What is a family? Working toward a definition… (Part 2)

It is worth noting that the word family originally meant a band of slaves. Even after the word came to apply to people affiliated by blood and marriage, for many centuries the notion of family referred to authority relations rather than love ones. The sentimentalization of family life and female nurturing was historically and functionally linked to the emergence of competitive individualism and formal egalitarianism for men. Stephanie Coontz, (2000)The Way We Never Were, pp

“A family is a group of two people or more (one of whom is the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together; all such people (including related subfamily members) are considered as members of one family. (…) The number of families is equal to the number of family households, however, the count of family members differs from the count of family household members because family household members include any non-relatives living in the household.” (Census Bureau, USA)

The definiton of family used by the Census Bureau (“two or more persons related by birth, marriage or adoption who reside in the same household”) was selected by only 22 percent of a random sample of 1,200 adults in a 1990 survey conducted by Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company. (source: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX)

Should the word be defined in terms of: - those who live under the same roof, which basically means any household qualifies? - the functions it performs? - legal recognitions of the relationships?

George Peter Murdock ( ) in his book Social Structure (1949) presented the family structure as a cultural universal. He had studied 250 societies, from small hunting communities to industrial societies, and found that family, which he defined as a social group that lives together, is a unit present across cultures.

Murdock identidied four significant functions performed by families across the world: 1.Sexual 2.Economic 3.Reproductive 4.Educational

Sexual function: the regulation of sexual activity of society’s adult members. Husbands and wives have sexual access to each other. All societies have norms regulating sexual activity outside marriage. The family caters to the sexual needs of its adult members and limits sexual access of other members of the society, thereby maintaining stability.

Economic function: a division of labor along gender lines. Murdock considers this division of labor as rewarding for the spouses. It strenghtens the bond between them, as they are perceived and perceive themselves as doing distinct but complementary work.

Reproductive function: the family has the function of bearing and raising children. It provides the society with new members and assumes responsibility for raising them.

Educational/Socialization function: the transmission of a society’s way of life, norms, and values to the younger members. This is a crucial function: Murdock argues that without culture, the society could not survive, and too much deviation from the norm would disrupt the stability of the society.

Do you think Murdock’s definition of family and its universality are (still) valid? Can you think of any criticism you would level at that definition of family?

1)when you claim something to be universal, it only needs one exception to prove it false. Ex.: Nayar women in India. They were married to a man before puberty. After 3 days they could have virtually no other contact with said husband. They moved on to being “mothers” and in this new status they could take up to 12 husbands who visited them one at a time at night. (Kethleen Gough)

Food for thought: The Mosuo women

2) Murdock’s model reads other cultures through the lens of our western culture. Ex.: some groups he would not recognize as families could very well be considered as such within a certain culture.

3) This vision of the family is quite idealised. Ex.: there are many families lacking one or more of the traits Murdock identifies as defining characteristics of a family: single parents families, childless couples, orphan siblings, etc.

4) Some of the functions Murdock attributes to the family can be performed by other subjects in society as well. Ex.: the socialization of children is not a process carried out exclusively within the family; financial support can also come to children from subjects outside the family (institutions, government, etc.); sexual needs can be legitimately met outside the family as well

How does the changing role of women influence the definition of family? -Working mothers -Housewives -Childcare -Education -Peternal role - …

How does the changing ethics in sexual relationships influence the definition of family? -Homosexuality -Pre-marital sex -Non-monogamous relationships -Sex-education -Unmarried couples -Divorce -…

Food for thought: index#/