Family and Kinship

• Family is the beginning of human life. It is one of the oldest social institution . It is the base of a society.
The family as a social group is universal and is significant element in man’s social life.
• It is the first social group to which the individual is exposed.
• Family contact and relationships are repetitive and continuous.
• The family is very close and intimate group.
• It is setting of the most intense emotional experiences during the lifetime of the individual.
• The family affects the individual social values, disposition and outlook in life.
Horton and Hunt

 He defines family “as a kinship grouping which provides for the rearing of
children and for certain other human needs”.
Broom and selznick

 He defines “the family is a kin-based cooperative unit.”

 Kin: refers to network of relatives who may or may not live together.
 Kinship: relationship which gives a sense of common origin. A common
ancestry is basic general kinship.
Burges and Locke

 “family is a group of persons united by ties of marriage, blood or adoption, constituting

a single household, interacting and communicating with each other in their respective
social roles of husband and wife, mother and father, son and daughter, brother and
sister, and creating and maintaining a common culture”.
Types of family

1. By size and structure

 Nuclear family ; Also known as primary or elementary family. It means married couple and their unmarried
children are living together.
 Extended Family. Extensions maybe through the parent-child relationship or husband-wife relationship, as in
polygamous marriage.
 trible family: is an extended clan of blood relatives(second cousins) together with their mates and children.
 Stem family: only one children after marriage continues to live with his parents.
2. By Marriage

 Exogamy: partner is chosen from outside a defined group. Also called

marriage as out of biradri.
 Endogamy: partners belong to the same group. Marriage may be called
within biradri.
Based on Place of Residence

 Patrilocal- requires the newly wed to reside near the groom’s parents.
 Matrilocal- live with the bride’s parents.
 Neolocal- permits the couple to reside independently of their parents
By authority

 Patriarchial- authority is vested on the oldest male in the family, often the father.
 Matriarchial- authority is vested in the mother or mother’s kin.
By clan and ancestry

 Patrilineal- affiliates a person with a group of relatives through his or her father.
 Matrilineal- affiliates a person with a group of relatives through his or her mother.
 Bilineal - affiliates a person with a group of relatives related through both his or her
parents.
Functions of family
 Regulation of sex
 Reproduction
 Socialization
 Affection
 Safeguard of interest
 Protection
 Economic
 Education
 Recreation
 Religious and cultural values
Marriage

 Marriage is the institution or set of norms which determines the relation of

patterns to each other and to their children.
Horton and Hunt

 Marriage is the approved social pattern whereby two or more persons

establish a family.
Alfred Mclung Ice

 Marriage is the public joining together, under socially specified regulations of

a man and woman as husband and wife.
Hoebel

 Defines marriage as: the complex of social norms that controls and defines
the relations of a mated pair to each other, their kinsmen, their offspring and
to society.
Types of marriage

 Monogamy: marriage in which one man marries one women at a time.

 Polygamy: two or more men married to one woman, or two or more woman
married to one man.
 Polygyny: one man marrying two or more women at a time.
 Polyandry: one woman marrying two or more husband at a time.