GROUP 3

The Family and the Household

Family
◦ It is considered the basic unit of social organization. It is made up of a group of
individuals who are linked together by marriage, blood relation, or adoption.
Household
◦ It is consisting of one or more persons living in the same house, condominium or
apartment. They are may or may not be related.
Different Definitions of Family According to Sociologists and Anthropologists
GEORGE PETER MURDOCK
Family is a social group characteristics common residence economic cooperation and
reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved
sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults’.
KINGSLEY DAVIS
Family is a group of individuals wherein the relationship is based on the consanguinity and
kinship.
TALCOTT PARSONS
Family is a factory that develops and produces human personalities.
BRONISLAW MALINOWSKI
Family is an institution that passes down the cultural traditions of a society to the next
generation.
Assumption of Major Sociological Perspectives about Family
Structural Functionalism Theory
Family is important because it performs different roles for society.
 Agent of socialization.
 Provides emotional and practical support for family members.
 Controls sexual activity and sexual reproduction.
 Provides family members with social identity.
Conflict Theory
Family is a cause of social inequality because it strengthens economic inequality and allows the
continuity of patriarchy.
Symbolic Interactionist Theory
The family members’ interaction can produce a shared understanding of their situations.
FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD ARE TWO RELATED CONCEPTS
Family within a household
United Nations (2014)
- "those members of the household who are related, to a specified degree, through blood,
adoption, or marriage”.
HOUSEHOLD
One-Person Household
"an arrangement in which one person makes provision for his/her own food/other
essentials for living without combining with any other person to form part of a multi-person
household"
Multi-Person Household
"group of two or more persons living together who make common provision for
food/other essentials for living
NUCLEAR FAMILY AND EXTENDED FAMILY
Nuclear Family
A type of family that is made up a group of people who are united by social ties. It’s
usually made up of two adults and their socially recognized children. It is made up of a married
couple and their biological or adopted child or children.
Extended Family
A type of family whose members go beyond the nuclear family made up of parents and
their offspring.
Blended or Reconstituted Families
A type of family where the parents have a child or children from previous marital
relationships but all the members stay and congregate to form a new family unit. It is sometimes
called a step family, reconstituted family or a complex family.
Kinship of Politics: Political Dynasties and Alliances
Politics – have also been influenced by kinship relations.
Political Dynasties – most politicians (in public offices and gov't positions) are relatives.
Political Dynasty Bill of the House of Representatives – there are no enabling laws that will
prevent it and prohibit politicians from exercising it until the present time. Despite the 1987
Philippine Constitution, political dynasties continue to exist when...."two or more individuals
who are related within the second degree of consanguinity”.
Political Alliances – political parties tend to align and forge cooperation with other stronger
parties to ensure victory in elections or guarantee the passage of a legislation.
- Having alliances, politicians would continue to receive more funds, resources and
support from the ruling party/administration party.

Reflections
James Jerome Figueroa

Family is considering the basic unit of social organization. It is made up of a group of

individuals who are linked together by marriage, blood relations, or adoption. It constitutes a
single household that interrelates with each other and performs the social roles of a husband,
wife, mother, father, brother and sister. That has different categories, classification and ideas
based on the family and the household.

Based on the information that was gathered by the researchers, there are different
definitions of family according to sociologist and anthropologists, George Murdock, Talcott
Parson, Kingsley Davis and Bronslaw Malinowski they defined and characterize a family
differently. And the family are also interpreted differently by structural functionalists, conflicts
theorists and symbolic interactionist theory. And there are two concepts for the household the
one-person household that makes provision for his or her essentials and the multi person
household is a group of two or more persons who are common provision for their essentials.
Also there are types of family and households, the nuclear family and extended family which the
two is considered a group of individuals who are commonly being together in a one house, but
the extended family is an extension of family that the other relatives joined the party. The
blended family is the family which has a step sister or a step brother that came from the previous
martial relationships that often called, step family. And the Kinship of Politics, I don't know
what's the connect to the family, but based on my theory and the study that conducted, this
kinship politics is considered as a part of family and household because there is a family that has
dynasty in the field of Politics to straighten their alliances of the ruling party.

The family and household was categorized, interpreted, and defined by the sociologist,
anthropologists and the researchers. And learned that their definitions are based on their theory,
and experience. But they have a wrong in their theory, they don't tell about love. Love is the only
ingredient to make a family strong. So for me family is a group of people who lives in a life that
Love's each other. And lived in a place called home not house.
Mozart Endoma
A family is commonly defined as a group of people who share the same blood, or linked
by marriage or adoption. Each family member performs the role of a husband, wife, father,
mother, brother, or sister. However, the word 'family' may be just a single word, but it is defined
or interpreted differently in many ways.

