I. Families: Basic Concepts.

A. The family is a social institution, found in all societies, that unites individuals into cooperative groups to care for each other and to oversee the bearing and raising of children, i.e., the future of society.

B. Families are structured around kinship, a social bond, based on blood, marriage, or adoption, that joins individuals into families.

              Which people are called kin varies from society to society. In general kinship is more important in pre-modern societies.

C. In most societies, families are formed by marriage, a legally sanctioned relationship involving economic cooperation as well as normative sexual activity and childbearing that people expect to be enduring. Marriage less strongly associated with childbirth and rearing in contemporary modern societies. Single parenthood a viable choice.

D. In practice, the definition of a family is becoming more inclusive, with many people accepting the concept of families of affinity, people with or without legal or blood ties who feel they belong together and who want to define themselves as a family.

                   Social and legal contestation about what comprises a family

E. The family is changing faster than any other social institution.

 

II. Families: Global Variations.

A. The extended family is a family unit including parents, children, and also other kin. It is also called the consanguine family. Usually at least three generations

1.  Industrialization tends to promote the decline of the extended family and the rise of the nuclear family, a family unit composed of one or two parents and their children.

b.  Though most people still think of extended family in terms of kinship, they organize their life around nuclear family.

2.  The Weakest Families on Earth? A Report from Sweden. David Popenoe argues that one drawback of an expanding welfare state is that the family unit weakens. Other social institutions take on role of family.

B. Marriage patterns:

1.  Endogamy is marriage between people of the same social category.

                                 Allows maintenance of existing social hierarchy.

2.  Exogamy is marriage between people of different social categories.

3.  Industrial societies favor monogamy, a form of marriage involving only two partners. 

                                 a. Norm in U.S. may be becoming serial monogamy. Reagan, Giuliani.

4.  Most preindustrial cultures allow polygamy, a type of marriage uniting three or more people. Survives in Middle East, Africa. Islam: 4 wives.

 

a.            Polygyny is a type of marriage uniting one male to two or more females.

b.            Polyandry is a type of marriage joining one female with two or more males.

C. Residential patterns:

1.  Patrilocality is a residential pattern by which a married couple lives with or near the husband’s family.

2.  Matrilocality is a residential pattern by which a married couple lives with or near the wife’s family.

3.  More common in industrial societies, neolocality is a residential pattern in which a married couple lives apart from both sets of parents. Associated with nuclear family.

D. Descent refers to the system by which members of a society trace kinship over generations.

1.  Patrilineal descent is a system tracing kinship through males.

2.  Matrilineal descent is a system tracing kinship through females.

3.  Industrial societies with greater gender equality sometimes display a kind of bilateral descent, a system tracing kinship through both men and women.

                                 Hyphenated names.

E. The predominance of polygyny, patrilocality, and patrilineal descent in the world reflects the universal presence of patriarchy, a legacy of agricultural society. In industrial societies like the United States, more egalitarian family patterns are evolving, reflecting women’s entry into economy.

 

III. Theoretical Analysis of Families.

A. Functions of the family: Structural-functional analysis.

1.  Socialization.

2.  Regulation of sexual activity through the incest taboo, a cultural norm forbidding sexual relations or marriage between certain kin.

3.  Social placement.

4.  Material and emotional security.

4a. Social functions relocate out of family, as modern society moves from organic to mechanical solidarity.

5.  Critical review.

a.            This approach demonstrates why society depends on the families.

b.            It pays little attention to the fact that other institutions can provide key familial functions.

c.            It ignores the diversity of family life in the U.S.

d.            It overlooks the problems of family life.

B. Inequality and the family: Social-conflict analysis.

1.  Family structure promotes inequality in several ways:

a.            Because property is inherited through the family, it perpetuates class structure.

b.            The family is generally patriarchal, perpetuating gender inequality.

c.            Endogamous marriage also perpetuates racial and ethnic inequality.

2.  Critical review. This approach fails to account for the existence of family problems in noncapitalist societies.

C. Constructing family life: Micro-level analysis.

1.  Reflecting symbolic-interaction analysis, as families share activities, they build emotional bonds.

2.  Family life can also be analyzed using social-exchange theory.

3.  Critical review. These perspectives ignore the fact that family life is similar for people affected by any given set of structural and cultural forces.

