Chapter 1
The Meaning of Marriage and the Family
CHAPTER FOCUS
Chapter 1 is an introduction to marriage and family studies, including definitions of marriage and
the family, functions of marriage and the family, meanings of extended families and kinship, and
the themes of the text.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. INTRODUCTION
A. We are all, in part, products of family relationships.
B. Most of us approach the topic of marriage and family with strong opinions, personal
experiences, and ideas of what marriage and family ought to be.
C. This chapter explores discrepancies between our ideas about family and what social
science tells us about marriage and family life.
D. This chapter looks at how marriage and family are defined by individuals and society and
at the functions that marriages and families fulfill.
II. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, SOCIAL CONTROVERSY, AND WISHFUL THINKING
A. We need to understand that our attitudes and beliefs about family may affect and distort
our efforts to study family patterns and issues.
B. Experience versus Expertise
1. Family life can be loving and stable as well as conflicting and bitter.
2. Our family is unique and our personal experiences cannot inform us about all
families.
C. Dramatic Changes, Increasing Diversity, and Continuing Controversy
1. Studying marriage and family can be challenging for several reasons:
a. Families have changed in recent decades and writing and reading about them can
be difficult given the pace and extent of change.
b. Technology contributes to changes in how we meet and create family:
i. Communication now enables a different type of access and interaction.
ii. This change raises questions about issues related to access and frequency of
communication.
c. Advances in reproductive science have changed the ways we bear children.
d. There is considerable cultural, ethnic, racial, economic, sexual, and religious
diversity in the wider population today.
e. Few areas of life are as controversial as family matters.
D. This courses raises questions and discussions about family matters such as polygamy,
child custody, legal matters related to reproductive advances, decisions on marriage, and
issues of sexual and/or domestic violence.
1. Learning more about family matters will expose you to information that will help
more objectively understand the realities behind so many vocal debates in our world.
©
2017
Cengage
Learning.
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Rights
Reserved.
May
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be
copied,
scanned,
or
duplicated,
in
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or
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part,
except
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distributed
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or
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or
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on
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for
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use.
,III. WHAT IS MARRIAGE? WHAT IS FAMILY?
A. Defining Marriage
1. Globally, there is much variation in the percentage of adults who are married and
what marriage is like.
2. Because of the diversity, defining marriage can be difficult:
a. Most simply defined, marriage is a socially and legally recognized union
between two people in which they are united sexually, cooperate economically,
and may give birth to, adopt, or rear children.
b. With the exception of the Na in China, marriage has been a universal institution
throughout recorded history.
3. There is considerable cultural variation in what societies identify as essential
characteristics that define couples as married, but there are some shared attributes:
a. Marriage typically establishes rights and obligations connected to gender,
sexuality, relationships with kin and in-laws, and legitimacy of children.
b. Marriage establishes individuals’ specific roles within the wider community and
society.
c. Marriage allows for the orderly transfer of wealth and property from one
generation to the next.
d. Marriage assigns care and responsibility of children to spouses or their relatives.
4. Although many Americans believe that marriage is divinely instituted (as opposed to
those who see it as a civil institution), early Christianity only slowly became involved
in weddings and was ambivalent about marriage.
B. Who May Marry?
1. Who may marry in the United States has changed over the last 150 years:
a. African-Americans could not marry at one point because they were regarded as
property.
b. Interracial marriage was illegal until 1967.
c. Over the past two decades same-sex marriage has been an ongoing controversy.
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment
requires states to recognize and license same-sex marriages (Obergefell v.
Hodges).
2. Each state enacts its own laws regulating marriage, leading to some discrepancies
from state to state.
3. Legal marriage bestows literally hundreds of rights, privileges, and protections on
couples who marry.
C. Forms of Marriage
1. Monogamy is the practice of having only one spouse at a time; it is the only legal
form of marriage in Western cultures, such as the U.S.
a. Monogamy is the only form of marriage recognized in all cultures.
b. Monogamy is not always the preferred form of marriage.
2. Polygamy, having more than one wife or husband, is the preferred marital
arrangement worldwide:
©
2017
Cengage
Learning.
All
Rights
Reserved.
May
not
be
copied,
scanned,
or
duplicated,
in
whole
or
in
part,
except
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use
as
permitted
in
a
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distributed
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a
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or
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or
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for
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use.
