The Family- Introduction

?

THE FAMILY

  • A social institution with people linked by kinship ties (blood, marriage/civil partnership- but cohabitation can still be considered family)

George Murdock (1949)

  • Claimed from study of 250 different societies that traditional nuclear family= mother father married with dependant children. 
  • Also formed basis of what Edmund Leach citicised as the 'cereal packet family'- portrayed by media- misleading because only 5% households in UK are 'typical'. Dual worker families more common now.

Family Diversity:

  • Modern nuclear family- married/cohabiting with/wo children. Cohabiting more common with 1/6 families as of 2013 and increasing.
  • Reconsituted family (aka blended family)- stepfamilies with children from before. Not always governed by shared norms and raises questions of e.g. authority of step-parent. Rapidly growing as divorces and re-marriage increases

Comments

No comments have yet been made