Lec 8

Family & Human Sexuality

Prepared by Nga Nguyen Hong and Mr Tho Xuan Le

 What are social
institutions?
• Social institutions are organized patterns of
beliefs and behavior centered on basic social
needs.

• Major social institutions include family, religion,

education, government, the economy and
health care system.
 Contents
• I. Family: universal but varied

• II. Functions of the family

• III. Family under different perspectives

• IV. Marriage and family in Western society (USA)

• V. Family patterns in different culture

 I. Family: universal but
varied
• Toda culture in India: a
woman can
simultaneously married
several men,
fatherhood not always
connected to actual
biological facts, any
husband can establish
paternity by presenting
a woman a toy bow
and arrow.
 Family: universal but
varied
• Balinese of Indonesia
permit twins to marry
each other as believe
twins are intimate
already in the worm.
 Family: universal but
varied
• Banaro culture of New
Guinea: husband
forbidden to have
intercourse with wife
until she first borne a
child by another man
chosen for that
purpose.
 Family: universal but
varied
• From the examples, there are many variations
in ‘the family’ from culture to culture.

• A family can be defined as a set of people

related by blood, marriage (or some other
agreed-upon relationship), or adoption who
share the primary responsibility for
reproduction and caring for members in the
societies.
The family: Universal but
varied
• As a social institution present in all cultures

• Though organization of family can vary greatly,

there are certain principles concerning its
composition, descent patterns, residence
patterns, and authority patterns.
Composition: What Is the
Family?
• Nuclear Family: serves as
nucleus or core, upon
which larger family
groups are built.

• By 2013, only 66% of the

US’s households fit this
model.

• Household refers to
related or unrelated
individuals sharing a
residence as well as to
people who live alone.
Composition: What Is the
Family?
• The last 30 years have seen decrease in
married couples with children but substantial
increases in number of single person and
single parent households.

• Extended family: in which relatives in addition

to parents and children – such as
grandparents, aunts, or uncles – live in the
same home is known as an extended family.
 Composition: What Is the
Family?
• Structure of extended family offer certain
advantages over that of a family: more people
who can provide assistance and emotional
support.

• Besides, extended family constitutes a larger

economic unit than nuclear family. If the family is
engaged in a common enterprise or far, the
additional members may represent the
difference between prosperity and failure.
 Different forms of marriage

• Monogamy: form of
marriage where one
man and one woman
are married only to
each other.

• High rate of divorce

leads to Serial
monogamy, a person
allowed to have several
spouses in life but only
one spouse at a time.
 Mates chosen
• Endogamy: mates to be chosen amongst a
certain groups

• Exogamy : mates to be chosen outside certain

groups

• Homogamy: Mates with similar personal

characteristics are chosen
Different forms of
marriage
• Polygamy: some cultures
allow individuals several
husbands/wives
simultaneously.

• Most societies have

preferred polygamy, not
monogamy.

• According to Anthropologist
George Murdock, 80% of 565
societies have some type of
polygamy

• Polygamy decline but still in

at least Africa
 Two types of polygamy

Polygyny Polyandry
• one man married to more • A woman can have several
husbands at the same time,
than one woman: various extremely rare in the world
wives often sisters, today.
assumed to experience
• Accepted by extremely
sharing a household poor societies which
practice infanticide (killing
• Having multiple wives of baby girls) and have
small number of women
viewed as mark of status
• Devalues the social worth of
women
 Descent Patterns: to
whom are we related?
• How can we retrace our roots? By listening to
elderly family members about their lives and
ancestors who died long before we were born.

• A person linage is more than a person history,

reflecting social patterns that govern descent.

• In every culture, children introduced to relatives

with expectation of their emotional attachment.
 Descent Patterns: to
whom are we related?
• The state of being related to others is called
kinship.

• Kinship is culturally learnt and is not totally

determined by biological or marital ties.

• Eg. Adoption creates a kinship tie which is

legally acknowledged and socially accepted.
 Family and kin group not
necessarily the same
Family Kin group
• A household unit • Not always live together or
functions as a collective body on
daily basis

• Kin groups include aunts, uncles,

cousins, in laws..