, a. Polygyny, the practice of having more than one wife, is practiced or accepted in
84% of the world’s cultures studied (representing, nevertheless, a minority of the
world’s population numerically).
i. Even in polygynous societies, monogamy is the most widely practiced form of
marriage.
ii. Plural marriages are in the minority in these societies primarily because of
economic reasons.
b. Polyandry, the practice of having more than one husband, is rare.
i. It normally occurs in societies where there is a gender imbalance or scarcity of
land or property.
c. Within polygynous societies, plural marriages are a sign of higher status.
3. Serial monogamy or modified polygamy, a practice of having several spouses over a
lifetime, although no more than one at any given time, is a more accurate description
for practices in the U.S.
D. Defining Family
1. The U.S. Census Bureau defines a family as “a group of two or more (one of whom is
the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together.”
2. A household consists of “all the people who occupy a housing unit,” whether or not
they are related.
3. Family households are those in which at least two members are related by birth,
marriage or adoption, though unrelated individuals can also be counted as family.
4. In individuals’ lives, the concept of “family” as a less precise and more varying
meanings:
a. Mostly those designated as family are related by descent.
b. Some are affiliated kin or fictive kin - unrelated individuals who feel and are
treated as if they were relatives.
c. Emotional closeness may be more important than biology or law in defining
family.
i. Among Latinos, compadres (godparents) are considered family members.
ii. Among some Japanese Americans, the ie (living members of the extended
family as well as deceased and yet-to-be-born family members) is the
traditional family.
iii. Among many traditional Native American tribes, the clan (a group of related
families) is regarded as the fundamental family unit.
iv. Among many African-Americans, fictive kin are considered to be like family
and are treated as such.
5. To reflect this diversity of family types that coexist, the definition of family needs to
be extended beyond the idea of the “official” census definition.
E. What Families Do: Functions of Marriages and Families
1. The family performs important societal functions and meets certain individual needs
as identified by sociologists (although not all of them do all of these or do these well):
a. Families provide a source of intimate relationships.
b. Families act as units of economic cooperation and consumption.
c. Families may produce and socialize children.
©
2017
Cengage
Learning.
All
Rights
Reserved.
May
not
be
copied,
scanned,
or
duplicated,
in
whole
or
in
part,
except
for
use
as
permitted
in
a
license
distributed
with
a
certain
product
or
service
or
otherwise
on
a
password-‐protected
website
for
classroom
use.
, d. Families assign social statuses and roles to individuals.
F. Intimate Relationships and Family Ties
1. Intimacy is a primary human need and strongly influences rates of illnesses,
accidents, and mental illness.
2. Married couples and adults living with others tend to be healthier and have lower
mortality rates: some of this is due to selective factors, but cohabitation also yields
benefits:
a. Marriage and the family furnish emotional security and support.
b. They serve as important sources of companionship and intimacy.
G. Economic Cooperation
1. The family is a unit of economic cooperation and interdependence.
a. Although the division of labor by gender is characteristic of almost all cultures, it
varies greatly from culture to culture.
b. Gendered tasks are assigned by culture and not biology.
c. Only a man’s ability to impregnate and a woman’s ability to give birth and
produce milk are biologically determined.
2. The family is commonly thought of as a consuming unit, but it also continues to be an
important producing unit.
a. If goods and services within a family were monetized, it would require a
considerable amount of money.
b. Although children also contribute to the household customarily, they are generally
not paid.
c. Most often women perform the family’s role as a service unit.
H. Reproduction and Socialization
1. The family makes society possible by producing (or adopting) and rearing children to
replace older members of society who have died.
2. Technological change has affected reproduction and separated reproduction from
sexual intercourse.
3. The family traditionally has been responsible for socialization of children (the
shaping of individual behavior to conform to cultural or social norms):
a. This is one of the family’s most important roles.
b. Socialization is shared by agents and caregivers outside the family.
c. Since the rise of compulsory education in the 19th century, the state has also
served in the capacity of socialization of children.
I. Assignment of Social Statuses and Roles
1. We fulfill various social statuses or positions as family members; these roles provide
us with much of our identity.
2. During our lifetimes we will most likely belong to at least two families:
a. The family of orientation (sometimes called the family of origin) is the family
one grows up in:
i. This may change over time, if the marital status of parents changes.
ii. Originally it may be a nuclear family or a single-parent family.
iii. It may also be a binuclear family to reflect the experience of children whose
parents separate and divorce.
©
2017
Cengage
Learning.
All
Rights
Reserved.
May
not
be
copied,
scanned,
or
duplicated,
in
whole
or
in
part,
except
for
use
as
permitted
in
a
license
distributed
with
a
certain
product
or
service
or
otherwise
on
a
password-‐protected
website
for
classroom
use.
