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Family |
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INTRODUCTION: Family, basic social group united through bonds of kinship or marriage, present in all societies. Ideally, the family provides its members with protection, companionship, security, and socialization. The structure of the family, and the needs that the family fulfills vary from society to society. The nuclear family—two adults and their children—is the main unit in some societies. In others, it is a subordinate part of an extended family, which also consists of grandparents and other relatives. A third family unit is the single-parent family, in which children live with an unmarried, divorced, or widowed mother or father. ... HISTORY :- Anthropologists and social scientists have developed several theories about how family structures and functions evolved. ... The family was an economic unit; men hunted, while women gathered and prepared food and tended children. ... Social scientists believe that the modern Western family developed largely from that of the ancient Hebrews, whose families were patriarchal in structure (see Patrilineage). The family resulting from the Greco-Roman culture was also patriarchal and bound by strict religious precepts. In later centuries, as the Greek and then the Roman civilizations declined, so did their well-ordered family life. ... The purely religious nature of family ties was partly abandoned in favor of civil bonds after the Reformation, which began in the 1500s. Most Western nations now recognize the family relationship as primarily a civil matter. THE MODERN FAMILY Historical studies have shown that family structure has been less changed by urbanization and industrialization than was once supposed. The nuclear family was the most prevalent pre-industrial unit and is still the basic unit of social organization. The modern family differs from earlier traditional forms, however, in its functions, composition, and life cycle and in the roles of husbands and wives. The only function of the family that continues to survive all change is the provision of affection and emotional support by and to all its members, particularly infants and young children. Specialized institutions now perform many of the other functions that were once performed by the agrarian family: economic production, education, religion, and recreation. Jobs are usually separate from the family group; family members often work in different occupations and in locations away from the home. ... Religious training and recreational activities are available outside the home, although both still have a place in family life. The family is still responsible for the socialization of children. ... Family composition in industrial societies has changed dramatically. ... Women in all stages of family life have joined the labor force. Rising expectations of personal gratification through marriage and family, together with eased legal grounds for divorce and increasing employment opportunities for women, have contributed to a rise in the divorce rate in the United States and elsewhere. ... During the 20th century, extended family households declined in prevalence. ... By the 1970s, the prototypical nuclear family had yielded somewhat to modified structures including the one-parent family, the stepfamily, and the childless family. ... Since the 1960s, several variations on the family unit have emerged. ... Homosexual couples also live together as a family more openly today, sometimes sharing their households with the children of one partner or with adopted or foster children. ... WORLD TRENDS All industrial nations are experiencing family trends similar to those found in the United States. ... Unchecked population growth in developing nations threatens the family system. The number of surviving children in a family has rapidly increased as infectious diseases, famine, and other causes of child mortality have been reduced. Because families often cannot support so many children, the reduction in infant mortality has posed a challenge to the nuclear family and to the resources of developing nations. ... In the most fundamental sense, the future of the society is in the hands of the family. ... In most societies, the family of procreation is established at marriage and is the culturally approved sexual union that legitimizes childbearing. ... All societies restrict sexual relations and reproduction among certain family members. ... For the family, exogamy is a mandate forbidding marriage between close kin. ... Children learn early that the intimacy of the family does not extend to sexual relations. ... The family of orientation is the family in which children grow up; it is the vehicle for primary socialization, providing both social and individual benefits. In the family of orientation, children learn basic competencies, such as language, sexual rules, gender roles, and other behavioral norms that allow them to become fully functioning members of society. ... As we saw in Chapter 5, the self-esteem that is fostered in the family becomes a defining characteristic of people as they move into adulthood. ... The family provides the essential economic and emotional resources to support its members during all the events and inevitable crises in a typical family life cycle. To augment support for family members, roles are assigned. Traditional families usually assign the instrumental role to the husband-father, who is expected to maintain the physical integrity of the family by providing food and shelter and linking the family to the world outside the home. ... In societies that use matrilineal descent, common throughout Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, the family name is traced through the fathers line, and sons and male kin usually inherit family property. In matrilineal descent, least common today as well as historically, the family name is traced through the mothers line, and daughters of female kin usually inherit family property. Bilateral (or bilinear) descent uses both parents to trace family lines and is most common in Western societies. Even though in this pattern women at marriage typically assume their husbands surname, family connections are recognized between children and the kin of both parents. ... The critical point is that family name is significant in social placement and can enhance a childs prospects for upward mobility. ... SURROGACY Surrogate motherhood has become one of the most difficult problems in modern family law. ... Family planning is a more encompassing phrase that refers to the process of making decisions about when and how many children to have, and choosing strategies to achieve these goals. ... Natural Family Planning Natural family planning, also called fertility awareness or the rhythm method, relies on abstinence from sexual intercourse during the most fertile phase of a woman’s menstrual cycle. ... In typical use, natural family planning methods are generally about 81 percent effective in preventing pregnancy. ... Natural family planning requires a high level of commitment to consistently and accurately monitor fertility. ... In addition, natural family planning does not provide protection against STDs. ... The commission did, however, advocate education on family planning and widely available access to contraception and abortion services. ... In 1948 the Japanese government formally instituted a policy using both contraception and abortion to limit family size. ... Family-planning programs were seen as a way to satisfy a desire for contraception by a large segment of the population and also to confer health benefits from spacing and limiting births. ... Recent evidence indicates that progress toward the objectives of lowered fertility and national growth is being achieved in many nations, in part by government support for family-planning programs. |
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Title: Family
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