SOCIOLOGY - KINSHIP
The family has often been regarded as the cornerstone of society. In pre-modern and modem societies alike,
it has been seen as the most basic unit of social organization and one which carries out vital tasks such as
socializing children. A particular type of family, the nuclear family was seen as well-adapted to the demands
of modem societies.
George Peter Murdock in a study entitled Social Structure (1949), examined the institution of the family in
a wide range of societies. Murdock took a sample of 250 societies, ranging from small hunting and gathering
bands to large-scale industrial societies. He claimed that some form of family existed in every society and
concluded, on the evidence of his sample, that the family is universal. “The nuclear family is a universal
human social grouping. Either as the sole prevailing form of the family or as the basic unit from which
more complex forms are compounded, it exists as a distinct and strongly functional group in every known
society.”
Murdock defined the family as follows: “The family is aa social group characterized by common residence,
economic co-operation 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 cohabiting
adults.”
Bell and Vogel defined the extended family as ‘any grouping broader than the nuclear family which is
related by descent, marriage or adoption.’
However, some variations in the family structure has also been seen - Nayars of Kerala, Matrifocal families
- black families in Central America and USA often do not include adult males, LGBT households.
Yanina Sheeran argues that the ‘female carer core’ is the most basic family unit. She says: “The female
carer unit is the foundation of the single mother family, the two-parent family and the extended family in
its many forms. Thus, it is certainly the basis of family household life in Britain today and is a ubiquitous
phenomenon, since even in South Pacific longhouses, preindustrial farmsteads, communes and Kibbutzim,
we know that female carers predominate.”
Parsons - family has become structurally differentiated - family acts as an interface between personality
system and cultural system.
According to Burgess and Lock the family is a group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood or
adoption constituting a single household interacting with each other in their respective social role of
husband and wife, mother and father, brother and sister creating a common culture.
According to Maclver family is a group defined by “sex relationships sufficiently precise and enduring to
,provide for the procreation and upbringing of children.”
Kingsley Davis describes family as a group of persons whose relations to one another are based upon
consanguinity and who are therefore kin to one another.
Malinowski opined that the family is the institution within which the cultural traditions of a society is
handed over to a newer generation. This indispensable function could not be filled unless the relations to
parents and children were relations reciprocally of authority and respect. Family is the cornerstone of every
human society. Society can exist without any other institution except family.
Durkheim - Family is a society in miniature. It is also driven by conscience collective, has DOL, checks
deviance. Social fact.
Bob Edwards - in modern nuclear families, physical punishment is replaced by counselling services. This
is a new role of family.
Main characteristics of family:
Universality
Emotional basis
Limited size
Formative influence
Nuclear position in the social structure - the family is the nucleus of all other social organizations
Responsibility of the members - members have certain responsibilities, duties and obligations
Social regulation
Functionalist Perspective on the Family:
From his analysis of 250 societies, Murdock (1949) argued that the family performs four basic functions
in all societies, which he termed the sexual, reproductive, economic and educational (socialization). The
family does not perform these functions exclusively. However, it makes important contributions to them
all and no other institution has yet been devised to match its efficiency in this respect.
The family’s functions for society are inseparable from its functions for its individual members. It serves
both at one and the same time and in much the same way.
Critique of Murdock:
The family is seen as a multifunctional institution which is indispensable to society. It's ‘many sided utility’
accounts for its universality and its inevitability. In his enthusiasms for the family, however, Murdock did
not seriously consider whether its functions could be performed by other social institutions and he does not
examine alternatives to the family. As D.H.J. Morgan notes in his criticism, Murdock does not answer ‘to
,what extend these basic functions are inevitably linked with the institution of the Nuclear family. Also,
Murdock's nuclear family is a remarkably harmonious institution and some other researchers do not share
Murdock's emphasis on harmony and integration
Parsons argued that the American family retains two basic and irreducible functions which are common to
the family in all societies. These are the ‘primary socialization of children’ and the ‘stabilization of the
other personalities of the population of the society’
There are two basic processes involved in primary socialization: the internalization of society’s culture
and the structuring of the personality. Unless culture is internalized - that is, absorbed and accepted - society
would cease to exist, since without shared norms and values social life would not be possible. However,
culture is not simply learned, it is ‘internalized as part of the personality structure.’ The child’s structure
personality is moulded in terms of the central values of the culture to the point where they become a part
of him or her.
Parsons argued that families are “factories” which produce human personalities. He believed that they are
essential for this purpose since primary socialization requires a context which provides warmth, security
and mutual support. He could conceive of no institution other than the family that could provide this context.
Once produced, the personality must be kept stable. This is the second basic function of the family: the
stabilization of adult personalities. The emphasis here is on the marriage relationship and the emotional
security the couple provide for each other. This acts as a counterweight to the stresses and strains of
everyday life which tend to make the personality unstable.
This function is particularly important in Western industrial society, since the nuclear family is largely
isolated from kin. It does not have the security once provided by the close-knit extended family. Thus, the
married couple increasingly look to each other for emotional support.
