1. Report_
Changes in Family Structure
Introduction to
Anthropology
Instructor: Tata Zafar (TZf)
ANT-101, SECTION-1
Submission Date: 27th April,2015
Prepared By:
Sumiya Islam Khan (122 1007 030)
Md. Ferdous Khan Samuel (111 0706 030)
Shadman Ferdous Ibna Matin (111 1073 030)
2. 1
Introduction
The family is one of the most important socio economic institutions in our society, but the
nature of the links between family members varies dramatically across nationalities. Do
countries with a culture fostering strong family ties tend to have deferent economic outcomes
than more individualistic societies? While sociologists and political scientists have paid some
attention to this question, this is an issue vastly ignored by economists. Even though the latter
do recognize the role of the family in economic decisions, there is not systematic empirical
evidence isolating the importance of culture, as measured by the strength of family ties, on
economic outcomes. The idea that culture matters for economic outcomes is not new, but
only recently economists have started to quantify its importance1. The empirical evidence so
far has been limited to the importance of trust or to generic measures of culture2. We
contribute to this debate by proposing a new measure of culture, by addressing causality
looking and the behavior of second generation immigrants in the US, and by employing a
variable based on the grammatical rule of pronoun drop as an instrument for family ties. The
core of our strategy will be to understand whether some specific family arrangements, such as
the amount of home production, the labor force participation of household members, the role
of the woman in the family and in the society, are the result of market environments and
specific institutional features of a society, or whether they are, at least partially, an outcome
of long lasting cultural norms, reflecting deference's in loyalties and duties across generations
in different countries.
3. 2
Family
This article is about the group of people such as a mother and a father. For the family in
biology, see Family.
In the context of human society, a family (from Latin: familia) is a group of people affiliated
by consanguinity (by recognized birth), affinity (by marriage), or co-residence and/or shared
consumption (see Nurture kinship). Members of the immediate family may include,
singularly or plurally, a spouse, parent, brother, sister, son and/or daughter. Members of the
extended family may include grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews’ nieces
and/or siblings-in-law.
In most societies, the family is the principal institution for the socialization of children. As
the basic unit for raising children, anthropologists generally classify most family organization
as matrifocal (a mother and her children); conjugal (a husband, his wife, and children; also
called the nuclear family); avuncular (for example, a grandparent, a brother, his sister, and
her children); or extended (parents and children co-reside with other members of one parent's
family).
"Family" is used metaphorically to create more inclusive categories such as community,
nationhood, global village and humanism.
Genealogy is a field which aims to trace family lineages through history.
Family is also an important economic unit studied in family economics.
1 Social reproduction
2 Types
2.1 Conjugal (nuclear or single) family
2.2 Matrifocal family
2.3 Extended family
3 Blended family
4 Monogamous family
4. 3
5 Polygamous family
5.1 Polygyny
5.2 Polyandry
Social reproduction
One of the primary functions of the family involves providing a framework for the production
and reproduction of persons, biologically and/or socially. This can occur through the sharing
of material substances (such as food); the giving and receiving of care and nurture.
Types
The diverse data coming from ethnography, history, law and social statistics, establish that
the human family is an institution and not a biological fact found on the natural relationship
of consanguinity. The different types of families occur in a wide variety of settings, and their
specific functions and meanings depend largely on their relationship to other social
institutions.
Nuclear or single family
The term "nuclear family" is commonly used, especially in the United States, to refer to
conjugal families. A "conjugal" family includes only the husband, the wife, and unmarried
children who are not of age. Sociologists distinguish between conjugal families (relatively
independent of the kindred of the parents and of other families in general) and nuclear
families (which maintain relatively close ties with their kindred). However, in the 21st
century, the "nuclear family", according to the 2010 Census, is "disappearing at a rapid rate
are homes with "traditional" nuclear families—Mom, Dad and two children
Matriarchal family
A "multifocal" family consists of a mother and her children. Generally, these children are her
biological offspring, although adoption of children is a practice in nearly every society. This
kind of family is common where women have the resources to rear their children by
themselves, or where men are more mobile than women.
Extended family
5. 4
The term "extended family" is also common, especially in United States. This term has two
distinct meanings. First, it serves as a synonym of "consanguinal family" (consanguine
means "of the same blood"). Second, in societies dominated by the conjugal family, it refers
to "kindred" (an egocentric network of relatives that extends beyond the domestic group)
who do not belong to the conjugal family. These types refer to ideal or normative structures
found in particular societies. Any society will exhibit some variation in the actual
composition and conception of families.
Blended family
The term blended family or stepfamily describes families with mixed parents: one or both
parents remarried, bringing children of the former family into the new family.
Monogamous family
Polygamy is a marriage that includes more than two partners. When a man is married to
more than one wife at a time, the relationship is called polygyny; and when a woman is
married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry. If a marriage includes
multiple husbands and wives, it can be called polyamory.
Polygyny
Polygyny is a form of plural marriage, in which a man is allowed more than one wife. In
modern countries that permit polygamy, polygyny is typically the only form permitted.
Polygyny is practiced primarily (but not only) in parts of the Middle East and Africa; and is
often associated with Islam.
Polyandry
Polyandry is a form of marriage whereby a woman takes two or more husbands at the same
time. Fraternal polyandry, where two or more brothers are married to the same wife, is a
common form of polyandry. Polyandry was traditionally practiced in areas of the Himalayan
Mountains, among Tibetans in Nepal, in parts of China and in parts of northern India.
Polyandry is most common in societies marked by high male mortality or male absenteeism.
6. 5
Modern family
Those were the kind of our family once, but in 21st
century a lot has changed, even families.
