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Unit I: Family
a) Meaning and Functions:
Family: A group of individuals related by blood, marriage, or adoption, providing emotional, financial, and social support.
Functions:
Socialization: Teaching norms and values.
Economic support: Sharing resources.
Emotional support: Providing care and companionship.
Reproduction: Ensuring societal continuity.
b) Types of Family:
Nuclear Family: Consists of parents and their children.
Extended Family: Includes relatives beyond the immediate family, like grandparents, aunts, uncles.
Joint Family: Multiple generations living together, common in India.
Single-parent Family: One parent raising children.
Blended Family: Families formed from previous marriages and partnerships.
c) Sociological Perspectives:
Functionalist Perspective: Family performs essential societal functions like socialization, emotional support, and stability. Emphasizes harmony and balance.
Conflict Perspective: Focuses on inequality within family structures, such as power dynamics, gender roles, and economic disparities.
d) Changing Trends in the Institution of Family:
Urbanization: Shift from extended to nuclear families.
Women's Empowerment: Changing gender roles, increased participation of women in workforce.
Technological Influence: Digital platforms reshaping family interactions.
Cultural Shifts: Changing norms regarding marriage, childbearing, and relationships.
Unit II: Marriage
a) Meaning and Functions:
Marriage: A socially and legally recognized union between individuals, often involving a partnership in economic, social, and reproductive functions.
Functions:
Social legitimacy: Recognizes relationships.
Reproduction: Legitimizes children.
Emotional support: Provides companionship and security.
Economic support: Joint responsibility for resources.
b) Types of Marriage:
Monogamy: One spouse at a time.
Polygamy: Multiple spouses (Polygyny - one man, multiple women; Polyandry - one woman, multiple men).
Endogamy: Marriage within a specific social group.
Exogamy: Marriage outside a social group.
Matrilineal: Descent traced through the mother's side.
Bilateral: Descent traced through both parents' sides.
Unilineal: Descent traced through one line (either paternal or maternal).
c) Kinship Usages:
Kinship terminology: Different societies use different terms to refer to relatives (e.g., maternal aunt vs. paternal aunt).
Kinship networks: Broader social support systems based on kin relations.
d) Changes in Kinship Bonds:
Urbanization: Reduces traditional kinship networks.
Modernization: Nuclear families are replacing extended families.
Migration: People move away from traditional family structures, leading to weaker kin bonds.
Technology: Social media and digital communication affect kinship ties by providing new ways of maintaining connections.
