Chapter 1

Summary:

In this chapter, the author begins by defining the term "family" and explaining several of its functions. She then defined marriage and talked about its significance and the different forms it takes around the world. She also talked about myths surrounding the family that are put forward by society and their effects on personal views of family life.

The main focus of the second part of the chapter was on how the family is changing. The author outlined three viewpoints for looking at this change: that the family is in decay, the family is not in decay, but is changing in a neutral way, and the family is growing stronger. From there, she said that the age and race demographics of society at large were changing, which offered the proof of change. She said that there were two reasons why marriage is changing: micro and macro. The author pointed out that both personal and societal factors contribute to the changes in the demographics like divorce, co-habitation, and the switch from nuclear families to extended families.

What I learned:

I learned that there are many different ways that society can mythologize marriage and the family. Besides the myth of a perfect family, they can also take the form of the myth of what forms and behaviors of a family are natural and the myth of self-sufficiency.

My question:

One thing I noticed in this chapter was the author's inclusion of social movements in the list of things that can affect families. It seemed like it was out of place, given the views that the author expressed in the rest of the chapter. She seems to prefer thinking of the family as a unit that functions as one, as opposed to looking at it as a collection of individuals. It seems to me that the most prevalent way for a social movement to affect families is by setting some members of the family against others, which will lead to change after the conflict.