November 2022

Ayaz Ahmaed
2021-342-024

Institution of Family
The word ‘family’ has been taken from the Latin word ‘familia’ meaning ‘household’. The
word denotes the members connected by common descent. The family is one of the most
primary groups in society. The family is a universal and the oldest among the other social
institutions. The family is an institution in this sense that it gives the framework of
relationship which is guided by certain rules and procedures which are at the root of the
family. The meaning of family we can understand better by understanding the following
definitions:
 Family is a more or less durable association of husband and wife with or without
children.
 It is a group of persons whose relations to one another are based upon consanguinity
and who are therefore kin to one another.
 Family is a group defined by a sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to
provide for the procreation and upbringing of children.
 It is a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation and
reproduction.
 Family is a biological social unit composed of husband, wife and children.
 Family is the basic primary group and the natural matrix of personality.
 Family is a system of relationships existing between parents and children.
The family is a group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood or adoption constituting a
simple household interacting and intercommunication with each other in their respective
social roles of husband and wife, father and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister
creating a common culture.
The salient feature or characteristics of the family in society are as follows:
 Universality: Family is a universal social unit and existed in every age and in every
society. Every person is a member of one family or the other.
 Financial Provision: Every family makes some kind of financial provision so that all the
basic requirements of the family can be met of the members of family.
 Limited Size and Nucleus: Family is considered to be smallest kinship group and
basically made up of a husband, wife and their unmarried children. It is limited in size
and its membership is confined to those who are related by either marriage (these are also
referred to as affiances or by blood ties called consanguine). There are joint families or
extended families, as well, which have at least three generations of parents and their
children along with their own elderly parents and sons and their spouses living together.
 Emotional Basis: The members of family are emotionally bound to each other and share
pleasures and pains with one another. The integration of bonds in a family is mutual
affection and blood ties and they provide love, care and protection to each other.
 Social Regulations: In a family, the members are trained through socialization to follow
social norms, customs and social conduct in the process of socialization. Among the
family members interrelationship and interactions are guided by social and legal
regulations.
 The nuclear family of husband wife and their unmarried children grow into a joint family
when the children grow up and get married and have their own children. The family then
becomes joint till the children leave or parents die.
 A Fixed or common Habitation: Every family has a fixed place of habitation and
members usually share a common residence in which husband, wife, their children and
other relatives live together.
Sociologists have tried to divide functions of family differently. Ogburn and Nimkoff divided
function of family into six categories. These six categories are: 1) Affectional function, 2)
Economic function, 3) Recreational function, 4) Protective function, 5) Religious function,
and 6) Educational function. These functions are:
1) Satisfaction of sex needs or Biological Functions – The first and foremost biological
functions of family is the satisfaction of sexual desire in a greater degree between
husband and wife in an orderly and socially approved manner.
2) Production and rearing of children – The next important biological function of family is
procreation. Family is an institution par excellence for rearing of children and gets a new
generation which inherits the family legacy.
3) Provision of home and minimum basic facilities or Economic Function – Family fulfils
some basic facilities and needs of its members to a certain extent by providing them food,
clothing and shelter.
4) Giving love and sympathy or Psychological Function – All members of family are
supposed to provide each other emotional support, sympathetic and caring attitude,
stability and security to its members. For example, children require love and affection
from their parents, husband and wife want love from each other, love and affection to the
elderly from the family members and so on.
5) Socialization – The most important function of family is socialization. Through the
family, a child is able to learn language, customs, traditions, etiquette, norms and value,
beliefs and social roles of the society. It is the family that socializes the new generation
and transmits the moral ideas of group to its members.
6) Protection of young – The essential function of family is to protect and give physical care
to every member formally right from the new-born baby to the elderly without their
facing any risk and danger.
