SOCIOL 4A03 Lecture Notes - Nuclear Family, Industrial Revolution, Social Forces
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Stages of family life:
2 types:
1. Arranged marriage
2. Love marriage
-in the preindustrial world, marriage is seen too big a matter to be left to the young, therefore, arranged marriage
takes place
-this is a cross-cultural thing
-arranged marriagealliances w/ 2 families w/ similar social standing (ex. Power, assets, religion, wealth) coming
together and bringing these assets together and making them larger
-thus, wealth and prestige will correspondingly increase
-love has little to do w/ this marriage (but relative not absolute)
-sometimes the child has veto power
-socialization tends to prepare people for traditional gender roles
-therefore, people tend to be emotionally prepared for married life
-cultural compatibility is more important than emotional compatibility
Love marriage:
-relative
-mistaken assumption that they have always existed
-in 1900s, in Ontario marriages were arranged
-b/c largely rural; people worked the land
-thus, when one family marries into another family, the land holdings grow larger
-came to be due to the rise of liberalism ad multiculturalism
-emergence of Hollywood in the 20th century
Love and mate selection:
-as industrial revolution gets going, the social events cause the collapse of arranged marriage
-therefore, there was more urbanization and people gave up their land
-so the extended family was replaced by the nuclear family
-the nuclear family has less influence on children than the extended family
-if there is more social pressure brought on people who want to do their own thing then there is more influence on
that individual
-but if families get smaller, the amount of social pressure the family can exert decreases
-the nuclear family fosters individualism”I will select my own partner”
What does this have to do w/ romantic love?
-this comes from the industrial revolution and the emergence of the labour market
-under tradition, farm workers hold that plot of land
-and so children depended on their parents
-with the industrial revolution, people gave up their land, moved to the city, and joined a part of the labour market
-thus, employers gave workers the money and no longer have to rely on parents
-when people are economically independent, they tend to be emotionally independent, thus children tend to go
their own way
-parents can’t do anything about it
-therefore, romantic love fit in with this
-affection and sexual passion become basis of marriage