It came to my knowledge that Sociologists and Anthropologists have different definitions

to a family. One define family as a social group that share common residence. Some think a
family's relationship is based on consanguinity and kinship, while others interpret it as a factory
that develops human personalities. Other than that, a family may also be explained according to
the different theoretical perspectives. I learned that family and household are two different
words, yet correlated. A household contains one or more people living together in a single house
who provide their needs for food or other essentials for living, while a family in a household has
members who are related by blood, adoption or marriage. In other words, families are also
households, but not all households are families. I also discovered the three types of family: the
nuclear family, extended family, and the blended or reconstituted family. A nuclear family is a
group of people united by social ties, consisting of two adults and their children. It becomes an
extended family if a nuclear family lives with other relatives in one household. On the other
hand, a blended or reconstituted family, sometimes called a step family, is a type in which the
parents live with a child from other marital relationship.

For me, the information’s stated above are not the only meaning to the word, family. It is
because each individual defines a family differently from the others. They may interpret it
according to their perspectives or experiences. Also, there are people who recognize others as
their family, even though they are not related by blood and don't live together in one household.
Which is why I think anyone can be considered a family as long as a person feels safe when
he/she is with them.
Ma. Cristina Manforte

Family and household are considered as a social group of community. Which each one
belongs to have a mutual communication with others. The group of people that are united for
societies where spokes about the differences of situations and circumstances. The differences
between the distinction of family and household to the community. Wherein the household are
groups of people that bound to a place while families are groups of people that bound for one
another through moral commitment and have regularly relationships with each other. The
concepts of family and household depend upon on social, cultural and economic factors that
modify among the countries.

For the anthropologists and sociologists, the family has a different meaning. Which they
defined that family is a group of people related to one another by bloods, sexualities and human
being where involves to the social institutions of community. Likewise, a household is united by
one or more people who live in one house. However, not all household contains families, it
maybe bonds and live together but there not the same thing. Moreover, families also differ
between nuclear family; a bonds of family with consisting of two parents and their child, and
extended family; a family that includes the grandparent, aunts, uncles, a cousins and other
relatives that are living in one roof. Around all the nation, both of us are families in a different
way.

I’ve realized that people are both connected to a family and household, who are related
about in their social life of the society. We even have different household but each one of us
considered as families due to we have been shown a connectivity with each other. Family and
household refers to persons that are ties together, share residences and have social relationships.
There are many different types of family in the society, we can define it in a different way,
understanding and perspective. Families definition is now expanded, the definition of family to
society is changing due to there are different types of families here in the community. Your
personal belief among on what could be family is, can only defined your perception in regards of
family for the society.
Adrian Madrona

A family is a group of people who are related to each other. It is considered the basic unit
of social organization. It is made of people who are related by marriage, blood and adoption each
performing the roles of father, mother, brother and sister. As time goes by, a family became a
word with different meanings.
I learned that there are different definitions of family. From sociologists and
anthropologist, from structural functionalist, conflict and symbol interactionist, all of them
defines family differently. After studying about family, it came to me that families and
household are two related concepts and according to United Nation, a family whose members of
the household are related through blood, marriage and adoption while household can be a one-
person household where one person can provide for his own or multi person household where
two or more persons can provide while living together. I also noticed that there are types of
family and it is nuclear family, extended family and blended family. Nuclear family are group of
people united by social ties like married couple having biological or adopted child. Extended
family are made of parents and their offspring like a married couple living with relatives. And
the blended family or sometimes called stepfamily where the parents have a child from the
previous marital relationship. It often where divorced parents remarry while some do not but still
lives in one house. Politics have also influenced families in the Philippines. There is political
dynasty where elected politicians are relatives. There are also political alliances where political
parties cooperate with another political party to guarantee victory in the election.

I realized that there are types of family having different situations. Also different people
can give different meaning or interpretation to the word family, it might be based from their
experience or from what they observed and learned. Some might even consider a person a family
even if they don’t have relationship through blood, marriage and adoption. Just having a strong
bond with that person is enough to make someone a part of a family. Having a family is the best
thing we can have so we must cherish our family for not everyone has one.
James Karl Sambajon

The family is one of the small unit of the social organization. It is made up of a group of
individual who linked together by marriage, blood, relations or adaptation. It performs for social
role of husband, wife, mother, father, brother and sister.

In this topic there are so many kind of family. First is nuclear family, nuclear family is a
normal family that is usually made of two adults, the father and mother living with their children.
A nuclear family can be also called extended family if other relatives especially our grandparents
are also living together in the same house. And also not every have a happy family and a perfect
family because sometimes they experience problem especially by financial and others. Some of
the couples got divorce and get married or live in with another man or women a live together
with their precious children, you call it step family or blended family.

We have different family in our places and we have different definition or kind of family.
But no matter what happen family is still a family.