Most countries have seen a decline in the fertility rate over the past three decades. As a
result the average household size has also declined over this period. At the same time, there
has been a sharp increase in the proportion of women entering the labour force. Family
formation patterns are also changing. Increasingly, both men and women want to first
establish themselves in the labour market before founding a family. Hence, the age of
mothers at first childbirth has risen and with it the probability of having fewer children than
previous generations. Many women remain childless. so there are fewer children and more
grandparents than before.
Issues in family policy, underlying policy objectives and evidence on good practices will be
discussed in subsequent chapters. This chapter outlines some of the key indicators that
illustrate modern family life and how these affect the well-being of children and parents
across the countries and its enhanced engagement partners. (Alesina, 2007)
Changes in household structure
Children in households
Changing family structures, lower fertility rates and ageing populations have led to a
growing share of households without children. Countries like Canada, Chile, Mexico and
Ireland, over half of households do not include children. Even households with children
predominantly contain only one or two children. The proportion of households with one
child is about the same (around 40%) as the proportion of households with two children,
except for Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain, where the
proportion of households with one child is around 50% of all households with children. The
proportion of households with three or more children is below 20% of all households with
children, on average, with the exceptions of Chile (20%), Norway (20%), Finland (21%), the
United States (22%), Iceland (25%), Ireland (30%) and Mexico (33%). (Alesina, 2007)
Partnership patterns
Both falling marriage rates and increasing divorce rates have contributed to the increase in
sole-parent families as well as “reconstituted families”. On average across the world,
7. 6
marriage rates have fallen from 8.1 marriages per 1 000 people in 1970 to 5.0 in 2009. There
is considerable variation across countries: marriage rates have remained high in Korea,
Turkey and the United States but are low in Chile, Luxembourg and Italy.
Work life and family life
Female labor participation in production
Increasing female participation in higher education has contributed to changing female
aspirations regarding labor market participation in many countries, with the biggest change
in behavior amongst married mothers. The timing of the resultant increase in female
employment has varied across countries. For example, the rise in female employment began
in the early 1960s in Australia, New Zealand, the Nordic countries, and the United States
whereas the main gains in Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain were recorded over the past
two decades. (Alesina, 2007)
Parents in work
The growth in the proportion of women in the labor force is strongly related to the growing
numbers of mothers re-entering the labor force or remaining in employment. On average
across THE countries in 2007, more than six out of ten mothers with dependent children
(aged 0-16) were in paid employment. There is, however, considerable cross-national
variation. At below 50%, employment rates for mothers with dependent children (0-16)
were lowest in Hungary, Italy, Poland and the Slovak Republic. In contrast, more than two
out of three mothers were in paid employment in Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland and
the United States, with maternal employment rates highest in Nordic countries at around
75% or more. (Marx, 2011)
Joblessness and poverty among households
The economic vulnerability of families is linked to parents’ incapacity to reconcile
employment and parenthood. The most disadvantaged families with children are those where
no adults are in paid employment. Joblessness is generally much higher for sole parent
families than for couples with children, and the growth in the incidence of sole parent
families has been a significant contributor to trends in family joblessness. Thus, children in
8. 7
couple households are less likely to be living with jobless parents than children in sole-parent
households such as Bangladesh.
Family life has changed over the past few decades in most countries. Total fertility rates have
fallen and, despite a recent rebound in many countries, fertility rates remain below the
replacement level in most countries. There has been increased deferment of childbearing
among women which in extreme cases has led to increased childlessness. The childlessness
rate seems strongly linked to the education level of women: women with higher education
levels are most likely to remain childless.
Increasing educational attainment levels among women have gone hand-in-hand with
improved labor market outcomes for women. However, despite sharp increases in female
employment over the past few decades, gender gaps persist. Many women still find it more
difficult to gain employment than men, and once they are in the labor market, face further
difficulties in gaining equity with their male counterparts. On average, there is a 15
percentage point gap in the employment rates of men and women among prime-aged (25-54)
adults. And among the working population, women are more likely to have part time work
and temporary contracts and less likely to reach managerial positions. (Marx, 2011)
9. 8
Conclusions
The family is a key socio economic unit in society and the nature of its organization greatly
varies across nationalities. In some cultures/nationalities family ties are weak and members
only feel obligated up to a point to be linked to others members of the family. In other
cultures family ties are strong. We measure family ties based on answers from the World
Value Survey and we show that strong family ties imply more home production of goods and
services and less participation in market activities especially for women and youngsters
which stay at home longer. This is associated with higher fertility (family ties may also
provide child care services) and a more "traditional" role for women, with less education and
more work at home. Strong family ties are also associated with less geographical mobility
since ties are more useful if people live close to each other. Family with strong ties trust
family members more but trust others outside the family less and are inward looking. On the
positive side, people belonging to strong family ties societies appear to be happier and
satisfied with their life. In order to mitigate problems of reverse causation and endogeneity of
cultural traits to economic outcomes we use second-generation immigrants in the US as a test
that holds constant the economic environment but allows variation in immigrants’ culture.
We also use an instrument based on linguistic characteristics, on the assumption that the
language structure is correlated (as it is) to beliefs about individualistic versus groups
relationships. Overall both the size and the statistical significance of the coefficients imply a
large effect of the nature of family relationships on economic structures. These considerations
are important for the design of public polices since the same set of interventions may have
very different effects in countries with different family ties.
10. 9
Reference:
Al esina, A., & Giuliano, P. (2007, April). The Power of the Family. IZA Discussion Paper , 56.
Marx, R. (2011). Families are changing. DOING BETTER FOR FAMILIES , 37
