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The Meaning and Characteristics of Family!
At the outset it is important to explain the sense in which the term “family” is used. The word “family” has been taken over from the Roman word, “famulus”, meaning a servant. In Roman law, the word denoted the group of producers and slaves and other servants as well as members connected by common descent or marriage.
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(i) Family is “a group defined by a sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for the procreation and upbringing of children.” MacIver
(ii) Family is “a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood or adoption; consisting of a single household, interacting and inter-communicating with each other in their respective social roles of husband and wife, mother and father, son and daughter, brother and sister creating a common culture.” Burgess and Locke.
(iii) Family is “a more or less durable association of husband and wife with or without children, or of a man or woman alone, with children.” Nimkoff.
(iv) Family is “a group of persons whose relations to one another are based upon consanguinity and who are, therefore, kin to another.” Davis.
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(v) Family is “a miniature social organisation, including at least two generations, and is characteristically formed upon the blood bond.” Sumner and Keller
(vi) Family is “a system of relationships existing between parents and children.” Clare
(vii) Family is “the biological social unit composed of husband, wife and children.” Eliott and Merrill
(viii) Family is “a group of two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption and residing together; all such persons are considered as members of one family.” The American Bureau of the Census
(ix) Family is “a socially recognized unit of people related to each other by kinship, martial and legal ties.” Anderson and Parker
(x) “Family is the institutionalized social group charged with duty of population replacement.” Green, Arnold
Out of these definitions the following characteristics of a family may be deducted:
(i) A mating relationship:
A family comes into existence when a man and a woman establish mating relation between them. This relation may be of a shorter duration or lifelong. When the marital relations break up, the family disintegrates.
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(ii) A form of marriage:
Mating relationship is established through the institution of marriage. Marriage may be solemnised in a simple way as is the case in Europe or its celebration may be a long process as is generally in India. It may take any form, monogamous or polygamous. Partners may be selected by parents or by the elders, or the choice may be left to the wishes of the individuals concerned.
(iii) A system of nomenclature:
Every family is known by a name and has its own system of reckoning descent. Descent may be reckoned through the male line or through the female line. Usually the wife goes and joins her husband’s relatives but sometimes the husband also may go and join his wife’s relatives. There are said to be instances where annual alterations take place between the two systems, patrilocal and matrilocal.
(iv) An economic provision:
Every family needs an economic provision to satisfy the economic needs. The head of the family carries on certain profession and earns money to maintain the family.
(v) A common habitation:
A family requires a home or house-hold for its living. Without a dwelling place the task of child bearing and child rearing cannot be adequately performed.
The family thus is a biological unit implying institutionalized sex relationship between husband and wife. What distinguishes the family is that it results from the physiological union of two married persons who create the other members of the unit. Its members are biologically more closely related to one another through the process of reproduction than are the members of another group.
It is based on the fact of sex having the production and nurture of children as its important function. Strictly defined, it consists of parents and children. It is both an association and institution. It is a universal institution found in every age and every society. It is the primary cell out of which the community develops.