Understanding Families: Global Perspectives and Cultural Variations

1. FAMILIESChapter 18

2. Families: Basic Concepts

3. Basic Concepts • Family • A social institution found in all societies that unites people into cooperative groups to oversee the bearing and raising of children. • Kinship • A social bond, based on blood, marriage, or adoption. • Family Unit • A social group of two or more people, related by blood, marriage, or adoption, who usually live together.

4. Basic Concepts • Families of orientation • The family you are born into. • Families of procreation • The family you form in order to have or adopt children. • Families of affinity • People with or without blood ties who feel that they belong together and want to define themselves as a family.

5. Families: Global Variations

6. Families: Global Variations • Extended family • Family unit that includes parents and children as well as other kin. • Also called “consanguine families” • Nuclear family • Also called “conjugal family” • Composed of one or two parents and their children • The predominant family form Sociology, Eleventh Edition

7. Marriage Patterns • Marriage • Legally sanctioned relationship, usually involving economic cooperation, as well as sexual activity and childbearing, that people expect to be enduring. • Illegitimacy: out of wedlock children • Matrimony: the “condition of motherhood” Sociology, Eleventh Edition

8. Marriage Patterns • Endogamy • Marriage between people of the same social category. • Limited opportunities for marriage. • Exogamy • Marriage between people of different social categories can help form alliances. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

9. Marriage Partners • Monogamy: marrying one other person • Serial monogamy: monogamy + divorce & remarriage • Polygamy: person united with 2 or more spouses • Often found in Africa or Asia • Polygyny: marrying more than one female • Islamic nation in Middle East & Africa  up to 4 wives • Most Islamic families remain monogamous  $ • Polyandry: marrying more than one male • Tibet

10. Global Map 18-1 (p. 474)Marital Form in Global PerspectiveMonogamy is the only legal form of marriage throughout the Western Hemisphere and in much of the rest of the world. In most African nations and in Southern Asia, however, polygamy is permitted by law. In many cases, this practice reflects the historic influence of Islam, a religion that allows a man to have up to four wives. Even so, most marriages in these countries are monogamous, primarily for financial reasons.Source: Peters Atlas of the World (1990). Sociology, Eleventh Edition

11. Residential Patterns • PATRILOCALITY • With or near the husband’s family • MATRILOCALITY • With or near the wife’s family • NEOLOCALITY • Setting up house apart from both families Sociology, Eleventh Edition

12. DESCENT • How members of a society trace kinship over generations. • Importance includes passing on property and recognition as a family member. • Three types: • Patrilineal descent –tracing kinship through men • Matrilineal descent – tracing kinship through women • Bilateral descent – tracing kinship through both men and women • Typically used in high income societies. • Shows men and women have become more equal. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

13. Theoretical Analysis of Families

14. Structural-Functional Analysis of the Family • Family is the backbone of society. • The family serves basic functions • Socialization – creating well-integrated members of society • Regulation of sexual activity – maintenance of kinship order and property rights, incest taboos • All societies have an incest taboo. • Social placement - births to married couples are preferred in societies • Material and emotional security – home can be a haven for people • Critical evaluation • Glosses over great diversity of family life, how other institutions are taking over its roles & negative aspects like patriarchy and family violence. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

15. Social-Conflict Analysis of the Family • The family perpetuates social inequality: • Property and inheritance – concentrates wealth and reproduces class structure • Patriarchy – to know their heirs men must control women who still bear the brunt of child rearing and housework duties • Racial & ethnic inequality – endogamous marriage shores up racial hierarchies • Critical evaluation • Ignores that families carry out functions not easily accomplished by other means. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

16. Micro-Level Analysis of the Family • Symbolic-Interaction: • Opportunities for sharing activities helps build emotional bonds. • Social-Exchange: • Courtship & marriage as a negotiation to make the “best deal” on their partner. • Individuals select partners who offer about as much as they do. • Critical evaluation • Misses the bigger picture, family life is similar for people in similar social backgrounds and varies in predictable ways. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

17. Stages of Family Life

18. STAGES OF FAMILY LIFE • Courtship • Arranged marriages versus romantic love • In many low-income countries, marriage has little to do with romantic love. • Homogamy: marriage between people with same social traits • Settling in • Ideal vs. Real marriage • Infidelity: sexual activity outside of marriage • Childrearing • Industrialization transformed children from assets to liabilities. • People are having fewer children, delaying having kids or remaining childless. • $200,000+ to raise one child. • Later life • Empty nest – when children grow up and leave home. • Sandwich generation – spends as many years caring for their children as for their aging parents. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

19. ROMANTIC LOVE • Concerns: • It may contribute to a high divorce rate. • Physical passion is not always lasting. • It is not always a stable foundation for marriage. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

20. Applying Sociology (p. 481)Who’s Minding the Kids?Working mothers report that a majority of their young children receive care in the home. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

21. INDUSTRIALIZATION EFFECTS ON FAMILIES • Encourage people to choose their own spouses. • Pushed marriage back until people are older. • Weakened extended families. • Families have an average of one child in the U.S. • Helps raise the standard of living. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

