Chapter 1: The Changing Family

Summary

This chapter examines what 'family' is. In doing so, it traces the similarities and differences between 'families' with respect to differences in space (different societies) and differences in time (different generations). Concerning the similarities, all families fulfill the five basic functions: families (1) regulate sexual activity, (2) procreate and socialize (i.e. establish in children a sense of their role; relay language and social norms), (3) provide resources, (4) provide social support, and (5) determine ones social class placement. Concerning the differences, families in different places and times have been diverse with regaurds to whether they are nuclear or extended; matrilocal, patrilocal, or neolocal (residence); matriarchal, patriarchal, or egalitarian (authority); and without marriage, monogomous, or polygomous (marriage). Ultimately, we end up with the thought that 'family' means different things to different people, depending on their social contexts. Although family means many different things, our author does provide us with a working definition of the family: the family is "an intimate group of two or more people who (1) live together in a committed relationship, (2) care for one another and any children, and (3) share activities and close emotional ties."

In addition to discussing what family is, our author claims to say what the family is not and to dispel so-called “myths” or unfounded attitudes surrounding family life.

Along the way, our author also illustrates three schools of thought that analyze the changing family; one that claims the family is deteriorating, a second that claims the family is improving, and a third that claims that the family is neither deteriorating or improving, just undergoing social change.

Lastly, our author notes some major demographic trends and discusses both micro- and macro- level analyses of these trends.

What I learned

This first introductory chapter, especially in its section titled ‘Trends in Changing Families’, provides empirical facts and figures that are valuable to any discussion regarding the family. For example, that U.S. birthrates have declined, that the number of married-couple households with children under age 18 declined from 40% to 23%, and that almost one out of every two first marriages is expected to end in divorce.

Vocabulary – The chapter also introduces a very useful vocabulary for discussing the different families that a single individual may be in, denoting a family that one grows up in as a “family of orientation” and a family that one starts with a partner as a “family of procreation.” Furthermore, I learned both endogamy (requirement for people to marry or have sexual relations within a certain group) and exogamy (requirement for people to marry or have sexual relations outside of a certain group).

Question/Concern

There were several concerns that I had about this chapter. First and foremost, I struggled with the “myths” section of the chapter for a few reasons. I disagreed with our authors treatment of each and every one of the myths, but for the sake of space, I will focus only on the first two and why I failed to see how they are actual myths (i.e. unfounded/false beliefs).

‘Families were happier in the past than they are now.’ – Before we can affirm or deny this statement, we must confront a slew of prior questions that relate to the very elusive concept of happiness, such as ‘what is happiness’, can happiness be measured (and if so, by whom?), is there an objective form of happiness…and so on. Our author assumes to have these answers, but I see this as at the very least debatable.

‘Marrying and having children is the natural thing to do.’ -- Two concepts are lumped together here – (1) the marrying and (2) the having children, and they are each natural but in two different senses of the word, which makes the statement ambiguous. Having children is natural in the scientific sense (“existing in or caused by nature”); we are animals and it is nature that we produce offspring. Marrying is ‘natural’ in the social sense (“of or in agreement with circumstances surrounding someone or something”) – acting in agreement with social norms surrounding someone or something, specifically marrying in a society where there is a social norm that one should marry, is in this sense natural.

Ultimately, people may in general have these beliefs and that they do have these beliefs is very important to know and to include in our text. But I am disappointed by the way our author dismisses them as ‘myths’, indicating that they are unfounded/false.