Family and Intimate Relationship

1. Family and Intimate Relationship Chapter 14

2. Family • Family: set of people related by blood, marriage, or some other agreed-upon relationship, or adoption who share primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of society • Nuclear family: nucleus or core upon which larger family groups are built • Extended family: family in which relatives live in same home as parents and their children

3. Romantic Relationships • Monogamy: form of marriage in which one woman and one man are married only to each other • Serial monogamy: when a person has several spouses in his or her lifetime, but only one spouse at a time • Polygamy: when an individual has several husbands or wives simultaneously • Polygyny: marriage of a man to more than one woman at a time • Polyandry: marriage of a woman to more than one husband at the same time • Exceedingly rare • Polyandrous cultures devalue social worth of women

5. Kinship Patterns • Kinship: state of being related to others • Bilateral descent: both sides of person’s family equally important • Patrilineal descent: only father’s relatives are important • Matrilineal descent: only mother’s relatives are significant

6. Authority Patterns • Patriarchy: males are expected to dominate in all family decision making • Matriarchy: women have greater authority than men • Egalitarian family: family in which spouses are regarded as equals

7. Functionalist View • Family serves six functions for society • Reproduction • Protection • Socialization • Regulation of sexual behavior • Affection and companionship • Provision of social status

8. Conflict View • Family reflects inequality in wealth and power found within society • In wide range of societies, husbands exercise power and authority within the family • Family is an economic unit contributing to social injustice

9. Interactionist View • Focuses on micro-level of family and other intimate relationships • Interested in how individuals interact with each other whether they are cohabiting partners or longtime married couples

10. Feminist View • Sociologists looked particularly closely at how women’s work outside the home impacts child care and housework • Feminists urged social scientists and social agencies to rethink notion that families in which no adult male is present are automatically cause for concern • Feminists stress need to investigate neglected topics in family studies

11. Courtship and Mate Selection • Aspects of Mate Selection • Many societies have explicit or unstated rules that define acceptable mates • Endogamy: specifies groups within which a spouse must be found and prohibits marriage with members of other groups • Exogamy: requires mate selection outside certain groups, usually one’s own family or certain kin • Incest taboo: social norm common to all societies that prohibits sexual relationships between certain culturally specified relationships • Homogamy: conscious or unconscious tendency to select mate with personal characteristics similar to one’s own

12. Arrange Marriages Today, arranged marriage is largely practiced in Asia (India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka),Africa, the Middle East Arranged marriages are usually decided by the parents or an older family member. The match could be selected by parents, a matchmaking agent, matrimonial site, or a trusted third party. In many communities, priests or religious leaders as well as relatives or family friends play a major role in matchmaking Arranged marriages vary in both nature and duration of time from meeting to engagement. In an "introduction only" arranged marriage, the parents may only introduce their son or daughter to a potential spouse. From that point on, it is up to the children to manage the relationship and make a choice. There is no set time period.

13. Interfaith and Interracial Interfaith marriage– marriage between partners professing different religions. Interracial - when two people of differing racial groups marry

14. Prenuptial Agreement 1. You are much wealthier than your partner. A prenuptial agreement can ensure that your partner is marrying you for who you are, and not for your money. 2. You earn much more than your partner. A prenuptial agreement can be used in many states to limit the amount of alimony that is payable. 3. You are remarrying. When you remarry, your legal and financial concerns are often very different than in your first marriage. You may have children from a previous marriage, support obligations, and own a home or other significant assets. A prenuptial agreement can ensure that when you pass away, your assets are distributed according to your wishes, and that neither your first family, nor your new family are cut off. 4. Your partner has a high debt load. If you are marrying someone with a significant debt load, and don’t want to be responsible for these debts if your marriage ends, then a prenuptial agreement can help ensure that this does not happen. 5. You own part of a business. Without a prenuptial agreement, when your marriage ends, your spouse could end up owning a share of your business. Your business partners may not want this to happen. A prenup can ensure that your spouse does not become an unwanted 6. To prevent your spouse from overturning your estate plan. A prenuptial agreement can ensure that you estate plan works, and, for instance, ensure that a specific heirloom remains in your family. 7. You are much poorer than your partner. Just as a prenuptial agreement can be used to protect a spouse who is well off, a prenup can also be used to ensure that the partner who is weaker financially is protected. 8. If you plan to quit your job to raise children. Quitting your job will negatively impact your income and your wealth. A prenuptial agreement can ensure that the financial burden of raising the children is shared fairly by both partners.

15. Adoption • Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents. • There are 147 million orphans in the world • There are 120,000 families looking to adopt each year. • 20,000 or more U.S.-born infants are placed for adoption every year • 6 in 10 Americans have had personal experience with adoption • About 1 million children in the U.S. live with adoptive parents. • Mothers who give up their children: • are more likely to finish school • less likely to live in poverty and receive public assistance • Are less likely to divorce. • Adopted Teens are more likely to live with two parents in a middle-class family. • Adopted children score higher than their middle-class counterparts on indicators of school performance, social competency, optimism and volunteerism. • Typical adoption wait is one to two years. • Domestic adoption fees can range from as little as $4,000 to $10,000. Most domestic adoption agencies are nonprofits, with sliding scales based on income.

16. Divorce

17. Gay Marriage AGAINST FOR • That same-sex marriage would destroy the institution of marriage. • That same-sex married couples would be able to adopt. • That foster parents would be required to pass sensitivity training. • That same-sex marriage would bring about divine retribution. • It is no one else's business if two men or two women want to get married. • Gay marriage is protected by the Constitution's commitments to liberty and equality • Gay marriages can bring financial gain to state and local governments. • Allowing same-sex couples to marry will give them access to basic rights such as hospital visitation during an illness, taxation and inheritance rights, access to family health coverage, and protection in the event of the relationship ending.