Preview

Describe Ways in Which Concept of Family Has Changed Across Cultures and over Time (Sociology)

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1457 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Describe Ways in Which Concept of Family Has Changed Across Cultures and over Time (Sociology)
DESCRIBE WAYS IN WHICH CONCEPT OF FAMILY HAS CHANGED ACROSS CULTURES AND OVER TIME
Families in the world are very different. They come in different shapes and sizes, it can be based on different kinds of relationship, but what all families have in common that it is made of people you love and care. Over past 20 or more years families in the world has changed the most than it has changed in all history. Of course changes in the families are different among cultures and religions. It seems that United States, Canada and Northern Europe families has changed the most, now Nuclear families are dominating there, when in Asia Extended families still takes a greater number. In the richest places in the world numbers of same sex marriages, cohabitations, divorces significantly increasing, when in most less developed countries these things are forbidden and relatives still arrange their children marriages, or even force their children to get married to someone they want to.
Everyone imagines family as mother, father, sisters, brothers, grandparents and etc. To us it is normal family picture. However, today more families are described as “alternative” families. The numbers of lone parents, homosexual partners, or foster parents are obviously increasing. It can be the cause of the changes in law. In today’s world people have more rights than they had about 50 years ago. Especially women won their equality, so they can raise their children on their own or get married to other women. Same sex marriage is something new in the world (it first became legal in Netherlands in 2001). However, it is believed that same sex relationship existed since the ancient times. We can find a lot of examples of it in ancient art and literature. But it is just a small part in the world where same sex marriage now is absolutely legal. In the other parts of the world homosexuality is legal, but unions are not recognised. Watching at the map, the countries tolerates homosexuality are just developed

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Assess the view that the growth of the family diversity has led to a decline of the traditional nuclear family.…

    • 600 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In today’s society there are many different family types the nuclear family which makes up the largest percentage of family types in the UK, single parent families, co-habiting families, gay families, inter-racial families, reconstituted families, joint families and transsexual families. This is interesting because in previous societies, this variety of family types would not have been accepted however in today’s society family diversity is much more easily accepted.…

    • 1598 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through chapter 18 in Anthropology for Christian Witness Charles Kraft breaks down the different aspects of families around the world. Kraft brings up how in today's western society that the standard family no longer looks like a man and women and two children but ranges from having same sax parents to haveing one parent to being raised by an aunt or uncle or someone else in the community. “Given the fragility of western missionaries have taken it upon themselves to teach that nuclear families are God’s ideal and more biblical than extended families” (293 Kraft). (Which is absolutely ridiculous) Krafts goes over the different types of families the descent and inheritances in the family, the residence of families, the authority in the family, and what the average family looks like in american…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The roles and relationships within the family have changed throughout the years, with men being less embarrassed to push a pram, to women going out to work while the men looked after the children. This could be due to the changes that took place in the past century, such as changes in women’s position, geographical mobility, new technology and higher living standards.…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the past, traditionally families have mostly been the ‘traditional nuclear family’ made up of a married man and woman and at least one child. However there has recently been a decline in the amount of traditional nuclear families and an increase in the amount of diverse families. There are now less people following the traditional view that the nuclear family is the ‘normal’ way to live. The diverse families now include families such as, lone parent families, reconstituted family, extended family, lone person households, cohabiting couples and same sex couples. In this essay I will discuss the view that the traditional nuclear family has decline as a result of the growth of family diversity and the reasons why people are no longer following past tradition. Cohabitatiion is an arrangement where two people who is not married live together in an intimate relationship, particularly an emotionally and/or sexually intimate one, on a long-term or permanent basis. Before 1970, cohabitation was illegal in certain countries e.g. America. Due to a change in the law, Cohabitation is now a common pattern among people around the world, as well as sex/birth outside of marriage, leaving at least 50% to 60% of coupless cohabitating, starting from the late 1990âs. This leads to the amount of traditional nuclear families decreasing as people want to live in companionship as nearly half the amount of marriages end in divorce, also cohabiting is an easier way as its much cheaper and doesnt cause much hassle. The New Right see the decline of the traditional nuclear family and the growth of family diversity as negative trends in modern society.…

    • 757 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This question is different today than it was hundreds of years ago. Family, as we know it today still tends to be based on property including one spouse and offspring. Marriage is still legally regulated and is a contract between two partners; however the emphasis on appearance has become significant. The family unit has changed; single parents, blended families and non-standard sexual relationships are becoming the norm rather than the exception.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The typical family has developed into so many different forms in recent years. A large part of society…

    • 2476 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    sociology of the family

