FAD 2230 Chapter 1 01 07 2015 Chapter 1 Why Study Families and Other Close Relationships How do we define family Legal versus Social Science Definitions o Family A relationship by blood marriage or affection in which members may cooperate economically may care for any children and may consider their identity to be intimately connected to the larger group o U S Census def of family two or more people living together who are related by birth marriage or adoption Heterosexual or homosexual unmarried partners are excluded from this definition o Family of orientation family you are born into o Family of procreation family you are going to create when you get married o Fictive kin people that are not really related to you but the bonds are so close they might as well be related to you The functions of families o Marriage An institutional arrangement between persons to publicly recognize social and intimate bonds ALL SOCIETIES RECOGNIZE SOME SORT OF PUBLIC UNION All societies also have a way they all recognize marriage some kind of ceremony Marriage is a universal thing Anthropologist William Stephens definition o Socially legitimate sexual union o Public announcement o Undertaken with some idea of permanence o Assumed with a more or less explicit marriage contract Assumptions of marriage marriage contract o Spouses won t cheat on each other o No domestic violence o Help with the dishes o Etc The Functions of Families contd o Regulation of sexual behavior o Reproducing and socializing children o Property and inheritance o Economic cooperation o Social placement status and roles o Care warmth protection and intimacy Linking the Micro level and Macro level Perspectives on Families Micro level Focus on the individual in specific settings you and your family of orientation or family of procreation Macro level Focus on interconnectedness of marriage families and intimate relationships with the rest of society all the institutions that affect the micro level Family as a Social Institution o Social institution A major sphere of social life with a set of beliefs and rules that is organized to meet basic human needs Social status and families o Master status the role you most identify with for example White boy Black boy White girl Black girl You know without a doubt that person s gender and race by just looking at them Families are always changing Marriage patterns o Monogamy Marriage between one man and one woman the most traditional o Polygamy A system that allows for more than one spouse at a time gender unspecified Polygyny Form that allows men to have more than one wife illegal in the US but about 37 000 families practice this Common in middle east or Africa Polyandry When the woman has more than one husband RARE Find this case in more harsh environments Takes more than one man to support a family hunting and gathering food Patterns of authority o Patriarchy A form of social organization in which the norm or expectation is that men have a natural right to be in positions of authority over women still see pattern of that in our society USA is pushing for a more egalitarian society o Matriarchy A form of social organization in which the norm or expectation is that the power and authority in society would be vested in women NO DOCUMENTED MATRIARCHAL SOCIETIES Queen of England does not rule England there is parliament so England does not count o Egalitarian the expectation that power and authority are equally vested in both men and women Patterns of descent family o Bilateral traced through both male and female sides of the o Patrilineal lineal is traced exclusively or at least primarily through the man s family line Most are patrilineal societies o Matrilineal lineage is traced exclusively or primarily within women s families History of Family Life in the United States o Family life in Colonial America the whole family was in one place one tight unit o Industrialization Urbanization and Immigration gave rise to new trends in America such as people are commuting to work moving around the country leaving some family behind this was taking focus away from the family home o The Rise of the Modern Family The Twentieth Century Book Notes Traditional families husband wife and children all living together are declining in numbers while gay cohabitating but unmarried couples partnerships etc are increasing Nuclear families a family composed of adults and their children Extended families a family composed of parents children and other relatives such as grandparents Micro level factors Personal choices Behaviors Feelings Communication Decisions Constraints Values Macro level factors Culture History Power and inequality Social status including sex race ethnicity and social class Social movements and social change FAD 2230 Chapter 2 01 07 2015 Chapter 2 Social Status Sex Gender Race Ethnicity and Social Class The link between Private Experiences and Social Structure Social stratification The hierarchical ranking of categories of people within society Sociological imagination the recognition that our personal experiences are in large part shaped by forces within the larger society people with different social classes have different experiences Sex Gender and Patriarchy in reproduction Sex Biological difference between men and women and their role Gender Culturally and socially constructed differences associated with femininity and masculinity Sex and Gender Differences Androgyny Possessing both masculine and feminine traits in near equal proportion More successful than non androgynous people Gender Learning Gender Socialization Teaching the cultural norms associated with Agents of Socialization The primary groups that are responsible being male or female for our socialization o Parents Primary agents of socialization o Schools o Toys o Peers o Mass Media Female kids have the tendency to be seen and not heard in school Girls should be quiet and only talk if they have question If boy acts out they re just being boys but if girls act out they are a problem Race and Ethnicity The Population is Growing More Diverse o Race A category describing people who share real or perceived physical traits such as skin color o Ethnicity Shared cultural characteristics such as language place of origin dress food religion and other values o Ethnic Group A group of people who share specific cultural features o Minority Groups A category of people who have less power than the dominant group and who are subject to unequal
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