Unit 1: Family
Topic 1: Definitions
Definitions of family
G. P. Murdock (functionalist): “a social group characterised by common residence,
economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least 2 of whom
maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or
adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults.” (1949)
Definition is controversial because there are so many exceptions e.g. both sexes’ living
under the same roof and sharing their income.
Single
parent
Famalies famalies
where
children are The
educated
away from
Kibbutz
home
Examples
of
ANOME
Gay
Caribbean couples
houseyard with
system adopted
Families children
were a
parent
works awy
from home
Kibbutz= agricultural collective in Israel. Main features include communal living, collective ownership of all
property and the communal rearing of children. Parents sleep in a flat and their children in a house with
other children from the Kibbutz. Children socialised primarily by the carers employed there. Women do
not cook and clean for their partners, men do not bring home a family wage and children only see their
parents for brief periods of leisure before returning to the children’s house to sleep.
Caribbean houseyard system= communal agreement of up to 30 relatives and acquaintances living in huts
round a central yard, often headed by an elderly woman. Teenage girls continue to live there when they
form sexual relationships, their partners only visit casually and when a baby is born, older members tend to
care for it.
Nayar= 18th Cent. India. Most young men were away fighting so women could have sex with up to 12 men.
Wider definition of family: “A social group of 2 or more generations, consisting of at least
These “sandbanham” husbands did not liv with the women or support them.
one adult and his or her child, own or adopted.
Topic 1: Definitions
Definitions of family
G. P. Murdock (functionalist): “a social group characterised by common residence,
economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least 2 of whom
maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or
adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults.” (1949)
Definition is controversial because there are so many exceptions e.g. both sexes’ living
under the same roof and sharing their income.
Single
parent
Famalies famalies
where
children are The
educated
away from
Kibbutz
home
Examples
of
ANOME
Gay
Caribbean couples
houseyard with
system adopted
Families children
were a
parent
works awy
from home
Kibbutz= agricultural collective in Israel. Main features include communal living, collective ownership of all
property and the communal rearing of children. Parents sleep in a flat and their children in a house with
other children from the Kibbutz. Children socialised primarily by the carers employed there. Women do
not cook and clean for their partners, men do not bring home a family wage and children only see their
parents for brief periods of leisure before returning to the children’s house to sleep.
Caribbean houseyard system= communal agreement of up to 30 relatives and acquaintances living in huts
round a central yard, often headed by an elderly woman. Teenage girls continue to live there when they
form sexual relationships, their partners only visit casually and when a baby is born, older members tend to
care for it.
Nayar= 18th Cent. India. Most young men were away fighting so women could have sex with up to 12 men.
Wider definition of family: “A social group of 2 or more generations, consisting of at least
These “sandbanham” husbands did not liv with the women or support them.
one adult and his or her child, own or adopted.
