FAMILY

Dr. Khondoker Mokaddem Hossain

Pro Vice Chancellor, Bangladesh Open
University &
Founder Director and Professor
Institute of Disaster Management and
Vulnerability Studies
University of Dhaka
Email: mokaddemdu@yahoo.com
 Basic concept and Classification of family

 Family: a group of persons directly linked by kin connections, the adult

members of which have the responsibility for caring for children.
 A family may be defined as a group of persons related to a specific degree,
through blood, adoption, or marriage.
 The difficulty is that comparative data on the family in the broad definition of
the term is not available.
 The available statistics relate to households, defined by location, community
or living arrangements.
 Kinship: Kinship ties are connections between individuals, established
either through marriage or through the lines of descent that connect blood
relatives.
 Marriage can be defined as a socially approved sexual union between two
adult individuals.
 Classification: Family can be classified in the basis of Structure, authority,
marriage and locality.
 Family Systems
• Family: Group of people who are related by marriage,
blood, or adoption and who often live together and share
economic resources
• The family is the most universal social institution, but
what constitutes a “family” varies across cultures.
• Nuclear family: One or both parents and their unmarried
children most recognizable in the society.
• Family of orientation: The nuclear family into which the
person is born or adopted
– When a person marries, a new nuclear family is
formed, called a family of procreation
• Joint/Extended family: Two or more generations stay in
the same house and share the common kitchen
 Family Systems (cont.)
• Kinship: Network of people who are related by marriage,
birth, or adoption
• Primary relatives:
– Mother, father, sister, brother, spouse, daughter, son
• Secondary relatives:
– Grandparents, grandchildren, in-laws, aunts, uncles,
nieces, nephews
• Tertiary relatives:
– Great-grandparents, great-grandchildren, great-aunts,
great-uncles, and cousins
 Pattern of Family
Residential Patterns
• Newly married couples might be expected to live near wife’s
home, husband’s home, or on their own
Descent Patterns
• Some societies trace kinship through mother’s side (matrilineal),
some through father’s side (patrilineal)
• Helps decide inheritance rules

Authority Patterns
• Patriarchy: Father holds most of the authority
• Matriarchy: Mother holds most of the authority
• Egalitarian: Mother and father share authority
• Many industrialized societies are moving toward egalitarian patterns.
 The Existence of Traditional Family

The “traditional” family structure of working father, stay-at-home

mother, and children who attend school had commonly been the
prevalent family structure in Bangladesh till 1970s.
During the Hindu, Muslim and other colonial rules and times, the
family was the center of economic activity and the authority
patterns were patriarchal in our society.
Mothers made food and clothes and often produced goods or
services to be sold or traded.
Changes from feudal to Industrial mode of production, saw many
children become workers, as well as both parents. Currently,
many women work outside the home especially as garment
workers and other manufacturing units.
 Difference between Family and Household
 A household is defined in many surveys as a person or a
group of persons that usually live and eat together. It is
important to distinguish between a family, where members
are related either by blood or by marriage, and a
household, which involves the sharing of a housing unit,
facilities and food.
 Female Headed Households
 In many societies in Asia, the oldest male is designated as
the head of household regardless of whether he is the
primary source of economic support, the authority figure, or
fulfills other tasks purportedly performed by household
heads (Ayad et al., 1997). In the mean time female headed
households have become a steadily growing phenomenon
Importance of Family
Importance of Family
Importance of Family
 Changes in Family in Modern Society
 Marriage Dissolution
 It is no longer the case that all marital
unions, whether formal or informal reach the
final dissolution through death.
 A considerable proportion of unions are
disrupted suddenly for reasons such as
desertion, separation or divorce.
 An obvious failure in family relationship is
where husband and wife cease either
divorced or separated due to various socio-
economic, cultural and personal reasons.
 Causes of Dissolution of Family
 Divorce is the final dissolution, leaving both spouses
legally free to enter another marriage contract. A
variety of grounds for divorce is recognized across the
countries in the Asian region, and of those the two
broad categories are cruelty and desertion.
 The law has not only initiated legal changes to
enhance the status of women and their children
 within the family, but also it contributes largely to
dissolution of unsatisfactory marriages.
 Separation or divorce may stigmatize a woman in our
country, reducing her social status and shrinking her
support network, causing sometimes community
members or her familiy’s kin to reject her
 The Functions of the Family
Regulation of Sexual Urge, Impulse,
Appetite and Activity
Reproduction
• All societies regulate sexual activity • Family is the approved social unit
to a greater extent. for producing members to replace
those who die or move away.
• Incest taboo is found in every
society, but categories of restricted • Rules are set in place about who
relatives differ across cultures. can raise children and how children
should be raised.

