Family, Definitions and Universality

Murdock (1949)  

• Functionalists see a traditional family structure as essential for the maintenance of a stable society.  

• This is reflected in Murdock’s definitions -  
  “The family is a social group characterised by common residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually co-habiting adults.” 

Other Definitions  

• Giddens (1993) - “a family is a group of persons directly linked by kin connections, the adult members of which assume responsibility for caring for children.”  

• Jorgenson (1996) suggests that the ‘family’ is no longer a useful term, it does not reflect the reality of our lives. He suggests ‘households’ as an alternative.  

• Scanzoni et al (1989) argue that we should stop using the term family and replace it with a concept such as primary relationships (close, long-lasting and special ties between people).  

UNIVERSALITY  

• Murdock (1949) found a variety of family forms in his sample of 250 societies (ranging from hunting and gathering bands to small-scale farming societies to large-scale industrial societies). However, he concluded that each family form contained a basic nucleus – the nuclear family.  

• There may be extensions to this e.g. horizontally extended, vertically extended, polygamy, but he argued that the nuclear family was universal.  

• We can examine cross-cultural evidence which demonstrates that the basic nucleus of husband, wife and children does not exist in all societies.  

Evidence against Murdock  

• Matrifocal/matriarchal family – households…