SOCI201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Talcott Parsons, Nuclear Family
3 May 2018
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●Marriage
○A socially approved intimate relationship between two (and sometimes more)
individuals
○Who sanctions marriage?
■Priests, the government
○Forms of Marriage
■Monogamy→ each married partner is allowed only one spouse
■Polygamy→ a person may have two or more spouses simultaneously
■Polygyny→ a man may have more than one wife
■Polyandry→ a woman may have more than one husband
●Kinship
○A relation that links individuals through blood ties, marriage, or adoption
●Family
○A group of individuals related to one another by blood ties, marriage, or adoption,
who form an economic unit, the adult members of which are responsible for the
upbringing of children (if any)
○Nuclear family
■A family group of two adults living together in a household with their own
or adopted children
○Extended family
■More than two generations of relatives living either in the same household
or very close to one another
○“Dink” Family
■Dual income earners with no kids
○The Marxist Perspective on Family
■Transition from matriarchal to patriarchal society
■Compulsory monogamy for women is a system to control women
■Private family is where exploitation of women, children, slaves, and other
forms of social inequalities originate
●But, not every society follows the path of a “matriarchal-
patriarchal” society
■Inspired later feminist scholarship on the family
○The Structural Functionalist Perspective on Family
■Talcott Parsons
■The traditional nuclear family was a functional necessity in modern
industrial society
■Primary socialization
■Personality stabilization
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Document Summary
A socially approved intimate relationship between two (and sometimes more) individuals. Monogamy each married partner is allowed only one spouse. Polygamy a person may have two or more spouses simultaneously. Polygyny a man may have more than one wife. Polyandry a woman may have more than one husband. A relation that links individuals through blood ties, marriage, or adoption. A group of individuals related to one another by blood ties, marriage, or adoption, who form an economic unit, the adult members of which are responsible for the upbringing of children (if any) A family group of two adults living together in a household with their own or adopted children. More than two generations of relatives living either in the same household or very close to one another. Compulsory monogamy for women is a system to control women. Private family is where exploitation of women, children, slaves, and other forms of social inequalities originate.
