Sociologyl 8

Sociology
By
Ebrahim Bin Najam
Lecture No. 8
Hello guys, so in the last lecture we have taken a look at the types of mobility and
social inequalities.
In this lecture we are going to study family as seen through the eyes
of sociology. Now what is a family? A comprehensive definition would be “ A
distinct group in society whose members are related to each other by tie of
marriage or blood and who support each other economically and emotionally.” A
pretty long definition don’t you think? Well, that is because there are so many
aspects of family that we have to consider due to the existence of different types
of families which we will study now.
A family in society is a group which produces the young and
helps “feed” the society and plays a very important role of training new members
of the society so that they can act as working members useful for the different
roles society has for them and will instill in them through socialization. This is
what the functionalists think the family is, they also think that the family is natural
and universal; this means that family exists in all societies and is necessary for the
proper functioning of any society, in turn the society celebrates and replenishes
the concept of family by marking the different phases which mark the significance
of family i.e birthdays, marriage and death anniversaries, weddings etc. Societies
obviously play a very important function to keep society functioning.
Marxism and Feminism hold completely opposite views.
Marxism views family as the source of all inequalities in society. Marx believes
that family provided workers for labour and this ‘free” labour, the expenses of
whose grooming were bore by the family, worked for the advantage of the
Bourgeoisie.
So, that was a brief outlook of the two major theories in this
issue, now we will get back to families and discuss the types of families. Families
are of four main types:
1. The first and the most obvious type, at least in our minds, is the NUCLEAR
FAMILY which consists of both parents who belong to different sexes
along with one or more children. This type of family is mostly found in
modern industrial societies, as well as in most TV Commercials.
2. The second type is that of EXTENDED FAMILY which consists of the basic
nuclear unit alongwith one or more relatives such as an auncle, aunt or
cousin. Three-generational families( where grand parents and grandsons
live together) also comes under this type.
3. The third type is SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES where only one spouse lives
alongwith his or her children, the spouse could be either male or female.
4. The fourth type is RECONSTITUTED FAMILY where bothe the spouses have
married before and are now in their second or third marriages and any
children present are from their previous marriages.
So now that we have sufficiently gone on to talk about the family
types lets once again see the functionalist perspective on family. Now the
functionalists believe that family is a function and using it the society socializes its
young teaching them the norms, the values and the primary socialization
necessary for making them able members of society.
Talcott Parsons has gone on further to outline two basic
functions of family. Talcott says that the family’s two basic functions are:
1. To reproduce and socialize children.
2. To maintain and stabilize adult personalities
Both the above points indicate tht Parsons views the family as a unit
where the parents can fulfill their carnal desires lawfully and each member of the
family can lean back to the family for emotional and economic support.
The male teaches the instrumental role to the male offspring,
teaching him practical and outdoor things. Taking him out to football games and
teaching him to ride bicycle and later on to drive, this instills in a male a quality of
domination and control, of aggression and power. Whereas the femal is taught by
her mother to look after household matters and other domesticated tasks that
women are more suited for like child-bearing and fieldwork etc.
Goerge Murdock who is famous for his research in family bases the
following characteristics as being evident in the 250 societies he observed all over
the world:
1. Common residence
2. Adults of both sexes
3. One or more children
4. Socially approved sexual relationship
For this Murdock was also criticized badly and a wealth of evidence
was presented by people like Kathleen Gough who refers to the Nayar
tribespeople in India where if the woman who is made pregnant by her husband,
then she becomes the responsibility of her brothers and father as her husband
usually is away from home and they do not share a common residence as well as
support each other economically.
The matriarchal families in the slave plantations in USA also
show that it is not necessary that families may have adults of both genders
because in those families women used to be present as the sole parent and would
take care of upto 10 children at a time.
Now we shall come over to the Marxism and Feminism that
oppose the concept of family. Friedrich Engels, Marx’s closest friend was the
authority on this subject as Marx himself wrote very little on this topic. Friedrich
said that since man stopped hunting and started farming, he tried to know what
his property was and mark it so he made women and children part of his property
and secured for his children the right of inheritance.
He believed that in family, man was the bourgeoisie who was
in control of everything and women were the proletariat but this position could
be changed if women were brought back to the working industry.
So that is it for this time, I hope you will remember all that we have
discussed here hope to see you soon again, bye.
FAQs
Q:1 What are the two basic functions of a family according to Parsons? Explain.
Ans. The two basic functions of a family in a society are:
1. Reproduce and socialize children
2. To maintain and stabilize adult personalities
According to Parsons, the core purpose of a family was to reproduce
children to be socialized and bred and to act as a mode of help for each member
to ease stress and bring relief after facing the day’s difficulties.

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