FAMILY

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Family is defined as the smallest social unit into which a child is born in. The word family has its origin in the Latin word familia meaning servant. It endows the child with social norms, values, rules and regulations through the process of enculturation. The relatives connected through the father or the patriline are called as agnates and those connected through the mother or matriline are called as uterine, a combination of these or all relatives from side of both parents are called as cognates. Every adult belongs to two families, one in which he/she is born and another that is established through marriage; these are known respectively as the family of orientation and the family of procreation. Today when we use the term family it covers all the various groups of relatives representing a household (all the individuals living under one roof), gens (all those descended from a common ancestor), agnatics (relatives on the father’s side) and cognatics (relatives on the mother’s side, and then by extension all blood relatives). It is universal in nature & found in all societies & cultures. Morgan’s evolutionary theory first identified the forms & types of marriages. Westermarck did a detailed study of the institution of marriage concluded that the family emerged due to male possessiveness and jealousy. In his work The History of Human Marriage (1922) he asserted that with the growing concept of property, males started the institution of family to protect and safeguard their property.

2.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 varients based on marriage polyandry, polygyny and polyandrous. An extended family consists of two or more nuclear families affiliated through extension of the parentchild relationship.

3.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 children.

4.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.

5.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.

6.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.

7.The Fraternal 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.

8.Family by Choice: A relatively newly recognized type of family, again especially in industrial countries like the United States, is the family by choice. The term was popularized by the LGBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer) community to describe a family not recognized by the legal system. Family by choice can include adopted children, live-in partners, kin of each member of the household and close friends. Increasingly family by choice is being practiced by unmarried people and families who move away from the consanguine family.

Examples: The Khasis of Meghalaya and the Garos of Garo Hills of Meghalaya are two matrilineal societies where, in the first society the husband comes to live with the wife’s family, while in the latter the husband is a visiting husband. Dominantly, Indian tribes are patrilineal in character.

FAMILY I ANTHROPOLOGY CONCEPT SERIES I ARTICLE – IV

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