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The work will be graded against these indicative contents. These grades will contribute to your overall unit grade.…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As human beings we are all entitled to our rights to have a family. Society’s image of a perfect heterosexual family is just a stereotype. Nowadays kids today do not live with two married parents. The sexual identity of a child with gay parents develops the same way with heterosexual parents. Most gay or lesbian children are born into a heterosexual family. Children are more impacted by the communication with their parents rather than the sexual identity of their parents. Even living in a homosexual household children adapt quite well with their peers. Growing up with two homosexual parents the child tend to believe in equal rights and is sympathy towards differences. Gay parents are not accidental parents so they are much more devoted and inclined versus heterosexual parents who became accidental parents. ”It has be stated that children can be successfully raised by same-sex couple with no adverse effects that would not have been present if raised by parents of the opposite sex.” (LGBT Adoption Statistics) Traditionally family beliefs are not adequate proof for…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are 15.8 million families in Britain. The family in Britain is very diverse; diversity means that there is a wide range of different ‘things’, in terms of family it means lots of different family types. There has been diversity in the family structure in Britain, an example of this is ‘lone parents’, lone parents have always been part of Britain’s family structure but even more so during the World Wars, this is due to the premature death of the partner. During the 50’s and the 60’s the most popular family was nuclear family, nuclear family is a family that only the parents and the children live together. There were also some extended families during this time; extended family is where the grandparents live with or near the children as well as the children’s parents. The reason why nuclear family and extended family were so popular is due to marriage being very popular and cohabitation was very rare. During these times some types of family were frowned upon, some examples of this are: Homosexual families, Single parent families and reconstructed families. Homosexual families were frowned upon due to the stigma towards homosexuals during these times. Due to marriage being very popular single parent families were also frowned upon. Reconstructed family was also frowned upon due to the popularity of marriage; you would have to be divorced to be able to have been able to have a reconstructed family. However over the last 50 years there have been significant changes in the family structures due to various social changes in society.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The family is the category that occurred early in the history of mankind; is an important social institution, related to the operation of the whole society and each individual. In view of the system, a change that institutions will lead to change the system and vice versa, the institutions around the family in the social system in general (such as economics, law, culture...) change also causes varying family. American family is not an exception to this rule.…

    • 1594 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Family Philosophy Papers

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages

    For the Biblical Christian, marriage is a holy matrimony, which means that the framework of marriage revolves around three parties, the male, the female, and God (Martin). However, in present day society the divorce rate is high, marriage is seen between all genders, and the family is largely affected by the change. As a result of the Enlightenment, “God is cut away from the institution of marriage, as He is cut away from all life, and thus, marriage can no longer be a vertical, triangular, covenantal, spiritual relationship” (Martin). Instead, marriage seems to be just some sort of contractual relationship, bound together by a piece of paper. I would argue, similarly to Martin, that the term family and the meaning associated with it is deteriorating today because we as a society have gravitated very far from Biblical Christianity that the people no longer understand the nature, structure, or purpose of the family (Martin). Influenced by rationalism society has shifted towards a very loose system of life with almost no sense of true direction, purpose, and passion. We have drifted so far that many people cannot explain why they do things or why they believe what they believe because they simply comply with sociological norms without true explanation behind his or her actions and or…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Family and the legal definition of it are under a lot of scrutiny. The religious and political right believe in the biblical definition of family. Man and woman, husband and wife, and their children make families. The gay and lesbian and the political left believe that anyone should be allowed to marry and create a family. Man and man, woman and woman, and their children make families. While there is no doubt that the obvious differences in the makeup of these families creates issues of discrimination and prejudice, the majority of younger people are more accepting now than ever…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    While the majority of young couples seem to be following a linear progression in their relationship along traditional lines, others are starting families away from the established structures of society and even outside legality (Galea 2007, Fenech 2011). In Malta, the situation has its unique characteristics. What we have been witnessing in recent years is a combination of factors with important repercussions. According to family scholar Abela (2009a), the unity of the institutionalised family and the need to sustain marriage as a permanent relationship continue to be important values that are entrenched in our culture. Moreover, the vast majority of Maltese university students still want to marry for life (Abela 2009a). Conversely, the rapid rise in teenage pregnancies, single parenthood, widows, middle-aged divorcees, unmarried teen-aged mums and the fact that about one third of the children born in Malta each year are outside wedlock (NSO 2011), might indicate this rapid transformation. All the above elements surely cannot be taken as one spectrum in social analysis. Bugeja (2012) states that the disintegration of the traditional Maltese nuclear family in an increasing number of local communities is the principal source of so much social unrest and misery. According to Galea (2007), being committed to one`s partner and to the relationship remains a challenge for all married persons. Then again the challenges for younger couples are becoming more complex as the crisis in commitment is manifested as early as in the courtship (Tufigno as cited in Galea 2007). The serious nature of the problem we are facing in Malta, mainly in the privatisation of relationships and the institutionalised family life, should not be underestimated (Galea 2007). People today seem to have a different way of understanding a traditional family commitment than from the past. The transition is from a commitment to an institution to a more personal bond. Nevertheless, in a society where the…

    • 2365 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Best Essays

    The social institution of the family is one of our oldest institutions. Through the years it has gone through some changes and many challenges. In this paper I will describe what the social institution of the family is, its functions, how it is failing in the United States, and how other countries are dealing with these issues.…

    • 2401 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays

Related Topics