Family As A Social Institution Analysis

To describe the family as a social institution, one should first consider its universal character. Some social thinkers call family as a primary group. Family institution is present in all human communities.

Various sociologists and anthropologists define the family term in a different manner. For instance, the American anthropologist George P. Murdock (1949) defines family as a “social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship and one or more children - own or adopted - of the sexually cohabiting adults.” However, the definition of family in Murdock 's opinion is considered to be restrictive in relation

First, the procedures associated with the act of divorce become easier thanks to new legislation, to meet the newly emerging economic and development needs. Second, the attitudes towards women and the social status of women experience a change. Comprehension and conceptualization of gender equity and gender based discussions occur during the period. Economic empowerment of women through employment tends to loosen their connection to the patriarchal family, giving them the taste of economic independence. Women experienced greater confidences have the say to discontinue a bad relationship with her married partner.

Increases in divorce rates imply that the number of single parent families also increases. Most frequently single parent families are headed by women, the perspective on the family has suffered substantial changes in the second half of the twentieth century (Tischler, 2011). To describe these relatively radical changes in the internal structure of the family as a social institution, some sociologists have introduced the term postmodern family.

The concept of postmodern family describes the multitude of forms in which the family can occur, and “the fact that families today exhibit a multiplicity of forms and that new or altered family forms continue to emerge and develop (Lamanna & Riedman, 2012),” These changes can be summarized as:

Traditional Nuclear Family New

Cultural diversity manifests itself directly in forms of conceiving and organizing family life. As family is a primary social institution of a society, existence of every social institution depends on the functions carried out by that social institution. After emphasizing the universal character of the family, Murdock (1949) argues that the family has four basic social functions: sexual regulations, reproduction, economic cooperation and socialization/education. The family gives information about culture and helps to balanced personality development. Family carries out social regulations through developing