Family Issues

ESSAY ON FAMILY

* Everyone is brought up in a family context. The vast majority of adults have been married. Family and marriage patterns change within each society and culture.

* Family- a group of persons directly linked by kin connections. Adult members assume responsibility for children.

* Kinship- Connections between individuals established through marriage or through the lines of descent.

* Marriage - An approved union between 2 adults. Through marriage, 2 adults become a kin to one another.

* Nuclear Family- 2 adults living in the same dwelling with their own children.

* Extended Family- A group of three of more generations.

* Monogamy - A man or a woman are married to only 1 adult at any one time.

* Polygamy - A husband of wife is allowed to have more than one spouse(This is divided into polyandry and polygyny).

* Polyandry - The biological father of the child is usually not known. Usually found in societies stricken by extreme poverty. Women can have many husbands.

* Polygyny- Men (usually of a high income) are allowed to have more than one wife

* According to Murdock, the family performs the sexual, reproductive, economic and educational function.

* MARXIST VIEW. (Marx&Engels)

1. When population was low and resources high, the family did not exist. The family did not define sexual relations.

2. When population increased, private property was born. People aged and died.

3. Families exist so that they can give their capital to their offspring. To transmit ones capital and property.

* FUNCTIONALIST VIEW. (Parsons)

1. Family holds the basic function of social life. The basic function is primary socialisation.

2. The family also helps in the construction of personality and the stabilisation of the person.

3. The family can also have disfunctions (ex. abused children)

4. Leach