Adult personalities are also stabilized by the parent’s role in the socialization process. This allows them to
act out childish elements of their own personalities which they have retained from childhood but which
cannot be indulged in adult societies.
today's families are ‘atomistic families’ which fit well into the demands of the modern industrial societies
Critique of Parsons:
Parsons has been accused of idealizing the family with his picture of well-adjusted children and sympathetic
spouses caring for each other’s every need. a typically optimistic modernist theory which may have little
relationship to reality.
His picture is based largely on the American middle-class family. He largely fails to explore functional
, alternatives to the family. He sees socialization as a one-way process, with the children being pumped full
of culture and their personalities being moulded by powerful parents. He tends to ignore the two- way
interaction process between parents and children.
Parsons sees the family as a distinct institution which is clearly separated from other aspects of social life.
Some contemporary perspectives on the family deny that such clear-cut boundaries can be established. The
family as such cannot therefore be seen as performing any particular functions on its own in isolation from
other institutions.
Marxist Perspective on the Family:
Friedrich Engels’s “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’ combined an evolutionary
approach with Marxist theory, arguing that, as the mode of production changed, so did the family.
During the early stages of human evolution, Engels believed that the means of production were communally
owned and the family as such did not exist. This era of primitive communism was characterized by
promiscuity. There were no rules limiting sexual relationships and society was, in effect, the family.
The monogamous nuclear family developed with the emergence of private property, in particular the private
ownership of the means of production, and the advent of the state. The state instituted laws to protect the
system of private property and to enforce the rules of monogamous marriage. This form of marriage and
the family developed to solve the problem of the inheritance of private property.
Eli Zaretsky argues that the family in modem capitalist society creates the illusion that the ‘private life’ of
the family is quite separate from the economy. In a society in which work was alienating, Zaretsky
Rible Claims that the family was put on a pedestal because it apparently stood in
opposition terrible anonymous world of Commerce and Industry. The private life of the family provided
opportunities for satisfactions that were unavailable outside the walls of the home.
However, he believes that the family is unable to provide for the psychological and personal needs of
individuals. He says ‘it simply cannot meet the pressures of being the only refugee in a brutal
society’ family artificially separates and isolates personal life from other aspects of life. It might cushion
the effects of capitalism but it perpetuates the system and cannot compensate for the general alienation
produced by such a society.
He sees the family as a major prop to the capitalist economy. The capitalist system is based upon the
domestic labour of housewives who reproduce future generations of workers. He also believes that the
family has become a vital unit of consumption. The family consumes the products of capitalism and this
allows the bourgeoisie to continue producing surplus value. To Zaretsky, only socialism will end the
The family has often been regarded as the cornerstone of society. In pre-modern and modem societies alike,
it has been seen as the most basic unit of social organization and one which carries out vital tasks such as
socializing children. A particular type of family, the nuclear family was seen as well-adapted to the demands
of modem societies.
George Peter Murdock in a study entitled Social Structure (1949), examined the institution of the family in
a wide range of societies. Murdock took a sample of 250 societies, ranging from small hunting and gathering
bands to large-scale industrial societies. He claimed that some form of family existed in every society and
concluded, on the evidence of his sample, that the family is universal. “The nuclear family is a universal
human social grouping. Either as the sole prevailing form of the family or as the basic unit from which
more complex forms are compounded, it exists as a distinct and strongly functional group in every known
society.”
Murdock defined the family as follows: “The family is aa social group characterized by common residence,
economic co-operation 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 cohabiting
adults.”
Bell and Vogel defined the extended family as ‘any grouping broader than the nuclear family which is
related by descent, marriage or adoption.’
However, some variations in the family structure has also been seen - Nayars of Kerala, Matrifocal families
- black families in Central America and USA often do not include adult males, LGBT households.
Yanina Sheeran argues that the ‘female carer core’ is the most basic family unit. She says: “The female
carer unit is the foundation of the single mother family, the two-parent family and the extended family in
its many forms. Thus, it is certainly the basis of family household life in Britain today and is a ubiquitous
phenomenon, since even in South Pacific longhouses, preindustrial farmsteads, communes and Kibbutzim,
we know that female carers predominate.”
Parsons - family has become structurally differentiated - family acts as an interface between personality
system and cultural system.
According to Burgess and Lock the family is a group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood or
adoption constituting a single household interacting with each other in their respective social role of
husband and wife, mother and father, brother and sister creating a common culture.
According to Maclver family is a group defined by “sex relationships sufficiently precise and enduring to
,provide for the procreation and upbringing of children.”
Kingsley Davis describes family as a group of persons whose relations to one another are based upon
consanguinity and who are therefore kin to one another.
Malinowski opined that the family is the institution within which the cultural traditions of a society is
handed over to a newer generation. This indispensable function could not be filled unless the relations to
parents and children were relations reciprocally of authority and respect. Family is the cornerstone of every
human society. Society can exist without any other institution except family.
Durkheim - Family is a society in miniature. It is also driven by conscience collective, has DOL, checks
deviance. Social fact.
Bob Edwards - in modern nuclear families, physical punishment is replaced by counselling services. This
is a new role of family.