• Kin groups may come together

only rarely, as for wedding or
funeral.

• Creates obligations and

responsibilities: many types of
aid, including loans and baby sit
 Three ways of
determining descent
• Bilateral descent: both sides of a person’s family are
regarded as equally important

• Patrilineal descent: only father’s relatives are

important in terms of property, inheritance,
Most
societies establishment of emotional ties.

• Matrilineal descent: only the mother’s relatives are

significant, relatives of father unimportant.
Family residence: Where
do we live?

Neolocal Patrilocal Matrilocal

• Married couple • Bride and groom • Live with her
establish live with his parents. It’s felt
separate parents that new couples
household need emotional
and economic
support of
kinfolk
Authority patterns: Who
rules?
• Eldest male wield greatest power

Patriarchy • Women low status and no full and equal

rights within legal system

• Women greater authority than men

Matriarchy • Emerged among Native American

tribes/nations where men absent for long
periods of time for warfare/food gathering

• Spouses are equal: doesn’t mean each

decision is shared in such families. Each may
Egalitarian hold authority in some spheres. Has begun
to replace patriarchal family as social norm
 Studying the family
• Do we really need the family?
• Friedrich Engels, a colleague of Marx, described
family as ultimate source of social inequality
because of its role in transfer of power, property
and privilege.
• Conflict theorists: family contributes to social
injustice, denies opportunities to women, limits
freedom in sexual expression and mate selection.
• Functionalist: family gratifies needs of members
and contribute to stability of society
 Case
• Italian Family
 II. Six Paramount
Functions of a Family
• 1. Reproduction:
replace dying members
of a society,
contributing to human
survival
 II. Six Paramount
Functions of a Family
• 2. Protection: human
infants need constant
care and economic
security, long period of
dependency of infants
and children.

• Responsible for
protection and
upbringing of children
 II. Six Paramount
Functions of a Family
• 3. Socialization

• Parents and kin

monitor a child’s
behavior and transmit
the norms, values and
language of a culture
to the child
 II. Six Paramount
Functions of a Family
• 4. Regulation of sexual
behavior: Sexual norms
subject to change over time
(in customs for dating) and
across cultures (Islamic vs
permissive Denmark)

• Standards of sexual behavior

most clearly defined within
family circle.

• Structure of society
influences these standards so
that in male dominated
societies, norms permit men
to express and enjoy sexual
desires more freely
 II. Six Paramount
Functions of a Family
• 5. Affection and
companionship: ideally
family provides members
with warm and intimate
relationships, help them
satisfied and secure.

• Family obliged to serve

emotional needs of its
members.

• We expect our relatives

to understand us, care for
us and to be there when
we need them.
 II. Six Paramount
Functions of a Family
• 6. Providing of social status: we inherit social
position bc’ of family background and
reputation of our parents and siblings.
• Family presents newborn child with ascribed
status of race and ethnicity helping determine
their place in a society’s stratification system.
• Family resources affect children’s ability to
pursue certain opportunities such as high
education and specialized lessons.
 III. Conflict view of the Family

• not as a contributor to social stability, but as a

reflection of the inequality in wealth and power
that is found within the larger society

• the family as an economic unit that contributes to

societal injustice
 III. Conflict view of the Family

• Feminists and conflict theorists note that family

traditionally legitimized and perpetuated male
dominance.

• Most societies husbands exercised overwhelming

power and authority within family.

• Wives and children as legal property of husbands

 III. Conflict view of the Family

• Egalitarian family more common pattern, still

male dominance within family: acts of
domestic violence, women are more likely to
leave jobs if husbands find better employment,
rather than men.
 III. Conflict view of the Family
• “for every stay-at-home dad there are 38 stay-at-home moms. And
unfortunately, many husbands reinforce their power and control
over wives and
children through acts of domestic violence” (Jason Fields 2004: 11–12; Garcia-
Moreno et al. 2005; Sayer et al. 2004).

