GOVT.

DEGREE
COLLEG
E
BHADERWAH
NAME: HEMANI
CHANDAIL
ROLL NO.: 108
CLASS: 2ND
SEMESTER
TOPIC: FAMILY->MEANING, TYPES
AND CHARACTERISTICS

SUBMITTED FROM:
HEMANI
CHANDAIL
SUBMITTED TO: DR. AIJAZ
AHMAD
FAMILY

The family is an intimate domestic group made up of people

related to one another by bonds of blood, sexual mating or
legal ties. It is the most immediate group a child is exposed to.
In fact, it is the most enduring group, which has tremendous
influence on the life of an individual, from birth until death. It
also accounts for the most enduring social relationship found in
society. Family is based on emotions and sentiments. Mating,
procreation, maternal and fraternal devotion, love and affection
are the basis of family ties. Family is the group through which
descent or ancestry can be traced. A family is generally limited
in size, even large, joint and extended families.
 The word “Family” has been taken from the roman word
“Famulus” means as a servant.
 Family is the most primary group. It is the simplest and the most
elementary form of society.
 It is an outstanding primary group, because it is in the family
where child develops its basic attitudes.
 It is a small social group consisting ordinarily of a father, mother
and one or more children.
 Every family has known by a name and has its own system of
reckoning descent.
 The family satisfies the need for affection by human beings.
 Family is the social unit which endows the child with social norms,
values, rules and regulations.
DEFINITIONS OF FAMILY
1. MACLEVER: “Family is a group defined by sex relationship
sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for the
procreation and upbringing of children”.
2. NIMKOFF: “Family is more or less durable association or
husband and wife with or without children or of a man or
women alone with children”.

CLARE: “Family is a system of relationship existing between

parents and children”.

3.
4. ELIOTT AND MERRILL: “Family is a logical social unit
composed of husband, wife and children”.
5. Robert Bierstedt: “The family, almost without
question, is
the most important of any groups that human experience
offers … the family … is with us always, or more precisely,
we are with it
6. Burgess and Locke: “Family is a group of persons united by
ties of marriage, blood or adoption constituting a single
household interacting and inter-communicating with each
other in their respective social roles of husband and wife,
father and mother, son and daughter, brother and sister,
creating a common culture”.
7. Kingsley Davis: “Family is a group of persons, whose
relations to one another are based upon consanguinity and
who are therefore kin to one
another.’
TYPES OF FAMILY

Nuclear Family consists of a married couple (man and woman) with

their children own or adopted. In certain case one or more additional
persons may also reside with them. This type of family is prevalent in
almost all societies. Compact in nature this type is very popular in the
present day world where there is a continuous struggle for economic
subsistence.
Composite family is composed of two or more nuclear families which
can be divided into polygamous family and the extended family. The
polygamous family includes three variants based on marriage
polyandry, polygyny and polyandrous. An extended family consists of
two or more nuclear families affiliated through extension of the
parent child relationship. Based on the post-marital residence, an
extended family can be of the following types.
Patrilocal family is composed of two or more nuclear families
residing at the same house, it is an extension of the father son
relationship. Such a family comrpises of a man and his wife and their
sons and the sons’ wives and childrens.
A matrilocal family is founded with two or more nuclear families
affiliated through an extension of mother daughter relationship. It
consists of a family comprising of a woman her daughters and the
daughters’ husbands and children.
The bilocal extended family is a combination of patrilocal extended
family and matrilocal extended family. The extended family consists
of two or more lineally related kinfolk of the same sex and their
spouses and offspring occupying a single household and under the
authority of a household head.
The Avunculocal extended family consists of two or more nuclear
families affiliated through an extension of maternal-uncle and sisters
son relationship. Such a family includes a nuclear family formed by a
man his wife and daughters and the nuclear family formed by his
sister’s son and wife and children.
The Faternal Joint Family is a family system, like a patrilineal
extended family wherein the family comrpises of a man and his wife
and their sons and the sons’ wives and childrens. We can say that in
such a family three generations of kins live together. At times, such a
family can be traced upto ten or so generations living in the same
residence and sharing common hearth.

Also there are many more types of family depending on the following
basis:

On the basis of authority:

 Patriarchial-male dominant, female subordinate.
 Matriarchial- female dominant, male subordinate.

On the basis of structure:

 Nuclear- husband, wife with or without children.
 Joint Family- two nuclear families together.
On the basis of Residence:
Patrilocal-wife goes to husband’s house for living.
Matrilocal- husband goes to wife’s house for living.
On the basis of marriage:
 Monogamous- one man marry one woman.
 Polygamous- one man marry more than one woman.
 Polyandrous- one women marry more than one man.

On the basis of ancestry:

 Patrilineal- ancestry continuous through the father.
 Matrilineal- ancestry continuous through the mother.

On the basis of in group and out group:

 Endogamous- sanctions marriage only among members of the in
group.
 Exogamous- sanctions marriage of members of an in group with
members of an out group.

On the basis of blood relationships:

 Conjugal family- consist of spouses, their offspring and relatives
through marriage
 Consanguineous family- consist of blood relatives together with
their mates and children.
CHARACTERISTICS OF
FAMILY
The family as a social group is universal in nature and its existence is seen at all
levels of cultures. Thus, the family having a status in society also has certain
responsibilities and characteristics. The basic characteristics of a family are
outlined below:
Satisfaction of biological need
The family as an institution regularises the satisfaction of biological
needs. It serves for the institutionalisation of mating a primodial need
among all humans. Family helps in channeling of sexual outlets by
defining the norms with whom one can mate and who are out of
bound in the terms of incest taboo. Family thus helps in establishing a
legal father for a woman’s children and a legal mother for a man’s
children.
Reproduction and Inbibing Social Values
A child as we have learnt is born into a family. As soon as a child is
born
into a family he is entitled to certain social position, system of
beliefs, language, parents and kins as per the family system that he is
born into. This family nutures the child and imbibe in him the ways of
the society through the process of enculturation preparing him to
accept statuses of adulthood.
Economic A family as a social group is responsible for satisfying the
basic needs of its members like food, clothes and shelter. In order to
achieve this objective all the members of a family cooperate and
divide the work among themselves and make contribution towards
the upkeeping of the family. It thus, serves as the organisation of a
complementary division of labour between spouses which at
the same time allocates to each member of the family certain
rights
in the labour of the other and in such goods or property as they may
acquire through their individual or joint efforts.
Educational
A family provides for the linkage of each spouse and the offspring
within the wider network of kinsmen. It establishes relationships of
descent and affinity. Sociological fatherhood is determined to place
the responsibility for the child on a specific adult. There must be jural
fatherhood to regularise transference of statuses from one
generation to the next. A cooperative division of labour makes for
greater efficiency and skill in the work that need to be done. Each sex
can perform many skills equally well, but each sex is likely to develop
those skills it uses more often. The basic functions of the family may
be performed with varying degrees of effectiveness from culture to
culture. The way the details of the functions are carried out can
produce remarkably
different individual personalities of children and adult.

REFERENCES

SOCIOLOGY OF FAMILY: KINSHIP AND

MARRIAGE
BY PROF.ABAH CHAUHAN AND PROF.
BK NAGLA
YEAR OF PUBLICATION 2020
PUBLISHED BY DDE UNIVERSITY
OF JAMMU