Feb 19 2004 LECTURE 5 DEFINITION OF THE FAMILY I Read Coontz What we really miss about the 1950s 33 50 Giele Decline of the Family Skolnick 57 75 Begin Wolf 1 22 I It s hard to define the family A Family is the intersection of many enterprises it does lots of stuff accomplishes lots of things 1 B What are some Gough s universal definition of family a definition that applies to all societies a A married couple or other group of adult kinsfolk who cooperate economically and in the upbringing of children and all or most of whom share a common dwelling 1 b Why is this such a convoluted difficult definition 1 II So much variability cross culturally has to be taken into account Taking certain perspectives on the family is one way to loosely define it A First perspective as a social unit 1 A set of capacities a 1 Social roles 1 Specific roles I paint the woodwork my husband paints the ceilings 2 General role the combination of specific roles that make up the role wife a Roles may not be perfectly logical consistent b Examples Kathleen Gough 1975 The origin of the family In Rayna R Reiter ed Toward an Anthropology of Women New York Monthly Review 52 Definition of the Family 07 03 04 2 3 A set of roles makes up an institution a 4 2 The institution of marriage the institution of the family And sets of institutions makes up a society a social system As we grow up we learn how roles are defined we learn rules of behavior a Culture is in part rules that define how you act and how you see yourself your identity b Brief definition of culture 1 Learned taught 2 Shared 3 Normative 3 Family roles are crucial because a lot of necessary work learning interactions etc occur in the family 4 What general roles are peculiar to the family a Husband wife etc 1 b Mother father c Child daughter son sister brother d Secondary roles grandparent mother in law etc 1 5 Not professor We can no longer define the family as residing together What are the sources of role strain a Change in the larger society b Or built in contradictions within the family 3 c Example ideas of fairness in modern mainstream American families 1 2 6 a Is this fair Doesn t it make siblings compete And feel resentful when it doesn t seem fair b A student once said this practice was stopped in her family because of a younger mentally retarded sibling c The new arrangement was that the whole family went out to dinner at end of school year job well done That fairness ought to be gender blind is increasingly subscribed to a Daughters increasingly get as much support to go to college as sons b Examples of shifts Of areas where fairness is still not gender blind Another question related to stresses and strains is there a lack of fit between the norms in the family and elsewhere a b Outright contradictions 1 For example payment for work done versus allowance versus birthday gifts 2 What is the distinction How do family roles and values differ from roles in contexts where work is paid for Housework how is it like work done on the outside and how not 1 B Getting paid for good grades Lots of stresses there Second perspective Family as a kinship unit 1 Where roles are defined by reference to kinship descent or marriage 4 a What is kinship The answer is not immediately obvious 1 b Cultures vary in terms of how they define who is kin to whom a E g types of lineality b Cousin marriage Catholic Church doesn t allow first cousin marriages other societies do even say that marriage between certain types of first cousins is the ideal What are the basic axes of kinship for us 1 By blood a b 2 Father mother sibling 1 We believe we are related by chromosomes etc 2 We re related to our parents but not to our spouses 3 Other cultures see things very differently What s a blood brother ceremony By law a Marriage a legal arrangement has to happen b Even marriages made in heaven have to be made on earth too 1 Why is this important a The theme of the opera Madama Butterfly b She thought it was a real marriage he was ethnocentric and racist knew from the beginning he d choose a proper white wife 5 c 3 Legitimacy is not so important now a We have some famous illegitimate intentionally so births in this country b But it used to be very important c The Supremes Love child 1 c She kills herself when he and his new wife come to claim her son Listen to the song s lyrics to understand the connections often made between illegitimacy and other negative factors Features of marriage found widely 1 Joins 2 kinship groups 2 Allocates rights and duties a The roles of husband and wife 3 Regulates sexual activity 4 Legitimates offspring a Who is to be considered the father In our society traditionally no marriage no father in some respects b The Skolnick introduction says this might not be true anymore c What is a natural child d For us sexual intercourse is the prime symbol of marriage e Why we giggle at polygyny at the idea of womanwoman marriage in parts of E Africa 6 1 2 But these are not lesbian relationships f And why marrying a ghost or stick seems so weird g Because for us blood is a matter of birth birth a matter of procreation procreation a matter of sexual intercourse h It s helpful to look at exceptions 1 Jesus Christ 2 Different for Catholics Mary is seen to have remained a virgin all her life and she came to be seen as immaculately conceived 3 Pay attention to the lyrics of The Cherry Tree Carol next Christmas a A bit of a soap opera b Joseph tells Mary let he who is the father of your child get cherries for you c Jesus spoke from the womb bend down that my mother might have some cherries d A contest of power between father and son which the son wins and more indirectly between social father and biological father God e Note that Mary doesn t have the power to make the cherry tree bend down she has to get them from a male Joseph and then Jesus Types of families according to kinship relations a Nuclear b Polygamous 7 3 C c Extended family d Matrifocal family e Stem family So the right questions to ask are a What s the kinship system in that society b What s marriage in that society c What things constrain or strain these Third perspective family as process 1 Family as a phase in the process of reproduction a III Relatively long phase 2 How enduring is it 3 What causes its consolidation and fragmentation There are 3 other possible perspectives A B …