Types of family
Normally the basic unit of social structure contains the two primary links of kinship. These
are of parenthood and siblingship. In simple 137 Family, Marriage and Kinship terms, a
family usually comprises various combinations and permutations of these relationships. In the
Indian context, we generally speak of the contrast between nuclear and joint family types. A
classification of families into joint and nuclear types is usually based on the way in which
families are organized. For instance, the most popular definition of a nuclear family is to refer
to it as a group consisting of a man, his wife and their unmarried children. The joint family is
commonly defined as the nuclear family plus all kin belonging to the side of husband or wife
living in one homestead.
These two types of family systems have to be looked at as something interrelated in a
developmental cycle. The structure of a family changes over a time period in terms of size,
composition, role and status of persons, the family and societal norms and sanctions. There
probably is rarely a family in India, which remains perpetually nuclear in composition. Often
additional members like an aged parent or unmarried brothers and sisters may come to live
with a man, his wife and unmarried children. The nuclear family then, is a stage in a cycle
with other structural types of families. Even when certain forces have enjoined the
establishment of nuclear household, for a relatively long period of time, the ritual, economic
and sentimental link with relatives who compose a joint family are often maintained.
The significance of nuclear family are:
 Nuclear family refers to a couple with or without children.
 Supplemented nuclear family indicates a nuclear family plus one or more unmarried,
separated, or widowed relatives of the parents, other than their unmarried children.
 Subnuclear family is identified as a fragment of a former nuclear family for instance a
widow/widower with her/his unmarried children or siblings (unmarried or widowed or
separated or divorced) living together.
 Single person household
 Supplemented subnuclear family refers to a group of relatives, members of a formerly
complete nuclear family along with some other unmarried, divorced or widowed relative
who was not a member of the nuclear family. For instance, a widow and her unmarried
children may be living together with her widowed mother-in-law. In the Indian context, it
is easy to find all these types of family. However, in terms of societal norms and values,
these types relate to the joint family system.
The significance of joint family are:
 Commensality: Most of the studies of joint family use commensality (eating together) as
a defining criterion. The joint family is the hearth group; members cook and eat food
from the same kitchen.
 Common Residence: In some studies the joint family as the residential family group is
stressed. Though it is possible to find a joint family having the same hearth but not
sharing the same dwelling or vice versa, by and large commensality and common
residence are taken as essential ingredients of jointness.
 Joint Ownership of Property: Some scholars have regarded joint ownership of property or
coparcenary as the essence of jointness, irrespective of the type of residence and
commensality. In legal terms, this is the most crucial factor used for defining a joint
family.
 Cooperation and Sentiment: Scholars like I.P. Desai (1964) and K. M. Kapadia (1958)
point out that jointness should be looked in functional terms. A functionally joint family
lays stress on fulfilment of obligations towards kin.
 Ritual Bonds: The ritual bonds of a joint family are considered to be an important
component of jointness. A joint family, thus, is bound together by periodic propitiation of
the dead ancestors. The members perform a ‘shraddha’ ceremony in which the senior
male member of the joint family propitiates his dead father’s or mother’s spirit, offering it
the ‘pinda’ (balls of cooked rice) on behalf of all the members.
Power and Authority
a. A patriarchal family is a family structure in which authority is held by the eldest male
(usually the father).
b. A matriarchal family is a family structure in which authority is held by the eldest female
(usually the mother).
c. Blended family: spouses and their children from former marriages live as a single nuclear
family.
d. Stem family: only one child after marriage continues to live with his parents. His siblings
must leave after they marry.
By Marriage:
 Endogamy -- marriage between people of the same social category
 Exogamy -- marriage between people of different social groups.
 Polygamy -- marriage uniting three or more people. There are two types of polygamy.
 Polygyny --in which a man may be married to more than one woman at the same time.
 Polyandry-- much less common, in which a woman may have two or more husbands
simultaneously.
Residential Patterns:
 Patrilocal -- married couple live with their husbands family
 Matrilocal --married couple live with their wife’s family
 Neolocal -- married couple lives apart from both spouses families.