Family: Meaning and Functions: The family a social institution is the most fundamental of all social groups and it is universal in its distribution from time immemorial.
It is fundamental and persistent social group, a basic social institution at the very care of society.
The family is a group defined by a sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for the procreation and upbringing of children.
It may include collateral or subsidiary relationship, but it is constituted by the living together of mates forming with their offspring a distinctive unity.
This unit has certain common characteristics everywhere in human society.
The values institutionalized in the family have long been regarded as important enough to warrant strong measures against any behaviour that violated them.
Not only has the family been defined as fundamental to the existence of society, but it has been viewed as a source of morality and decent content.
It has also been defined as a primary force for controlling behaviour and civilizing the human animal. The members of a family typically live together under one roof and constitute a single household.
The family is composed of persons who interact and communicate with each other in their social roles like of husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, etc.
Types of Family: On the basis of authority that a person holds in a family, families are of two types:
(a) Matriarchal Families: In such families the mother holds the major authority. The mother and her family stay together and the family name of the mother’s side is given to her children.
The husband comes to stay with the wife’s relatives.
(b) Patriarchal Families: The authority in such a family lies with the father. The wife goes to stay with her husband and his relatives after their marriage. Children carry father’s name. The father holds the authority to take major decisions.
On the basis of the type of marriage, families have been classified as:
(a) Monogamous Family: In this family, the married couple and their children stay. It is formed on the basis of a single marriage.
(b) Polygamous Family: When one male or a female marries more than one female or male, a polygamous family is formed. This type of family is neither common in modern societies, nor it bears the approval of the society.
Families with at least one parent and one child are viewed as a normative definition of the family in most if not all societies. Also part of the normative family would be all others who are closest to the individual.
Not only is the parent-child relationship a normative nuclear family in most societies, the definition of a normal family and nuclear families also includes couples in close relationships that lead to common-law relationships or marriage relationships.
The joint family includes three generations living together under a same roof – husband, wife with married children, their spouse, unmarried children, grandparents, etc.
Today, traditional families are now in the minority for the first time. At present various alternate family groups (other than normative family patterns) are also emerging with different roles and functions.
The United Nations in 1994, defines family as the family within the household, a concept of particular interest, is defined as those members of the household who are related to a specified degree, through blood, adoption or marriage.
The degree of relationship used in determining the limits of the family in this sense is dependent upon the uses to which the data are to be put and so cannot be established for worldwide use.
Thus, “Consensual Unions’ also have been included to fit in all emerging alternate family forms like single-parent families, adoptive families, only grandparent-grandchild family, etc.
