Designed by Karen Saucier Lundy to supplement the textbook Families in Context: Sociological Perspectives, by Gene H. Starbuck and Karen Saucier Lundy. For publication information about the text: http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=409768
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“If the family were a container, it would be a
nest, an enduring nest, loosely woven,
expansive and open.” Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Define family: not so easy is it? Our ideas and images influence study of
family Nuclear family: man woman child
(nucleus=smallest unit) Conjugal unit: “to join”
Unrelated persons as members
Basics of defining a family
Extended family – 3 generations
Two different TYPES of nuclear units:
Family of orientation
Family of procreation
So what has changed?
Stepfamilies
Reconstituted
Blended
Common criteria for determining “family” status
•Households are declining in US.
•What does this mean? (Table 1-1)
Purpose (functions) Shared values Traditional values vs non traditional values Norms (rules and guidelines)
Formal – written socially regulated mechanisms
Informal – norms not enforced as strictly
Pronatalism
Role = part we play Script = proscribed behaviors and ‘are’. Functional = micro and micro Structural definition – US Census
Share housing unit, united by adoption, blood, or marriage.
Kin groups
Fictive kin
Rite of passage = wedding Incest taboo Pronuptialism Common law marriage Alternatives to marriage: Nayak, Kibbutz
Ideal type – Max Weber Dichotomy Continuum Gender: power, tasks, residential,
inheritance. Authority: patriarchy and matriarchy Power vs authority in marriage
Descent Inheritance Residence
Patrilocal
Matrilocal
Neolocal
Assignment of tasks based on gender Androgyny (andro=male) (gyny = female) Types of Gender Roles (John Money)
Sex-irruducible gender roles
Sex-influenced roles
Sex-arbitrary roles
The family in decline debate Pessimistic position
Broken, cannot be fixed
Less influential, other institutions have taken over family functions
Divorce and parent-less children
Post modern/post nuclear family: matrilocal.
Increased individualism vs familism
We need a new structure for the family Marxist view Feminism Increased importance of family and marriage We have nostalgic view of 50s family that
may have never existed.
"Glad it changed" optimists on the family decline debate are likely to cite which of the following in defense of their position?
A. The high divorce rate.
B. High rates of out-of-wedlock births.
C. Increased individual freedom, especially for women.
D. Both (a) and (b) above.
E. None of the above.
Which of the following terms is MOST clearly true as a descriptor of the United States today?
A. Patrilineal
B. Egalitarian
C. Patrilocal
D. Matrifocal
E. Neolocal
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