The Meaning of Marriage and the Family
CHAPTER FOCUS
Chapter 1 is an introduction to marriage and family studies, including definitions of marriage and
the family, functions of marriage and the family, meanings of extended families and kinship, and
the themes of the text.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. INTRODUCTION
A. We are all, in part, products of family relationships.
B. Most of us approach the topic of marriage and family with strong opinions, personal
experiences, and ideas of what marriage and family ought to be.
C. This chapter explores discrepancies between our ideas about family and what social
science tells us about marriage and family life.
D. This chapter looks at how marriage and family are defined by individuals and society and
at the functions that marriages and families fulfill.
II. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, SOCIAL CONTROVERSY, AND WISHFUL THINKING
A. We need to understand that our attitudes and beliefs about family may affect and distort
our efforts to study family patterns and issues.
B. Experience versus Expertise
1. Family life can be loving and stable as well as conflicting and bitter.
2. Our family is unique and our personal experiences cannot inform us about all
families.
C. Dramatic Changes, Increasing Diversity, and Continuing Controversy
1. Studying marriage and family can be challenging for several reasons:
a. Families have changed in recent decades and writing and reading about them can
be difficult given the pace and extent of change.
b. Technology contributes to changes in how we meet and create family:
i. Communication now enables a different type of access and interaction.
ii. This change raises questions about issues related to access and frequency of
communication.
c. Advances in reproductive science have changed the ways we bear children.
d. There is considerable cultural, ethnic, racial, economic, sexual, and religious
diversity in the wider population today.
e. Few areas of life are as controversial as family matters.
D. This courses raises questions and discussions about family matters such as polygamy,
child custody, legal matters related to reproductive advances, decisions on marriage, and
issues of sexual and/or domestic violence.
1. Learning more about family matters will expose you to information that will help
more objectively understand the realities behind so many vocal debates in our world.
©
2017
Cengage
Learning.
All
Rights
Reserved.
May
not
be
copied,
scanned,
or
duplicated,
in
whole
or
in
part,
except
for
use
as
permitted
in
a
license
distributed
with
a
certain
product
or
service
or
otherwise
on
a
password-‐protected
website
for
classroom
use.
,III. WHAT IS MARRIAGE? WHAT IS FAMILY?
A. Defining Marriage
1. Globally, there is much variation in the percentage of adults who are married and
what marriage is like.
2. Because of the diversity, defining marriage can be difficult:
a. Most simply defined, marriage is a socially and legally recognized union
between two people in which they are united sexually, cooperate economically,
and may give birth to, adopt, or rear children.
b. With the exception of the Na in China, marriage has been a universal institution
throughout recorded history.
3. There is considerable cultural variation in what societies identify as essential
characteristics that define couples as married, but there are some shared attributes:
a. Marriage typically establishes rights and obligations connected to gender,
sexuality, relationships with kin and in-laws, and legitimacy of children.
b. Marriage establishes individuals’ specific roles within the wider community and
society.
c. Marriage allows for the orderly transfer of wealth and property from one
generation to the next.
d. Marriage assigns care and responsibility of children to spouses or their relatives.
4. Although many Americans believe that marriage is divinely instituted (as opposed to
those who see it as a civil institution), early Christianity only slowly became involved
in weddings and was ambivalent about marriage.
B. Who May Marry?
1. Who may marry in the United States has changed over the last 150 years:
a. African-Americans could not marry at one point because they were regarded as
property.
b. Interracial marriage was illegal until 1967.
c. Over the past two decades same-sex marriage has been an ongoing controversy.
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment
requires states to recognize and license same-sex marriages (Obergefell v.
Hodges).
2. Each state enacts its own laws regulating marriage, leading to some discrepancies
from state to state.
3. Legal marriage bestows literally hundreds of rights, privileges, and protections on
couples who marry.
C. Forms of Marriage
1. Monogamy is the practice of having only one spouse at a time; it is the only legal
form of marriage in Western cultures, such as the U.S.
a. Monogamy is the only form of marriage recognized in all cultures.
b. Monogamy is not always the preferred form of marriage.
2. Polygamy, having more than one wife or husband, is the preferred marital
arrangement worldwide:
©
2017
Cengage
Learning.
All
Rights
Reserved.
May
not
be
copied,
scanned,
or
duplicated,
in
whole
or
in
part,
except
for
use
as
permitted
in
a
license
distributed
with
a
certain
product
or
service
or
otherwise
on
a
password-‐protected
website
for
classroom
use.