22. US Families:Class, Race and Gender

23. Social Class • According to Lillian Rubin’s study, working class women found that wives thought a good husband held the following three characteristics: • Held a steady job • Did not drink too much • Was not violent • Middle class women assumed the husband would provide a safe and secure home. • Their ideal husband was someone who: • They could talk to easily • Would share feelings and experiences Sociology, Eleventh Edition

24. Ethnicity and Race • Ethnicity and race are powerful social forces that can affect family life. • American Indian families often seek each other out after leaving reservations. • Think of each other as family. • Latino Families • Loyal and support extended families. • Control children’s courtship, marriage is an alliance of families. • Average family income - $35,401 • African American Families • Average family income - $35,158 • 3X more likely than whites to be poor • Maintaining a stable marriage is difficult. • 27% of AA women in their forties have never been married, (9% white women never married by age 40). Sociology, Eleventh Edition

25. Gender • Jessie Bernard - every marriage is actually two different relationships: a woman’s marriage and a man’s marriage. • We expect men to be older, taller and have better-paying jobs. • Many people believe that women benefit more from marriage. • Bachelor status v. spinster status • Women are fulfilled only by being wives and mothers. • Married women - poorer health, less happiness and more passive attitudes. • Married men - live longer, are mentally better off, and report being happier. • Bernard argued that marriage would be healthier for women if men were less dominating and stopped expecting them to do all the housework. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

26. Transitions and Problems in Family Life

27. DISCUSSION QUESTION • What would be the hardest thing you can imagine dealing with as an adult?

28. DEATH • The most difficult transition in an adult’s life is the death of their spouse. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

29. DIVORCE • In the U.S. nine out of ten persons will marry. • Four out of these marriages will end in divorce. Factors include: • Individualism on the rise • Romantic love often subsides • Women are less dependent upon men • Many of today’s marriages are stressful • Divorce is socially acceptable • Legally, a divorce is easier to get • Young people who marry after a short courtship are most likely to get divorced. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

30. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS • Is divorce the best answer? Why? • What should people consider before getting a divorce? • Should you stay married for the sake of the kids?

31. Figure 18-2 (p. 485)Divorce Rate for the United States, 1890-2004Over the long term, the U.S. divorce rate has gone up. Since about 1980, however, the trend has been downward. Source: Munson & Sutton (2005).I CAN #22 Sociology, Eleventh Edition

32. DISCUSSION QUESTION • During 1999, court cases brought to public attention the issue of grandparental access to grandchildren and visitation rights. Due to divorce, grandparents have in some instances been denied contact with their grandchildren when their son or daughter is not the custodial parent. • Do grandparents have a right to visitation if their child does not have custody? Sociology, Eleventh Edition

33. REMARRIAGE • Four out of five people who divorce remarry, most within five years. • Remarriage often creates blended families, composed of children and some combination of biological parents and stepparents. • Although blended families require that members adjust to their new circumstances, they offer both young and old the change to relax rigid family roles. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

34. Family Violence • Against women • Of 791,000 reported accounts of abuse between intimate partners, 85% are against women • 32 percent of all women murdered are the victims of their partners, or ex-partners • All states have marital rape laws, half have “stalking laws” on the books • Against children • 3 million children a year are abused, 1 million of these involve serious harm including 1,100 deaths • Most abusers were often abused themselves as children • Abusers are as likely to be women as men with no simple stereotype Sociology, Eleventh Edition

35. DISCUSSION QUESTION • “Why does she go back?” • In situations of family violence, that’s the question everyone asks. • According to your text, reasons include economic dependency, trust, emotional ties, history and children. • Which do you think is the most commonly used reason? Sociology, Eleventh Edition

36. Alternative Family Forms

37. Alternative Family Forms • One-parent families • 28 percent of U.S. Families with children under 18 have only one parent in the household • 75 percent of these families are headed by women • Cohabitation • 10 percent of all couples, or 5.6 million, only 50% decide to marry • May actually discourage marriage • Gay and lesbian couples Sociology, Eleventh Edition

38. New Reproductive Technology and the Family

39. New Reproductive Technologies • 1978, “test-tube baby” • In vitro fertilization is where doctors unite a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm “in glass” rather than in a woman’s body. • The ethics of new reproductive technologies. • What can be done v. what should be done. Sociology, Eleventh Edition

40. Families: Looking Ahead

41. FAMILIES AND PREDICTIONS • It has been suggested that the traditional family is eroding: • Singlehood is up • In 1960 28% of U.S. Women aged 20-24 were single, by 2003 the number had risen to 75%. • More children are born to single mothers. • Divorce rate is up. • More equality between sexes. • Family life will be variable. • All kinds of units will be called families. • Men will continue to play a limited role in child rearing. • Many dads will remain absent from household scenes. • Economic changes will impact families and reform marriage. • Less quality time as work demands more from parents. Sociology, Eleventh Edition