FAMILY

MRS.NEETHU VINCENT
ASST PROFESSOR
KVM COLLEGE OF NURSING
 DEFINITION
1. A group defined by sex relationship
sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for
the procreation and upbringing of children –
MacIver.
2. Family is more or less durable association of
husband and wife with or without children or
of a man and woman alone with children –
Nimcoff & Ogburn.
3. Those members of a household who are related to a
specific degree through blood adoption and marriage –
United Nations.
4. Family is miniature social organization including at
least two generation, and is characterized by formed
upon the blood bonds
Summer and Keller.
5. Family is a system of relationships existing between
parents and children
Clare.
6 . Family is a biological social unit composed of husband,
wife and children
Eliott . and Merrill.
From different definitions of the family the
following characteristics of a family are
identified:
i) a mating relationship
ii) a form of marriage
iii) a system of nomenclature
iv) an economic , provision
V) a common habitation
 TYPES OF FAMILY
• Family can be categorized on the basis of
authority, structure, residence, marriage,
ancestory, blood relation and social affiliation.
 1. Authority
Patriarchal:
• The male head of the family is possessive of
inclusive powers.
• He is the owner and administrator of tile
family property and right, all persons living in
the family are subordinated.
• He presides over the religious rites of the
family, he is the guardian of family gods.
Matriarchal:
• The authority vests with the women head of
the family with the males being subordinate.
• She is the owner of the property and rules over
the family.
 2) Structure
Nuclear:
A nuclear family is one which consists of the husband
and wife and their children. The children leave the
parental household as soon as they are married.
They are free from the control of the elders.
Extended:
Extended family is viewed as a merger of several
nuclear families. Small extended family may
include an old male and his wife, their son, the son's
wife and the son's children.
 3) Residence
Matrilocal family:
In this type of family the husband goes to live in
the house of the wife.
Patrilocal family:
In this kind of family, the wife goes and lives in
the house of the husband.
 4. Marriage
• Monogamous family: In which one man
marries one woman only at one time.
• Polygamous family: In this kind of family
one man marries many woman at one time.
• Polyandrous family: In this kind of family
one woman marries many men and lives with
all of them or with each of them alternatively.
 5. Ancestry
• Matrilineal family: The mother is the basis of
ancestry. The woman is believed to be the
ancestor of the family. The rights of each
member of the family depend on his relation to
the mother.
• Patrilineal family: Ancestry continues
through the father
 6. Blood relation
• Conjugal family consists of spouses, their
offspring and relatives through marriage.
• Consanguineous family consists of blood
relatives together with their mates ' and
children.
 7. In group and out group affiliations

• Endogenous family is one which sanctions

marriage only among the members of in
group.
• Exogamous family sanctions marriage of
members of an in group with members of an
out group.
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