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Family

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Animal & Human Rights;
Everyday life

   A family in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997
   Enlarge
   A family in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1997

   A family consists of a domestic group of people (or a number of
   domestic groups), typically affiliated by birth or marriage, or by
   analogous or comparable relationships — including domestic partnership,
   cohabitation, adoption, surname and (in some cases) ownership (as
   occurred in the Roman Empire).

   In many societies, family ties are only those recognized as such by law
   or a similar normative system. Although many people (including social
   scientists) have understood familial relationships in terms of "blood",
   many anthropologists have argued that one must understand the notion of
   "blood" metaphorically, and that many societies understand 'family'
   through other concepts rather than through genetics.

   Article 16(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "The
   family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is
   entitled to protection by society and the State".

The family cross-culturally

   According to sociology and anthropology, the family has the primary
   function of reproducing — biologically, sociologically, or both -
   society. Thus, one's experience of one's family shifts over time. From
   the perspective of children, the family functions as a family of
   orientation: the family serves to locate children socially, and plays a
   major role in their enculturation and socialization. From the point of
   view of the parent(s), the family serves as a family of procreation
   with the goal of producing, enculturating and socializing children.

   Producing children, however important, does not exhaust the functions
   of the family. In societies with a sexual division of labor, marriage
   (and the resulting relationship between a husband and wife) must
   precede the formation of an economically productive household. In
   modern societies marriage entails particular rights and privileges that
   encourage the formation of new families even when participants have no
   intention of having children.

Types of family

   The structure of families traditionally hinges on relations between
   parents and children, on relations between spouses, or on both.
   Anthropologists have called attention to three major types of family:
    1. matrifocal;
    2. consanguineal;
    3. conjugal.

   Note: this typology deals with "ideal" families. All societies tolerate
   some acceptable deviations from the ideal or statistical norm, owing
   either to incidental circumstances (such as the death of a member of
   the family), to infertility or to personal preferences.

Matrifocal families

   A matrifocal family consists of a mother and her children — generally
   her biological offspring, although nearly every society also practices
   adoption of children. This kind of family commonly develops where women
   have the resources to rear their children by themselves, or where men
   have more mobility than women. Some indigenous South American and
   Melanesian societies are matrifocal.

   Among polygynous societies studied along the Orinoco river system in
   southern Venezuela, families are set up in two levels. The larger
   system consists of one man, one to five women, and their children. The
   smaller matrifocal family consists of each woman and her children. The
   children are reared by their mothers as they would in a simple
   matrifocal system, with most fathers not being closely involved.

Consanguineal families

   A consanguineal family comes in various forms, but the most common
   subset consists of a mother and her children, and other people —
   usually the family of the mother. This kind of family commonly evolves
   where mothers do not have the resources to rear their children on their
   own, fathers are not often present, and especially where property
   changes ownership through inheritance. When men own important property,
   consanguineal families commonly consist of a husband and wife, their
   children, and other members of the husband's family.

Conjugal families

   A conjugal family consists of one or more mothers and their children,
   and/or one or more fathers. This kind of family occurs commonly where a
   division of labor requires the participation of both men and women, and
   where families have relatively high mobility. A notable subset of this
   family type, the nuclear family, has one woman with one husband, and
   they raise their children. This was formerly known as the " Eskimo
   system" in anthropology.

Family in the West

   The different types of families occur in a wide variety of settings,
   and their specific functions and meanings depend largely on their
   relationship to other social institutions. Sociologists have an
   especial interest in the function and status of these forms in
   stratified (especially capitalist) societies.

   Non-scholars, especially in the United States and Europe, use the term
   " nuclear family" to refer to conjugal families. Sociologists
   distinguish between conjugal families (relatively independent of the
   kindreds of the parents and of other families in general) and nuclear
   families (which maintain relatively close ties with their kindreds).

   Non-scholars, especially in the United States and Europe, also use the
   term " extended family". This term has two distinct meanings. First, it
   serves as a synonym of "consanguinal family". Second, in societies
   dominated by the conjugal family, it refers to kindred (an egocentric
   network of relatives that extends beyond the domestic group) who do not
   belong to the conjugal family.

   These types refer to ideal or normative structures found in particular
   societies. Any society will exhibit some variation in the actual
   composition and conception of families. Much sociological, historical
   and anthropological research dedicates itself to the understanding of
   this variation, and of changes in the family form over time. Thus, some
   speak of the bourgeois family, a family structure arising out of
   16th-century and 17th-century European households, in which the family
   centers on a marriage between a man and woman, with strictly-defined
   gender-roles. The man typically has responsibility for income and
   support, the woman for home and family matters.

   In contemporary Europe and the United States, people in academic,
   political and civil sectors have called attention to
   single-father-headed households, and families headed by same-sex
   couples, although academics point out that these forms exist in other
   societies.