• gender roles in child care and household chores has been

extensive. Sociologists have looked particularly closely at
how women’s work outside the home impacts their child
care and housework—duties Arlie Hochschild (1989,
1990, 2005) has referred to as the “second shift.” Today,
researchers recognize that for many women, the second
shift includes the care of aging parents as well
 III. Conflict view of the Family
• Family as economic unit contributing to societal injustice

• Family as basis for transferring power, property and privilege.

• Go back to the case of law students in the US, children inherit the
privileged or less than privileged social and economic status of
parents.

• Social class of parents influences children’s socialization

experiences and protection.

• Socioeconomic status of a child’s family has marked influence on

their nutrition, healthcare, housing, educational opportunities, life
chances -> maintain inequality.
 Gender view
• According to Velma McBride Murray and her
colleagues (2001) at the University of Georgia:
studies show that among African Americans, single
mothers draw heavily on kinfolk for material
resources, parenting advice, and social support.
Considering feminist research on the family as a
whole, one researcher concluded that the family is
the “source of women’s strength” (V. Taylor et al.
2009)
 Interactionist View
• when fathers are more involved with their children (reading
to them, helping them with homework, or restricting their
television viewing), the children have fewer behavior
problems, get along better with others, and are more
responsible (Mosley and Thomson 1995).

• Stepmother are more likely than stepfathers to accept the

blame for bad relations with their stepchildren

• Interactionists theorize that stepfathers (like most fathers)

may simply be unaccustomed to interacting directly with
children when the mother isn’t there (Bray and Kelly 1999;
F. Furstenberg and Cherlin 1991)
IV. Marriage and family in Western society (USA)
 Alternative lifestyles
• 1. Cohabitation

• Tremendous
increase in male-
female couples –
live together
without marriage –
cohabitation
 1. Cohabitation
• In Sweden, almost universal for couples to live
together before marriage, in Denmark
‘marriage without papers’, Australia ‘de facto’,
etc.
• Some countries have governmental policies
not encourage marriage: no marriage-couple
allowance for tax, no tax deduction for raising
children, no jointly file income taxes for
couples. In Sweden half of babies born to
unmarried mothers.
 1. Cohabitation
• Does not mean college campuses or sexual
experimentations.

• Working couples cohabitate twice as many as

students.

• More similar to spouses than dating partners,

in the US half of people in cohabitation
previously married.
2. Reasons for cohabitation rather
than marriage
• Religious differences

• Preserve full social

security benefits for the
single

• One partner of both not

legally divorced

• Live through spouse’s

illness and don’t want to
repeat

• Older couples feel no

need for marriage
 3. Remain single
Attractions of being Attractions of being
single married
• Career opportunities • Economic security

• Sexual availability • Regular sex

• Exciting lifestyle • Desired for family

• Self-sufficiency • Sustained love

• Freedom to change and • Security in personal

experiment relationships
 3. Remain single
• A single adult may confront inaccurate view: is
always lonely, workaholic, immature,
automatically affluent, etc -> stereotype that a
person must get married and raise a family to
truly feel happy and fulfilled.
V. Family patterns in different culture
 4. Gay and Lesbian Relationships
• US: 10%, Vietnam 0.09%

• Recognized in lots of countries like in

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta,
Mexico,the Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain,
Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United
States, and Uruguay (27)
 5. Gay and Lesbian Relationships

• Used to be prohibited

• Stigma towards Gays and lesbian: moved out

of schools, discrimination in housing,
employment, physical abuse, regarded as
social illness, high rate of STI diseases like HIV
 6. Marriage without children

• Viewed as a problem solved through such

means as adoption and artificial insemination.
• Do not feel that reproduction is the duty of all
marriage couples.
• Having children is expensive → avoid financial
abuse
• Increasing conflicts with employees having no
children
 Global trends
• Late marriage is wide-spread

• Family without children is prevalent in Western

countries

• Divorce rate increases

• Re-marriage (after divorce) increases

• Nuclear family is increasing in urban areas

• Single mom is more and more common

 References
• Textbook 1