An in-depth and comprehensive summary of theme 1 (semester 1)
Includes slideshows from the lectures.
These notes allow for a detailed understanding and deep understanding.
Important concepts are written in colour to make it even easier to study from.
FAMILIES IN A GOLBAL PERSPECTIVE:
According to the United Nations, family is defined as:
1. Men & women of full age, without any limitations due to race, nationality or religion,
have the right to marry and found a family.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending
spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to
protection by society and the states.
A household is a “group of persons sharing a home or living space, who aggregate and share
their income… regularly taking their meals together.”
NOTE: A household may be made up of one person, a nuclear family, an extended family
or a group of unrelated people.
Family = “a group of people who are related to one another by bonds of blood, marriage, or
adoption and who live together, form and economic unit, and bear and raise children.”
BUT A MORE ACCURATE DEFINITION;
Family = “relationships in which people live together with commitment, form an economic unit
and care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group.”
The sociological imagination can be used to see how our personal experiences are related to
the larger happenings in society.
-Families are impacted by external forces within society.
-Such as economic & political developments.
-Micro level: Each of us has a biography based on our experiences within our family.
-Macro level: Our families are embedded in a specific social context that has a major
effect on them.
, FAMILY STRUCTURE & CHARACTERISTICS:
-In preindustrial societies the primary form of social organization is through kinship ties.
Kinship = A social network of people based on common ancestry, marriage or adoption.
-People can cooperate so that they can acquire the basic necessities of life (including
food & shelter) (cooperation = necessary for survival)
-Also, a means by which property is transferred, goods are produced and distributed,
and power is allocated.
-In industrialised societies other institutions fulfill some of the functions that kinship previously
did.
-Economic systems = the production & distribution of goods and services.
-Families therefore serve fewer and more specialized purposes.
a) Families of Orientation & Procreation:
Family of orientation = The family in which a person is born and in which early
socialisation usually takes place.
-Most people are related by blood ties, but those who are adopted have a legal
tie that is patterned after a blood relationship.
Family of procreation = The family that a person forms by having or adopting children.
-Both legal & blood ties are found here.
-Legal = the marriage of the husband & wife.
-Relationship between parent & child = legal or blood ties.
However, many gay men and lesbian women have ‘families we choose’.
-Include blood and legal ties but also includes;
-Fictive kin = persons who are not actually related by blood but who are
accepted as family members.
b) Extended & Nuclear Families:
Extended family = Unit composed of relatives in addition to parents and children who
live in the same household (include grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc.)
-Family members share resources.
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