Family

Family is the simplest and the most elementary form of society. It is the most basic of all social
groupings. The word ‘Family’ has been taken over from Latin word ‘Famulus’ which means a
servant. In Roman Law the word denoted a group of producers and slaves and other servants as
well members connected by common descent or marriage. Thus originally, family consisted of a
man and woman with a child or children and servants.

Family is a more or less durable association of husband and wife with or without child or of a
man or woman alone with children. –Nimkoff.

General characteristics of the family

1. A mating relationship: A family comes into existence when a man and woman establish
mating relation between them.
2. Selection of mates: Wife or husband may be selected by parents or by the elders, or the
choice may be left to the wishes of the individuals concerned.
3. A form of marriage: The mating relationship is established through the institution of
marriage.
4. A system of nomenclature: Every family is known or recognized by a distinctive name.
5. A way of tracing the descent: Every family has its own mode of tracing the descent.
Descent refers to the social recognition of biological relationship between individuals.
Descent may be traced through the male line or through the female line.
6. A common residence: Family requires a home or a household to live in. after the
marriage the wife may reside in husband’s parental home or she may stay in her parental
home or both of them may establish a separate home of their own.
7. An economic provision: Family provides for the satisfaction of the economic needs of
its members.

Functions of the family

Functions of the family may be classified into two categories, (1) primary functions and (2)
secondary functions. These are discussed below.

Primary functions

Some of the functions of family are basic to its continued existence. They are referred to as
essential or primary functions. These are explained below.

i. Stable satisfaction of sex need: Sex drive is powerful in human beings. Man is
susceptible to sexual stimulation throughout his life. The sex need is irresistible also. It
motivates man to seek an established basis of its satisfaction. Family regulates the sexual
behavior of man by marriage. Thus it provides for the satisfaction of the sex need for
man.
 ii. Reproduction or procreation: Reproductive activity is carried on by all lower and
higher animals. But it is an activity that needs control or regulation. The process of
reproduction is institutionalized in the family.
iii. Production and rearing of the child: The family gives the individual his life and a
chance to survive.
iv. Provision of home: Family provides the home for its members. The desire for home is
strongly felt in men and women. Children are born and brought up in homes.
v. Family- an instrument of culture transmission and an agent of socialization: The
family serves as an instrument of culture transmission. The family guarantees not only
the biological continuity of the human race but also the continuity of the society of which
it is a part. It transmits ideas ideologies, folkways and mores, customs and traditions,
belief and values from one generation to the next.
The family is an agent of socialization also. Socialization is the process whereby one
internalizes the norms of one’s groups so that a distinct ‘self’ emerges unique to the
individual. The family indoctrinates the child with values, the morals, beliefs, and ideals
of the society.
vi. Status ascribing function: The family also performs the functions of status ascription
and societal identification for the individual. Statuses are of two kinds: ascribed and
achieved. The family provides the ascribed statuses.
People recognize us by our names, and our names are given to us by our family. Here, the
family is the source of our societal identification. Various statuses are initially ascribed
by our families. Our ethnic status, our nationality status, our religious status, our class
status and sometimes our political status, our educational status are all conferred upon us
by our families. Of course, these may be changed later.
vii. Affectional functional: Man has his physical as well as mental needs. He requires the
fulfillment of both of these needs. Family also provides the mental or the emotional
satisfaction and security to its individual members. The individual first experiences
affection in his parental family as parents and siblings offer him love, sympathy and
affection.

Secondary functions of family

In addition to the above described essential or primary functions the family performs some
secondary or non-essential functions in some way which are explained below.

i. Economic functions: The family fulfills the economic needs of its members. This
has been the traditional function of family. Previously family was an economic unit.
The family members used to work together in family or in farms for the production of
goods. But today the family members do not work together at home. They are
engaged in different economic activities outside the home. The process of
industrialization has affected family. The center of production has moved from home
to factory. The family has become more a consuming unit than a producing one. It
 members are busy with “earning wages” rather than with “making a living”. Family is
thus slowly transferring its economic functions to the external agencies.
ii. Educational functions: The family provides the basis for the child’s formal
learning. In spite of great changes, the family still gives the child his basic training in
the social attitudes and habits important to adult participation in social life.
iii. Religious functions: The family is a center for the religious training of the children.
The children learn from their parents various religious virtues. Previously homes were
the centers to teach the children the religious values, moral precepts, ways to praying
etc. Even today, the foundations are laid down in the family.
iv. The recreational functions: At one time, recreation was largely family based.
Recreation is now increasingly organized outside the family. Modern recreation is not
designed for family-wide participation.

Types or forms of the family

Sociologists have classified family considering different factors. A few classifications are given
below.

1. On the basis of marriage: Family has been classified into three major types: i)
Polygamous family, ii) Polyandrous family and iii) Monogamous family
2. On the basis of the nature of residence: Family can be classified into three main forms:
i) Family of matrilocal residence, ii) Family of patrilocal residence and iii) Family of
changing residence.
3. On the basis of ancestry or descent: Family can be classified into two main types: i)
Matrilineal family and ii) Patrilineal family.
4. On the basis of the nature of the authority: Family can be classified into two main
types: i) Matriarchal family and ii) Patriarchal family.
5. On the basis of size or structure and the depth of generations: Family can be
classified into two main types: i) the Nuclear or the single unit family and ii) the Joint or
the undivided family.
6. On the basis of the nature of relations among the family members: Family can be
classified into two main types: i) the conjugal family which consists of adult members
among whom there exists sex relationship and ii) consanguine family which consists of
members among whom there exists what is known as blood relationship such as brother
and sister, father and son, etc.