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Marriage, Family, and Kinship Organization Notes

By on January 16, 2014


Family as a Social Institution

Organized

Essential tasks

Institution: system of norms, values, statuses, and roles

Perform certain functions

Marriage, business, the media, medicine, law, science, and recreation are also institutions

Activity becomes institutionalized when accepted by society as necessary, proper, and predictable

Family – solution to problems and cause of problems

Are children better off with traditional family patterns?

Sweden – highest family decline  not high negative outcomes

(Image courtesy of stockimages/FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

FAMILIES AS GROUPS AND SYSTEMS

Interrelated statuses (positions) and the expectations (roles)

Norms

Primary Group

1) basic socializing agent

2) personal satisfaction (well-being, companionship, ego worth, security, and affection)

3) social control

Secondary group: goal oriented rather than person oriented

Absence or loss of primary source of social support  negative outcomes: school truancy, accidents, suicides, commitment to mental hospitals, pregnancy disorders, coronary disease, and lack of recovery from illness

CHARACTERISTICS OF MARRIAGE, FAMILY, AND KINSHIP GROUPS

Boundaries of Marriage

Marriage is (W. Stephens) 1) a socially legitimate sexual union, 2) a public announcement, 3) idea of performance, and 4) marriage contract (reciprocal obligations)

Definition of marriage  excludes persons in same-sex relationships

Marriage and Number of Spouses

Singlehood

White males and white females were less likely to be single than other racial groups (2000)

By age 55 only 5.5% of men and 4.9% of women had never been married

Since 1970 those who have never been married has risen sharply

New style of singlehood: happiness, career, and social mobility; higher levels of personal happiness

Japan: morality higher for single than married individuals

Married men and women live longer, greater well-being, and better health than never-married

Improves financial situation, increase social networks and access to medical information and services, constrain risk-taking behavior, and a buffer to stressful situations

Monogamy

Traditional, proper, and universally recognized

Small percentage of societies are strictly monogamous

Sequential or serial monogamy

Polygamy

Polygyny: several or many wives

Polyandry: many husbands

Group marriage

Unbalanced sex ratio – functional

Fraternal polyandry: husbands are brothers

Sororal polygyny: wives are sisters

Levirate: wife marries brother of deceased husband

Sororate: sister of his deceased wife

Polygyny: marriage of one man to more than one woman at the same time

Most two wives rather than more

Nigeria: stability of marriage

Privilege of the wealthy

Prestige and high status – chiefs

Procreation: lower rate of pregnancy per wife

Mormon fundamentalists

Polyandry

Group marriage goes together with polyandry

Co-husbanding is fraternal

Economic inducement – man recruits co-husbands so they will work for him

Frequently female infanticide

Group Marriage

Rare

Time span is limited

EX: Group Marriage in the Oneida Community

BOUNDARIES OF THE FAMILY

Nuclear and Conjugal Families

Husband, wife, and their immediate children

Conjugal: husband and wife

Nuclear: any two or more persons related to one another by birth (blood), marriage, or adoption

Family of orientation

Family of procreation

EX: Nuclear Families in Sweden

Modified-Nuclear and Modified-Extended Families

Nuclear family retains considerable autonomy

Maintains a coalition with other nuclear families

Exchange contacts, goods, and services

Immigrants 0 send labor migrants

Extended Families

Family structures that extend beyond the nuclear family

Consanguine families: family is a on blood ties rather than marital ties

Joint families: large families in India; common treasury, common kitchen and dinning room, and common deities; patrilineal and patrilocal

Stem families: two families in adjacent generations, joined by economic and blood ties

Japan: live with one spouse’s parents

Most common if the marriage was arranged, husband was the oldest son, and/or the wife was the oldest daughter and had no brothers

EX: Extended Families in China

BOUNDARIES OF KINSHIP

Regulated social norms

Taboo on incest: all societies forbid sexual relations between persons in certain kinship positions, particularly those within and closest to the nuclear family  father-daughter, mother-son, brother-sister, stepfather-stepdaughter,…

Confusion of statuses and role expectations

Sexual incest (most likely to occur between daughter-biological father then stepfather)

All societies forbid intermarriage between certain kinship group members

Functions of Kinship Systems

1) property holding and inheritance

unilineal – one bloodline

patrilineal – father and his bloodline

matrilineal – female line

United States – bilateral system

Significance – perpetuate power and wealth through successive generations

2) housing and residential proximity

patrilocal – bride changes residence and lives with the parents of the groom

matrilocal

bilocal – couple lives near the parents of either spouse

neolocal – located apart form both sets

Local concentration is the pattern

3) keeping in touch and giftgiving

expected that kin communicate or keep in touch

“kinkeeper” is usually female

Material or nonmaterial

4) affection, emotional ties, and primary relationships

emotionally close to kin

women express more affection

BOUNDARY AMBIGUITY

Knowing who is in and out of the family system

New and old spouses, stepparents and stepchildren

Growing complexity of families

Co-parent conflict

Level of stress

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Teaching Sociology is very enjoyable for me. Sociology is like a gateway to a plethora of knowledge and understanding. The subject material is directly applicable to real-world events and situations found in everyday life. The methods and concepts of sociology yield powerful insights into the social processes shaping the contemporary world. The ability to identify and understand these processes is valuable preparation for professional participation in an ever changing and complex society.