YOU WILL HAVE AN EXAM ON THIS TOPIC IN THE SUMMER Families and Households

The course is split into 7 sections 1 – Defining the family 2 – Sociological theories and government policies on the family. 3 – Changing patterns of the family 4 – Family diversity 5 – Domestic labour 6 – Children and childhood 7 – Changes in births, deaths and family size

The family – These are the images the spring to mind

Intro Pre 1960 – The family was a positive institution that evolved to meet the needs of society. Post 1960 – An increasing number of critical thinkers began to question the idea that the family was a positive institution and it was thought to be damaging. Social changes began to undermine the traditional family..

The definition of the family 1949 Peter Murdoch – American anthropologist. He research 250 communities around the world and looked at how the families were set up. He claimed that although the families varied all families consisted of a husband, wife and 1 or more children. He called this the NUCLEAR family.

Murdoch defined the family as: Living together Work together and pool resources Reproduce Adult male and female with a sexual relationship approved by the wider society Heterosexual He claimed that the NUCLEAR family was UNIVERSAL (found everywhere in the world)

Other societies with nuclear families Extended families: These contained “kin” relatives by blood or marriage. However, at the centre these was a nuclear family.. Barano of new Guinea: the husband does not have sexual relations with his wife until she has borne a child by a friend of his father. This fits into Murdoch’s nuclear family as the children are socialised within the marriage.

P62 Activity

Extensions of the nuclear family Polygyny: Where an man can take more than one wife Polyandry: Where a woman can take more than one husband. P63 reading and activity.

Is the nuclear family really universal? No. Kathleen Gough (1959) disputed Murdoch claims of the universal nuclear family when she discovered the historic Nayar community of Kerala Southern India (prior to British rule 1792)