FAMILY, MARRIAGE

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FAMILY, MARRIAGE

• Issues in Family and Marriage

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Conflicting Definitions of Family

• 1. family as a group (which performs
  functions for the society)
• 2. family as a network of relatives (by blood,
  marriage, adoption) who are mutually obligated to
  each other

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Text book follows a current view

• Traditional nuclear family of residence (where
  husband/father is the breadwinner, wife/mother is
  stay at home, no other relatives living with this
  family)
• New and non-traditionaldual earner, step family,
  blended family, single parent family, non-married
  couples, same sex couples, singlehood

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Other sociologists would object

• Need to distinguish between an ideal family type
  and the empirical family type
• Idealcultural preferences specific to a society
• Empiricalthe patterns that actually exist in a
  society

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In addition,

• Calling the nuclear family traditional is
  inaccurate
• Need to distinguish between the historical
  sequence of family types, and,
• Distinguish between the institutional and
  companionate (companionship) family types

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American family type19th C

• family the same as household?
• family the same as the marriage?
• Family was male-headed
• Similar to European stem-family?

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Variations In Family and Marriage

• Family of Orientation (Origin)vs. Procreation
• Nuclear, Extended
• Descent patrilineal, matrilineal, bilineal
  (bilateral)

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Variations Residence

• Where is the newly-married couple expected to
  live?
• 1. Patrilocalnear grooms family
• 2. Matrilocalnear brides family
• 3. Bilocaleither brides or grooms family
• 4. Neo-localneither (new, independent household)

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Variations Authority

• Patriarchyrule by eldest male
• Matriarchy(does this really exist for a society,
  as an ideal..may be an empirical type)
• Equalitarian authority or companionship family
  type (companionate)
• Note may be departures from the ideal with
  patriarchy or male headed

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Variations Forms of marriage

• Monogamy
• Polygamy 1. Polygynyone man married to a number
  of women
• 2. Polyandryone woman married
  to a number of men (extremely rare. Husbands may
  be brothers)

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Variations Mate Selection

• 1. By capture
• 2. By arrangement (parents with aid of
  matchmakers, relatives)
• (bride price or dowry)
• 3. Free choice

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Variations issues in mate selection

• Exogamy
• Endogamy
• Homogamy
• Matching vs complementary needs

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Institutional vs. Companionate

• Institutional marriage exists for some purpose
  (creating offspring, maintaining family economic
  status or family line etc_
• Companionate affection of partners is only
  reason behind marriage

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Permanent Availability Model

• always available
• Source of instability
• Consumer culture?

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Marriage as lifetime commitment

• Strong marriage de-emphasizes descent issues
• In era of weak marriages, descent line emphasized

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Marriage family in USA

• Leveling off of divorce rate
• Most marry at some point
• 2/3rds claim happy
• Changes employed mothers (dual earner households)