is
formed when a couple has
their first child.
Marriage
Patterns
Marriage:
A
legally sanctioned relationship of two or
more people, usually
involving economic cooperation
as
well as normative sexual
activity and child-bearing that people
expect to be enduring. Marriage is the
appropriate
context for procreation that is
how the concept of illegitimacy comes
in. It is a socially
approved
mating arrangement usually marked
out by a ritual of some sort (wedding)
indicating the
couple's
new public status.
Cultural
norms, as well as laws,
identify people as suitable or
unsuitable marriage partners.
Incest
taboos prohibit
marriage
between certain close
relatives. Who is a close relative
may vary from society to
society. For
example
in Pakistan the marriage between
first cousins is allowed but in
most of the industrialized
societies
it
has prohibited by law.
Endogamy:
The
practice of mate selection
from the same social
category. It limits marriage
prospects to
others
of the same age, race,
religion, or social
class.
Exogamy:
The
practice that mandates
marriage between different
social categories. It could imply an
incest
taboo,
which could also be transformed into
written law.
Monogamy:
A form
of marriage joining two
partners. At a time the two partners
are only in "one union".
The
two
partners may divorce and
enter into a new union at a
time, which may be referred to as
serial
monogamy.
This
practice is mostly followed in technologically
advanced societies.
66
Introduction
to Sociology SOC101
VU
Polygamy:
A form
of marriage uniting three or
more people. It could take different
forms of many unions.
Polygamy
exist in three specific forms,
including
Polygyny:
A form
of marriage uniting one male
and two or more females.
Islamic nations permit men up to
four
wives, though they have to
fulfill certain conditions.
Polyandry:
A form of marriage uniting
one female with two or
more males. This pattern appears
only rarely
(often
quoted example of Tibet).
Group
marriage: A group of men marrying a
group of women. It is an odd
situation.
Residential
Patterns
Just
as societies regulate mate
selection, so they designate where a
couple resides after marriage. In
pre-
industrial
societies, most newly weds
live with one set of
parents, gaining economic assistance
and economic
security
in the process.
Patrilocal:
A
residential pattern in which a married
couple lives with or near
the husband's family.
Matrilocal:
A
residential pattern in which a married
couple lives with or near
the wife's family.
Neolocal:
A
residential pattern in which a
married couple lives apart
from the parents of both the
spouses.
Patterns
of Descent
Descent
refers to the system by which the
members of a society trace
kinship over generations.
Most pre-
industrial
societies trace kinship
through only one side of the
family the father or the mother. It
is also an
orderly
way of passing property and
other rights to the next
generation.
Patrilineal:
A
system tracing kinship through
males. Children are related
to one another only through
their
fathers
and fathers typically pass
their property on to their
sons. It is mostly found in agrarian
societies.
Matrilineal:
A
system tracing kinship through
women.
Bilateral: (two
sided descent) A system tracing
descent through both men
and women. One may come
across
this
system in industrial societies
portraying gender equality.
Patterns
of Authority
Patriarchy:
A
system in which authority is
vested in males; male
control of a society or a group. This is
the
most
prevalent system all over the
world.
Matriarchy:
Authority vested in females;
female control of a society or group.
True matriarchy rarely found
in
history.
Egalitarian:
Authority more or less
equally divided between people or
groups (husband and wife).
In reality
patriarchy
continues typical bride takes the
groom's last name; children
are given the father's last
name.
67
Table of Contents:
- THE ORIGINS OF SOCIOLOGY:Auguste Comte, The Fields of Sociology
- THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE:Society affects what we do
- THEORETICAL PARADIGMS:Salient Paradigms, Critical Evaluation
- SOCIOLOGY AS SCIENCE:Empirical, Verifiable, Cumulative, Self-Correcting
- STEPS IN SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION:Exploration/Consultation
- SOCIAL INTERACTION:Social Status, ROLE, The Social Construction of Reality
- SOCIAL GROUPS:Primary and Secondary Groups, Reference Group, Networks
- ORGANIZATIONS:Utilitarian Organizations, Coercive Organizations
- CULTURE:Universality, Components of Culture, Symbols, Language
- CULTURE (continued):Beliefs, Norms, Cultural Diversity
- CULTURE (continued):Culture by social class, Multiculturalism, Cultural Lag
- SOCIALIZATION: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, NATURE, Social Isolation
- UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIALIZATION PROCESS
- AGENTS OF SOCIALIZATION:The Family, The School, Peer Groups, The Mass Media
- SOCIALIZATION AND THE LIFE COURSE:CHILDHOOD, ADOLESCENCE
- SOCIAL CONTROL AND DEVIANCE:Crime, Deviants, Stigma, Labeling
- THE SOCIAL FOUNDATIONS OF DEVIANCE:Cultural relativity of deviance
- EXPLANATIONS OF CRIME:Sociological explanations
- EXPLANATIONS OF CRIME -- CONTINUED:White-Collar Crime, Conflict Theory
- SOCIAL DISTRIBUTION OF CRIME: EXPLANATIONS, Gender and Crime
- SOCIAL STRATIFICATION: INTRODUCTION AND SIGNIFICANCE
- THEORIES OF CLASS AND STRATIFICATION – I:Critical evaluation
- THEORIES OF SOCIAL CLASS AND STRATIFICATION – II
- THEORIES OF CLASS AND SOCIAL STRATIFICATION – III
- SOCIAL CLASS AS SUBCULTURE
- SOCIAL MOBILITY:Structural factors, Individual factors, Costs
- THE FAMILY: GLOBAL VARIETY, Marriage Patterns, Patterns of Descent
- FUNCTIONS OF FAMILY:Reproduction, Social placement
- FAMILY AND MARRIAGE IN TRANSITION:Family is losing functions
- GENDER: A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION, Gender socialization
- GENDER SOCIALIZATION:Role of family, Gender Stratification
- EXPLANATIONS OF GENDER INEQUALITY:Conflict Explanations, Feminism
- FUNCTIONS OF SCHOOLING:Cultural Innovation, School Tracking
- ISSUES IN EDUCATION:Low Enrollment, High Dropout, Gender Disparity
- POPULATION STUDY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE:Crude Birth Rate
- THEORY OF POPULATION GROWTH:Theory of Demographic Transition
- POPULATION PROFILE OF PAKISTAN:World Population Growth
- POPULATION PROFILE OF PAKISTAN (Continued):Age Distribution, Sex Composition
- IMPLICAIONS OF POPULATION GOWTH:Additional GDP needed per year
- POPULATION POLICY:Goals of Population Policy, Objectives, Strategies
- ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY:Global Dimension, Historical Dimension
- ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:Preserving Clean Water, Clearing the Air
- SOCIAL CHANGE:Social change is controversial.
- CAUSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE:Culture and Change, Conflict and Change, Modernization
- MODERNITY AND POST MODERNITY:Cultural Patterns, Post-modernity