Types & Functions of Family

Dr. Alok Acharya

Family
• Primary unit in all societies.
• Group of biologically related individuals living together and eating from a common kitchen.

• Family members share a pool of genes

• As a social unit, they share a common physical and social environment.

• As a cultural unit, the family reflects the culture of the wider society of which it forms a part
and determines the behaviour and attitudes of its members.
• As an epidemiological unit, and a unit for providing social services as well as comprehensive
medical care.
• Family differs from household - all the members of a household may not be blood relations,
e.g., servants.
 Family of origin & Family of procreation
• Family of origin : The family into which one is born.
• Family of procreation : The family which one sets up after marriage.
Types of families
• 1. NUCLEAR FAMILY
• The nuclear or elementary family is universal in all human societies.
• It consists of the married couple and their children while they are still
regarded as dependents.
• They occupy the same dwelling space
• Husband usually plays a dominant role in the household
• Absence of grandparents, uncles, aunts and near relatives places a greater
burden on the nuclear family in terms of responsibilities for child rearing.
• The term "new families" has come recently into vogue ,
• It is applied to those under 10 years duration and consists of parents and
children. The concept is important in view of studies relating to family
planning
2. JOINT FAMILY
• It is more common in agricultural areas than in urban areas.
• Characteristics of a typical joint family are:
1. Consists of a number of married couples and their children who live together in the same
household.
a. All the men are related by blood and the women of the household are their wives,
unmarried girls and widows of the family kinsmen.
2. All the property is held in common.
a. common family purse from which all the expenditures are met.
3. All the authority is vested in the senior male member of the family.
a) He is the most dominant member and controls the internal and external affairs of the
family.
b) The senior female member by virtue of her being the wife of the male head shares his
power so far as the women of the family are concerned.
 Merits of Joint Family
1. Sharing of responsibilities thus provides greater economic and social security.
2. Provides economic and social security to the old, the helpless and the
unemployed in family.
3. It pools its income to help the young through school, to pay for a marriage or
begin a commercial venture.
4. It offers many of the services and advantages which an industrial society offers
through more impersonal governmental, educational and financial agencies
3. THREE GENERATION FAMILY
• The three generation family is confused with the joint family.
• It is fairly common in the west.
• Household where there are representatives of three generations.
• It occurs usually when young couples are unable to find separate housing
accommodation and continue to live with their parents and have their own
children.
• Thus, representatives of three generations related to each other by direct descent
live together
Functions of Family
1. Residence
• There are two types of residence - patrilocal and matrilocal.
• Patrilocal residence: the wife goes to the house of the husband;
• Matrilocal residence, the husband goes to live in the house of the wife.

2. Division of labour
• Industrialized and urbanized communities has less marked distinction between the functions
of men and women than primitive societies.
• men earn a living and support the family
• Female day to day care of children and running of the household
• Recently there has been an increasing coming together and sharing of responsibilities by
men and women
• The steady enlargement of the freedom of wives, and even children in the family, is leading
towards a "communal family" where all its members play a part in its management.
Functions of Family
3. Reproduction and bringing up of children
4. Socialization :
• The family is a bridge between generations and between father and sons.
• It is the transfer point of civilization.
• The cultural patterns relating to eating, cleanliness, dress, speech, language,
behaviour, and attitudes are all transmitted through the family.
5. Economic functions :
• The family implies economic partnership for the family and the progeny.
• The inheritance of the property and the ownership and/or control of certain
kinds of property like the farm, shop or dwelling are controlled by the family.
• Eventually the property is handed down to the children.
Functions of Family
6. Social care : The family provides social care by
a) giving status in a society to its members, i.e., use of family names where it
occurs. Some have a strong feeling of kinship that they belong to a particular
family - it denotes some kind of association with someone distinguished in
history in that particular society,
b) protecting its members from insult, defamation, etc.
c) regulating marital activities of its members
d) regulating to a certain extent political, religious and general social activities
e) regulating sex relations through incest-taboos