Economic function of the family

   Anthropologists have often supposed that the family in a traditional
   society forms the primary economic unit. This economic role has
   gradually diminished in modern times, and in societies like the United
   States it has become much smaller — except in certain sectors such as
   agriculture and in a few upper class families. In China the family as
   an economic unit still plays a strong role in the countryside. However,
   the relations between the economic role of the family, its
   socio-economic mode of production and cultural values remain highly
   complex.
   Extended middle-class Midwestern U.S. family of Danish/German
   extraction
   Enlarge
   Extended middle-class Midwestern U.S. family of Danish/German
   extraction

Families and other social institutions

   Wherever people agree that families seem fundamental to the ordered
   nature of society, other social institutions such as the state and
   organised religion will make special provisions for families and will
   support (in word and/or in deed) the idea of the family. This can
   however lead to problems if conflicting loyalties arise. Thus the
   Biblical prescription: "every one that hath forsaken houses, or
   brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or
   lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall
   inherit everlasting life" (Matthew 19, 29). Totalitarian states also
   can develop ambiguous attitudes to families, which they may perceive as
   potentially interfering with the fostering of official ideology and
   practice. Different attitudes to divorce and to denunciation may
   develop in this light.

Families and Political Structure

   On the other hand family structures or its internal relationships may
   affect both state and religious institutions. J.F. del Giorgio in The
   Oldest Europeans points that the high status of women among the
   descendants of the post-glacial Paleolithic European population was
   coherent with the fierce love of freedom of pre-Indo-European tribes.
   He believes that the extraordinary respect for women in those families
   made that children raised in such atmosphere tended to distrust strong,
   authoritarian leaders. According to del Giorgio, European democracies
   have their roots in those ancient ancestors.

Kinship terminology

   Anthropologist Louis Henry Morgan (1818–1881) performed the first
   survey of kinship terminologies in use around the world. Though much of
   his work is now considered dated, he argued that kinship terminologies
   reflect different sets of distinctions. For example, most kinship
   terminologies distinguish between sexes (the difference between a
   brother and a sister) and between generations (the difference between a
   child and a parent). Moreover, he argued, kinship terminologies
   distinguish between relatives by blood and marriage (although recently
   some anthropologists have argued that many societies define kinship in
   terms other than "blood").

   However, Morgan also observed that different languages (and thus,
   societies) organize these distinctions differently. He thus proposed to
   describe kin terms and terminologies as either descriptive or
   classificatory. "Descriptive" terms refer to only one type of
   relationship, while "classificatory" terms refer to many types of
   relationships. Most kinship terminologies include both descriptive and
   classificatory terms. For example, Western societies provide only one
   way to express relationship with one's brother (brother = parents'
   son); thus, in Western society, the word "brother" functions as a
   descriptive term. But many different ways exist to express relationship
   with one's male first-cousin (cousin = mother's brother's son, mother's
   sister's son, father's brother's son, father's sister's son, and so
   on); thus, in Western society, the word "cousin" operates as a
   classificatory term.

   Morgan discovered that a descriptive term in one society can become a
   classificatory term in another society. For example, in some societies
   one would refer to many different people as "mother" (the woman who
   gave birth to oneself, as well as her sister and husband's sister, and
   also one's father's sister). Moreover, some societies do not lump
   together relatives that the West classifies together. For example, some
   languages have no one word equivalent to "cousin", because different
   terms refer to mother's sister's children and to father's sister's
   children.

   Armed with these different terms, Morgan identified six basic patterns
   of kinship terminologies:
     * Hawaiian: the most classificatory; only distinguishes between sex
       and generation.
     * Sudanese: the most descriptive; no two relatives share the same
       term.
     * Eskimo: has both classificatory and descriptive terms; in addition
       to sex and generation, also distinguishes between lineal relatives
       (those related directly by a line of descent) and collateral
       relatives (those related by blood, but not directly in the line of
       descent). Lineal relatives have highly descriptive terms,
       collateral relatives have highly classificatory terms.
     * Iroquois: has both classificatory and descriptive terms; in
       addition to sex and generation, also distinguishes between siblings
       of opposite sexes in the parental generation. Siblings of the same
       sex class as blood relatives, but siblings of the opposite sex
       count as relatives by marriage. Thus, one calls one's mother's
       sister "mother", and one's father's brother "father"; however, one
       refers to one's mother's brother as "father-in-law", and to one's
       father's sister as "mother-in-law".
     * Crow: like Iroquois, but further distinguishes between mother's
       side and father's side. Relatives on the mother's side of the
       family have more descriptive terms, and relatives on the father's
       side have more classificatory terms.
     * Omaha: like Iroquois, but further distinguishes between mother's
       side and father's side. Relatives on the mother's side of the
       family have more classificatory terms, and relatives on the
       father's side have more descriptive terms.