Main characteristics of family:
Universality
Emotional basis
Limited size
Formative influence
Nuclear position in the social structure - the family is the nucleus of all other social organizations
Responsibility of the members - members have certain responsibilities, duties and obligations
Social regulation
Functionalist Perspective on the Family:
From his analysis of 250 societies, Murdock (1949) argued that the family performs four basic functions
in all societies, which he termed the sexual, reproductive, economic and educational (socialization). The
family does not perform these functions exclusively. However, it makes important contributions to them
all and no other institution has yet been devised to match its efficiency in this respect.
The family’s functions for society are inseparable from its functions for its individual members. It serves
both at one and the same time and in much the same way.
Critique of Murdock:
The family is seen as a multifunctional institution which is indispensable to society. It's ‘many sided utility’
accounts for its universality and its inevitability. In his enthusiasms for the family, however, Murdock did
not seriously consider whether its functions could be performed by other social institutions and he does not
examine alternatives to the family. As D.H.J. Morgan notes in his criticism, Murdock does not answer ‘to
,what extend these basic functions are inevitably linked with the institution of the Nuclear family. Also,
Murdock's nuclear family is a remarkably harmonious institution and some other researchers do not share
Murdock's emphasis on harmony and integration
Parsons argued that the American family retains two basic and irreducible functions which are common to
the family in all societies. These are the ‘primary socialization of children’ and the ‘stabilization of the
other personalities of the population of the society’
There are two basic processes involved in primary socialization: the internalization of society’s culture
and the structuring of the personality. Unless culture is internalized - that is, absorbed and accepted - society
would cease to exist, since without shared norms and values social life would not be possible. However,
culture is not simply learned, it is ‘internalized as part of the personality structure.’ The child’s structure
personality is moulded in terms of the central values of the culture to the point where they become a part
of him or her.
Parsons argued that families are “factories” which produce human personalities. He believed that they are
essential for this purpose since primary socialization requires a context which provides warmth, security
and mutual support. He could conceive of no institution other than the family that could provide this context.
Once produced, the personality must be kept stable. This is the second basic function of the family: the
stabilization of adult personalities. The emphasis here is on the marriage relationship and the emotional
security the couple provide for each other. This acts as a counterweight to the stresses and strains of
everyday life which tend to make the personality unstable.
This function is particularly important in Western industrial society, since the nuclear family is largely
isolated from kin. It does not have the security once provided by the close-knit extended family. Thus, the
married couple increasingly look to each other for emotional support.
Adult personalities are also stabilized by the parent’s role in the socialization process. This allows them to
act out childish elements of their own personalities which they have retained from childhood but which
cannot be indulged in adult societies.
today's families are ‘atomistic families’ which fit well into the demands of the modern industrial societies
Critique of Parsons:
Parsons has been accused of idealizing the family with his picture of well-adjusted children and sympathetic
spouses caring for each other’s every need. a typically optimistic modernist theory which may have little
relationship to reality.
His picture is based largely on the American middle-class family. He largely fails to explore functional
, alternatives to the family. He sees socialization as a one-way process, with the children being pumped full
of culture and their personalities being moulded by powerful parents. He tends to ignore the two- way
interaction process between parents and children.
Parsons sees the family as a distinct institution which is clearly separated from other aspects of social life.
Some contemporary perspectives on the family deny that such clear-cut boundaries can be established. The
family as such cannot therefore be seen as performing any particular functions on its own in isolation from
other institutions.
Marxist Perspective on the Family:
Friedrich Engels’s “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’ combined an evolutionary
approach with Marxist theory, arguing that, as the mode of production changed, so did the family.
During the early stages of human evolution, Engels believed that the means of production were communally
owned and the family as such did not exist. This era of primitive communism was characterized by
promiscuity. There were no rules limiting sexual relationships and society was, in effect, the family.
The monogamous nuclear family developed with the emergence of private property, in particular the private
ownership of the means of production, and the advent of the state. The state instituted laws to protect the
system of private property and to enforce the rules of monogamous marriage. This form of marriage and
the family developed to solve the problem of the inheritance of private property.
Eli Zaretsky argues that the family in modem capitalist society creates the illusion that the ‘private life’ of
the family is quite separate from the economy. In a society in which work was alienating, Zaretsky
Rible Claims that the family was put on a pedestal because it apparently stood in
opposition terrible anonymous world of Commerce and Industry. The private life of the family provided
opportunities for satisfactions that were unavailable outside the walls of the home.
However, he believes that the family is unable to provide for the psychological and personal needs of
individuals. He says ‘it simply cannot meet the pressures of being the only refugee in a brutal
society’ family artificially separates and isolates personal life from other aspects of life. It might cushion
the effects of capitalism but it perpetuates the system and cannot compensate for the general alienation
produced by such a society.
He sees the family as a major prop to the capitalist economy. The capitalist system is based upon the
domestic labour of housewives who reproduce future generations of workers. He also believes that the
family has become a vital unit of consumption. The family consumes the products of capitalism and this
allows the bourgeoisie to continue producing surplus value. To Zaretsky, only socialism will end the