, a. Polygyny, the practice of having more than one wife, is practiced or accepted in
84% of the world’s cultures studied (representing, nevertheless, a minority of the
world’s population numerically).
i. Even in polygynous societies, monogamy is the most widely practiced form of
marriage.
ii. Plural marriages are in the minority in these societies primarily because of
economic reasons.
b. Polyandry, the practice of having more than one husband, is rare.
i. It normally occurs in societies where there is a gender imbalance or scarcity of
land or property.
c. Within polygynous societies, plural marriages are a sign of higher status.
3. Serial monogamy or modified polygamy, a practice of having several spouses over a
lifetime, although no more than one at any given time, is a more accurate description
for practices in the U.S.
D. Defining Family
1. The U.S. Census Bureau defines a family as “a group of two or more (one of whom is
the householder) related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together.”
2. A household consists of “all the people who occupy a housing unit,” whether or not
they are related.
3. Family households are those in which at least two members are related by birth,
marriage or adoption, though unrelated individuals can also be counted as family.
4. In individuals’ lives, the concept of “family” as a less precise and more varying
meanings:
a. Mostly those designated as family are related by descent.
b. Some are affiliated kin or fictive kin - unrelated individuals who feel and are
treated as if they were relatives.
c. Emotional closeness may be more important than biology or law in defining
family.
i. Among Latinos, compadres (godparents) are considered family members.
ii. Among some Japanese Americans, the ie (living members of the extended
family as well as deceased and yet-to-be-born family members) is the
traditional family.
iii. Among many traditional Native American tribes, the clan (a group of related
families) is regarded as the fundamental family unit.
iv. Among many African-Americans, fictive kin are considered to be like family
and are treated as such.
5. To reflect this diversity of family types that coexist, the definition of family needs to
be extended beyond the idea of the “official” census definition.
E. What Families Do: Functions of Marriages and Families
1. The family performs important societal functions and meets certain individual needs
as identified by sociologists (although not all of them do all of these or do these well):
a. Families provide a source of intimate relationships.
b. Families act as units of economic cooperation and consumption.
c. Families may produce and socialize children.
©
2017
Cengage
Learning.
All
Rights
Reserved.
May
not
be
copied,
scanned,
or
duplicated,
in
whole
or
in
part,
except
for
use
as
permitted
in
a
license
distributed
with
a
certain
product
or
service
or
otherwise
on
a
password-‐protected
website
for
classroom
use.
, d. Families assign social statuses and roles to individuals.
F. Intimate Relationships and Family Ties
1. Intimacy is a primary human need and strongly influences rates of illnesses,
accidents, and mental illness.
2. Married couples and adults living with others tend to be healthier and have lower
mortality rates: some of this is due to selective factors, but cohabitation also yields
benefits:
a. Marriage and the family furnish emotional security and support.
b. They serve as important sources of companionship and intimacy.
G. Economic Cooperation
1. The family is a unit of economic cooperation and interdependence.
a. Although the division of labor by gender is characteristic of almost all cultures, it
varies greatly from culture to culture.
b. Gendered tasks are assigned by culture and not biology.
c. Only a man’s ability to impregnate and a woman’s ability to give birth and
produce milk are biologically determined.
2. The family is commonly thought of as a consuming unit, but it also continues to be an
important producing unit.
a. If goods and services within a family were monetized, it would require a
considerable amount of money.
b. Although children also contribute to the household customarily, they are generally
not paid.
c. Most often women perform the family’s role as a service unit.
H. Reproduction and Socialization
1. The family makes society possible by producing (or adopting) and rearing children to
replace older members of society who have died.
2. Technological change has affected reproduction and separated reproduction from
sexual intercourse.
3. The family traditionally has been responsible for socialization of children (the
shaping of individual behavior to conform to cultural or social norms):
a. This is one of the family’s most important roles.
b. Socialization is shared by agents and caregivers outside the family.
c. Since the rise of compulsory education in the 19th century, the state has also
served in the capacity of socialization of children.
I. Assignment of Social Statuses and Roles
1. We fulfill various social statuses or positions as family members; these roles provide
us with much of our identity.
2. During our lifetimes we will most likely belong to at least two families:
a. The family of orientation (sometimes called the family of origin) is the family
one grows up in:
i. This may change over time, if the marital status of parents changes.
ii. Originally it may be a nuclear family or a single-parent family.
iii. It may also be a binuclear family to reflect the experience of children whose
parents separate and divorce.
©
2017
Cengage
Learning.
All
Rights
Reserved.
May
not
be
copied,
scanned,
or
duplicated,
in
whole
or
in
part,
except
for
use
as
permitted
in
a
license
distributed
with
a
certain
product
or
service
or
otherwise
on
a
password-‐protected
website
for
classroom
use.