 

IV. Stages of Family Life.

A. Courtship.

1.  Arranged marriages were common in preindustrial cultures.

                     Often at young age. Homogeneous cultures make personal compatibility less important.

2.  With industrialization, romantic love becomes a central criterion in mate choice.

                                  Western culture.

                                  Dating supposed to sharpen courtship skills, lead to enlightened choice. May be breaking down.                                          

3.      Still, our society promotes homogamy, marriage between people with the same social characteristics.

4.  Computer dating, calculus of match making.

B. Settling in: Ideal and real marriage. Newly married couples often have to scale down their expectations. Infidelity, sexual activity outside marriage, is another area where the reality of marriage does not coincide with our cultural ideal.

                Marriage much more stressful in nuclear family structure. Many different expectations on one relationship.                           

C.  Child rearing has changed since industrialization. Children are now seen as economic liabilities rather than as assets. Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993 to help ease the conflict between family and job responsibilities.

     Norm has moved from 8 to 2 children in 200 years.

2005: $200,000 to raise a child.

D. Marriages between the elderly usually stress companionship. Retirement and the death of a spouse disrupt families in later life.

            Marriage lasting much longer. “Empty nest.”

            “Sandwich generation”

 

V. U.S. Families: Class, Race, and Gender.

A. Social class heavily influences partners’ expectations regarding marriage; the same holds true for children.

B. Ethnicity and race also strongly affect the family.

1.   American Indian families display a wide variety of family types. Migration creates many “fluid households” with changing membership.

2.  Hispanic families tend to enjoy the support of extended families, to exercise a good deal of control over their children’s courtship, and to promote machismo.

3.  African-American families, facing serious economic problems, are especially likely to be single-parent and female-headed.

                                 Structure or culture? Legacy of slavery?

4.  The number of racially mixed marriages is rising steadily.

1967: miscegenation was still illegal in 16 states.

5.4% of marriages racially mixed. Most common type: white husband, Asian wife (14% of all mixed couples).

C. Women and men experience marriage differently, with men clearly benefiting more than women, according to Jesse Bernard.

 

VI. Transition and Problems in Family Life.

A. The United States has the highest divorce rate in the world. The divorce rate has risen rapidly this century and at present about half of all couples are expected to divorce.

9 of 10 adults marry at some point. 4 in 10 marriages end in divorce (2004). Highest in the world (six times that of Italy).

1.  The high U.S. divorce rate has many causes:

More people get married.

a.            Individualism is on the rise.

b.            Romantic love often subsides.

c.            Women are now less dependent on men.

d.            Many of today’s marriages are stressful.

e.            Divorce is more socially acceptable.

f. Legally, divorce is easier to get.

2.  Who divorces? At greatest risk of divorce are young spouses with little money, who have yet to mature emotionally. Children of divorce more likely.

3. 59% of divorces with children result in child support judgment. Half don’t pay or underpay. 3.4 million deadbeat dads. Divorce not good for kids.

 

B. Nationwide, almost half of all marriages are now remarriages for at least one partner. Remarriage often creates blended families.

C. Family violence is the emotional, physical, or sexual abuse of one family member by another.

1.  Violence against women includes spouse battering and marital rape, problems which are receiving increased attention in modern society. Women more likely to be injured by family member than by stranger or auto accident. “Stalking laws.”

2.  Violence against children is also a widespread problem. 3 million reports of abuse or neglect annually. 1500 deaths.

 

VII. Alternative Family Forms.

A. One-parent families tend to face serious financial problems. 28% of children now live with one parent, half will do so at some time before 18. 5% will among cohabiting partners, 36% among parent who marry at some time, 70% among those married at time of birth.

B. Cohabitation is the sharing of a household by an unmarried couple. Wedge issues, but opinions shifting. About 1/3 support gay marriage, about ½ civil unions. Mary Cheny.

C. Gay and lesbian couples continue to face opposition from most Americans.

     D. Should We Save the Traditional Family?

E. An increasingly large number of people are voluntarily choosing temporary or permanent singlehood.

 

VIII. New Reproductive Technology and the Family.

A. Recent medical advances involving in vitro fertilization are changing families.

 

IX. Looking Ahead: Families

A. The high divorce rate is unlikely to decline.

B. Family life in the future will be highly variable.

C. Most children will probably continue to grow up with only weak ties to their fathers.

D. Two-career couples will continue to be common.

E. The importance of the new reproductive technologies will increase.