Socialization Economic and Emotional

• The family is the first agent of Security
socialization, so societies rely on the • Family is the basic economic unit.
family to teach the norms of the
• Family is expected to guide the
society.
psychological development of its
• Parents, siblings, and other relatives members and provide a loving
serve as the earliest role models. environment.
 Women’s Economic Participation
 The urbanization, industrialization, open up of
service sector and manufacturing sectors
have crated job opportunities for the female
members in our country.
 This trend has succeeded in replacing the
traditional nature of relationship between
husband and wife and also created ample of
opportunities in terms of social dignity and
improving the social and economic status of
family. In this process, the social institutions
in these countries found themselves in
conflict with the key aspects of the new
 The economics of the family
 The economics of the family and the sexual division of
labour within the family are very much determined by
opportunities in the labour market.
 The economic system has facilitated the freeing of
women from household chores and their entrance to
the labour market.
 The market has invented a number of new labour-
saving methods to enable women to supply their
labour in the market; consequently women’s share of
the labour force has increased in almost all sphere of
life in Bangladesh.
 classification of family

 On the basis of structure:

 Nuclear: two adults living together in a household with
their own or adopted children.
 Extended: when close relatives other than a married
couple and children live either in the same household or
in a close and continuous relationship with one another,
that is called an extended family.
 An extended family may include grant parents, brothers,
their wives sister and their husbands etc.
 On the basis of the marriage:
 Monogamy family: a man or a woman is not allowed to
marry more than one spouse at any one time.
 Classification of Family
 Polygamy: this allows a a husband or wife to have more than
one spouse.
 Polygyny: a man may be married to more than one woman at
the same time.
 Sororal polygyny: a man is allowed to be married to more than
one woman at the same time and wives are sisters.
 Non- sororal polygyny: a man is allowed to be married to more
than one woman at the same time and wives are not sisters
 Polyandry: a woman may be allowed to be married to more
than one man at the same time.
 Fraternal Polyandry: a woman may be allowed to be married
to more than one man at the same time and the husbands are
brothers.
 Non-fraternal Polyandry: a woman may be allowed to be
married to more than one man at the same time and the
husbands are not brothers.
 Classification of family

Classification of family in the basis of marriage:

Monogamy Polygamy

polygyny polyandry

Sororal non-sororal Fraternal non-fraternal

 Classification of family

 On the basis of authority:

 Pariarchal: the family in which father or the oldest
male member play the most important role and take
all the important decisions is called patriarchal family.
 Matriarchal family:the family in which mother or the
oldest female member play the most important role
and take all the important decisions is called
matriarchal family.
 Egalitarian family: the family in which both father
and mother play the important role and take all the
important decisions equally is called egalitarian
family.
 On the basis of locality: Ember and Ember
 Perspectives towards family:
 Functionalist perspective: six functions of the family:
 Reproduction: for a society to maintain itself, it must
replace dying members.
 Protection: unlike the young of other animal species,
human infants need constant care and economic security.
 Socialization: parents and other kin monitor the behavior
of the children and transmit the norms, values, language
and culture to the child.
 Regulation of sexual behavior
 Affection and companionship: the family provides
members with warm and intimate relationships and helps
them feel satisfied and secure.
 Providing of social status: we inherit a social position
because of the family background and reputation of our
parents.
 Perspectives towards family:
 Conflict view: it views the family not as a contributor to social
stability, but as a reflection of the inequality in wealth, power
found within the larger society.
 Family has traditionally legitimized male-dominance.
 Throughout most of human history- husbands have exercised
overwhelming power and authority within the family.
 Conflict theorists also view the family as a economic unit that
contributes to social injustice.
 It is the basis for transferring power, property and privilege
from one generation to the next.
• Interactionist view: it focuses on the micro level of family and
other intimate relationships.
 They are interested in how individual interact with one another.
 Perspectives towards family:
 Feminist view: three main themes of this view:
 Family is the source of domestic division of labor- the
way tasks are allocated among the members of a
household.
 But ultimately it results into two spheres- male and female
spheres. One is paid and another is unpaid.
 Second, it draws attention to the unequal power
relationships.
 Caring activities is the third area: theses are usually done
by women in the family and theses activities are largely
monotonous and tiring.
 Mate selection and divorce:

 Two ways of mate selection: Exogamy and endogamy

 Exogamy: not to marry within one’s own community or
clan.
 Endogamy: to marry within one’s own community or clan.

 The reasons for rising divorce rate are:

 Greater Economic Independence
 Greater Social Acceptance
 Economic transactions of marriage: Ember And
Ember: Anthropology
 Bride Price Dowry
 Bride Service Indirect dowry
 Exchange of females
 Gift Exchange