Western kinship

   The relationships and names of various family members in the English
   language.
   Enlarge
   The relationships and names of various family members in the English
   language.

   Most Western societies employ Eskimo kinship terminology. This kinship
   terminology commonly occurs in societies based on conjugal (or nuclear)
   families, where nuclear families have a degree of relatively mobility.

   Members of the nuclear family use descriptive kinship terms:
     * Mother: the female parent
     * Father: the male parent
     * Son: the males born of the mother; sired by the father
     * Daughter: the females born of the mother; sired by the father
     * Brother: a male born of the same mother; sired by the same father
     * Sister: a female born of the same mother; sired by the same father

   Such systems generally assume that the mother's husband has also served
   as the biological father. In some families, a woman may have children
   with more than one man or a man may have children with more than one
   woman. The system refers to a child who shares only one parent with
   another child as a "half-brother" or "half-sister". For children who do
   not share biological or adoptive parents in common, English-speakers
   use the term "step-brother" or "step-sister" to refer to their new
   relationship with each other when one of their biological parents
   marries one of the other child's biological parents.

   Any person (other than the biological parent of a child) who marries
   the parent of that child becomes the "step-parent" of the child, either
   the "stepmother" or "stepfather". The same terms generally apply to
   children adopted into a family as to children born into the family.

   Typically, societies with conjugal families also favour neolocal
   residence; thus upon marriage a person separates from the nuclear
   family of their childhood (family of orientation) and forms a new
   nuclear family (family of procreation). This practice means that
   members of one's own nuclear family once functioned as members of
   another nuclear family, or may one day become members of another
   nuclear family.

   Members of the nuclear families of members of one's own (former)
   nuclear family may class as lineal or as collateral. Kin who regard
   them as lineal refer to them in terms that build on the terms used
   within the nuclear family:
     * Grandparent
          + Grandfather: a parent's father
          + Grandmother: a parent's mother
     * Grandson: a child's son
     * Granddaughter: a child's daughter

   For collateral relatives, more classificatory terms come into play,
   terms that do not build on the terms used within the nuclear family:
     * Uncle: father's brother, father's sister's husband, mother's
       brother, mother's sister's husband
     * Aunt: father's sister, father's brother's wife, mother's sister,
       mother's brother's wife
     * Nephew: sister's son, brother's son
     * Niece: sister's daughter, brother's daughter

   When additional generations intervene (in other words, when one's
   collateral relatives belong to the same generation as one's
   grandparents or grandchildren), the prefix "grand" modifies these
   terms. (Although in casual usage in the USA a "grand aunt" is often
   referred to as a "great aunt", for instance.) And as with grandparents
   and grandchildren, as more generations intervene the prefix becomes
   "great grand", adding an additional "great" for each additional
   generation.

   Most collateral relatives have never had membership of the nuclear
   family of the members of one's own nuclear family.
     * Cousin: the most classificatory term; the children of aunts or
       uncles. One can further distinguish cousins by degrees of
       collaterality and by generation. Two persons of the same generation
       who share a grandparent count as "first cousins" (one degree of
       collaterality); if they share a great-grandparent they count as
       "second cousins" (two degrees of collaterality) and so on. If two
       persons share an ancestor, one as a grandchild and the other as a
       great-grandchild of that individual, then the two descendants class
       as "first cousins once removed" (removed by one generation); if the
       shared ancestor figures as the grandparent of one individual and
       the great-great-grandparent of the other, the individuals class as
       "first cousins twice removed" (removed by two generations), and so
       on. Similarly, if the shared ancestor figures as the
       great-grandparent of one person and the great-great-grandparent of
       the other, the individuals class as "second cousins once removed".
       Hence the phrase "third cousin once removed upwards".

   Distant cousins of an older generation (in other words, one's parents'
   first cousins), though technically first cousins once removed, often
   get classified with "aunts" and "uncles".

   Similarly, a person may refer to close friends of one's parents as
   "aunt" or "uncle", or may refer to close friends as "brother" or
   "sister", using the practice of fictive kinship.

   English-speakers mark relationships by marriage (except for
   wife/husband) with the tag "-in-law". The mother and father of one's
   spouse become one's mother-in-law and father-in-law; the female spouse
   of one's child becomes one's daughter-in-law and the male spouse of
   one's child becomes one's son-in-law. The term "sister-in-law" refers
   to three essentially different relationships, either the wife of one's
   brother, or the sister of one's spouse, or the wife of one's spouse's
   sibling. "Brother-in-law" expresses a similar ambiguity. No special
   terms exist for the rest of one's spouse's family.

   The terms "half-brother" and "half-sister" indicate siblings who one
   share only one biological or adoptive parent.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
