Wednesday, April 7, 1999
Announcements:

• Tests will come back next week most likely

1. Marriage and the Family

1. Family – relatively permanent social group of 2 or more people related by blood, marriage. Americans define family as a group of people who love and care for each other. Family affects us the most; it is a timeless entity – In Kosovo it is a tragedy that these families are being broken up. They are source of emotional and monetary support.
2. Functions of the family in Sweden

1. Weakening of the family – there is a high divorce rate and 52% of all births are out of marriage.
2. The government is responsible as Democratic Socialism gives women monetary support and basically takes away the responsibility of having a child.

1. Two types of family

1. Nuclear family – conjugal family – is based on marriage. A feature of modern industrialized societies

1. Spouses and children form a core relationship
2. Uncles and Aunts become marginalized – there is no decisive role
3. Legal lifelong sexually exclusive monogamous relationship
4. Division of Labor – In America
5. 2 types of nuclear families:

1. family of orientation – the family you are born into, it gives you an orientation of society
2. family of procreation – family you start when you marry and have kids

1. Extended family – linked to economy – Consanguine – related by blood. Grandfather, Grandmother, kids all under the same roof with the grandfather as the authority. It is a unit of three or more generations living together. Agrarian society, economic cooperation, and loyalty to previous generations.
2. Families are adaptive institutions – they adjust to different situations

1. Rules of Descent

1. Patrilineal – property and descent have passed on through father to son – only males can inherit
2. Matrilineal – Inheritance, property passes on from mother to daughter. Example: Nayer Family living in India – the head of the family is a woman. Men are not responsible for raising the kids - the grandmother or oldest female raises the kids. This is one of the most advanced parts of India because women are educated and thus have low fertility rates.
3. Bilineal – Women still take husband’s name but hyphen it with their maiden name. Occurs is western nations

1. Rules of Residence

1. Matrilocal – husband moves in with wife’s family for economic reasons. Example: Hopi Indians
2. Patrilocal – couple moves into husbands family
3. Neolocal – Independent of parents when they get married.

1. Family Authority

1. Matriarchy – power vested in oldest female Example: Nayer family, African American women
2. Patriarchy – Power vested in oldest male
3. Egalitarianism – Shared power, although there is never perfect equality

1. Number of Marriage Mates

1. Monogamy – one
2. Polygamy – two or more partners; group marriage. Example: Mormons – 5,000 families in Utah practice polygamy although it is illegal in the USA.

1. Polygyny (M + F + F + F) Islamic, African countries; Mormons all practice Polygyny. 75% of all societies allow Polygyny; tied to the economy
2. Polyandry (F + M + M + M) – when a female marries a brother she marries all brothers. Examples: India, Tibetan Buddhists, Todas and Maraquesan Islanders. Fraternal Polyandry – social fatherhood, not biological. For economic reasons, resources and land are limited. Division of Labor – want to keep the land in tact. It is like 4 fraternity brothers marrying one female.

1. Theoretical Analysis of Family

1. Functionalist Perspective

1. Procreation – populate the Earth
2. Regulate sexual behavior
3. Promotes stability – source of emotional stability
4. Assigns a status
5. Orientation – socialization into society

1. Conflict Perspective

1. Conflicts over value resources (sex, time money)
2. Conflict over power – who controls who, who has authority
3. Social arrangement that benefits men more than women. Fredrick Engels – men control women because they own private property
4. Bourgeoisie – Men, Proletariat – Women
5. Men subjugate women – women are submissive