Anthroclan

Definitions of Family While defining the term family some social scientists have seen the family as a universal institution. Others have used the terms to refer to a distinctive characteristic of the social life. Functionalist perspective defined family in terms of activity and their effect on society. Marxist perspective explains the family as the basic unit of oppression and to envisage its eventual abolition. Some of the major definitions of family are as follows: The word ‘family’ is derived from Latin Word “Famulus” which means a servant. 1. MacIver and Page defined “family is a group defined by a sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for procreation and upbringing of children” 2. Levi Strauss (1971) has described family and its structures and functions in the following manner: ‘social groups that originate in marriage, they consist of husband, wife, and children born of their union (although is some family forms other relatives are include...

                                       Defining Kinship  Anthropologist Robin Fox states that "the study of kinship is the study of what man does with these basic facts of life – mating, gestation, parenthood, socialization, siblingship etc''. He argues that human society is unique in that we are working with the same raw material as exists in the animal world, but [we] can conceptualize and categorize it to serve social ends. These social ends include the socialization of children and the formation of basic economic, political and religious groups. The ‘facts of life with which man has had to come to terms in the process of adaption and which are immediately relevant to the study of kinship and marriage can be reduced to four basic principles; 1. A lengthy infant maturation period that requires a major commitment from one and usually both parents to nurture and educate dep...