Page 379 - Sociology and You

Chapter 11 The Family
does not have a precise meaning, many laws define the term when they use it. For example, zoning laws that set aside certain areas for single-family homes define family one way. Laws involving insurance, social security, or inheritance may define family in other ways. For sociologists, however, family is defined as a group of people related by marriage, blood, or adoption. While the con- cept of family may appear simple on the surface, the family is a complex so- cial unit with many facets. Of all the social institutions, the family has the greatest impact on individual behavior.
The family we are born into, or the family of birth, is called the family of orientation. It provides children with a name, an identity, and a heritage. In other words, it gives the child an ascribed status in the community. The fam- ily of orientation “orients” (or directs) children to their neighborhood, com- munity, and society and locates them in the world.
The family of procreation is established upon marriage. Marriage is a legal union between a man and a woman based on mutual rights and obli- gations. (Marriages between two persons of the same sex have been ruled legally invalid by U.S. courts.) The marriage ceremony signifies that it is legal (officially sanctioned) for a couple to have offspring and to give the children a family name. The family of procreation becomes the family of orientation for the children created from the marriage.
Two Basic Types of Families
There are two basic types of families. The nuclear family, the smallest group of individuals that can be called a family, is composed of a parent or parents and any children. The extended family consists of two or more adult generations of the same family whose members share economic re- sources and live in the same household. Extended families may also contain close relatives, such as grandparents, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
“The family is the essential presence—the thing that never leaves you, even if you have to leave it.
Bill Buford writer
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family
a group of people related by marriage, blood, or adoption
marriage
a legal union based on mutual rights and obligations
nuclear family
family structure composed of one or both parents and children
extended family
two or more adult generations of the same family whose members share economic resources and a common household
Why would sociologists not call these relatives an extended family?
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