Author: Haroon Khalil
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Marriage Type
What significantly affects the family type is the number of spouses, no matter how they have been acquired. When a person has more than one spouse at the same time, it is an instance of Polygamy as against Monogamy. Polygamy is basically of two types: Polygyny (plural wives, single husband) and Polyandry (plural husbands, single wife). There are references to a third type…
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Family Size
The census takes note of the number of persons residing in A family, and calculates the average size of the family. At times, the word ‘household’ is used for such a unit. Again, household has been variously defined in different censuses as (i) a physical structure—one roof—and all persons living under it; or (ii) a…
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DEFINITION OF THE FAMILY
The biological and bio-social factors discussed above help us to understand the omnipresence of the family. George Peter Murdock conducted an analysis of 250 ‘primitive’ societies using the ethnographies relative to them, and arrived at the conclusion that family was present in all. Murdock defined Family as: a social group characterized by common residence,…
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BIOLOGICAL BASES OF THE FAMILY
Family may not be indispensable, in the sense that the functions performed by it can be taken over by other agencies of the social system, or a special agency created for them in society—such as the Israeli Kibbutz or the Soviet Kolhos, which take care of the socialization of the young. Children can be produced by surrogate mothers,3 or through…
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OMNIPRESENCE OF THE INSTITUTION OF FAMILY
Recruitment by birth as the principal mode of enlisting membership is common to all societies. It is this aspect of recruitment that has given prominence to the institution of the family. Apart from religion, family is the only institution that is universally found in all societies. It is the family towards which every individual seems to be…
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THE REPLACEMENT AND RECRUITMENT DIMENSION
In all inclusive social systems such as society, replacement is mainly through the process of sexual reproduction. This implies that such a social system has to be heterosexual (that is, consisting of both males and females) in demographic composition. We may recall Marion J. Levy’s definition of society, discussed at length in which he says that…
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Introduction
The difference between a living and a dead social system—of whatever size, be it the largest or the smallest—is the presence, or the disappearance (due to death or migration), of its members. A social system lives through its membership. Individuals who belong to it may die or withdraw; their replacement is a must if a…
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INPUT-OUTPUT MODEL
The linkage between different sub-systems can also be shown through an input-output model. Any sub-system receives ‘inputs’ from the wider social system, which are then ‘processed’ within the sub-system. The process is technically known as ‘through-put’, and is delivered to the wider social system as ‘outputs’. Take the example of a college as a sub-system…
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HANDLING FUNCTIONAL PROBLEMS: THE AGIL MODEL
Consolidating all the ideas mentioned above, Parsons talks of four functional problems or requisites, namely (i) Adaptation, (ii) Goal attainment, (iii) Integration, and (iv) Latency2 or Pattern maintenance—abbreviated as the AGIL paradigm. Parsons subscribes to the view that the action generated within any given social system is in part directed toward its external situation and in part toward its internal situation …. The external-internal dichotomy is one axis. Consistent with his…
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FUNCTIONAL PREREQUISITES AND REQUISITES
For any system to function—that is, to become operational—there are some requirements to be fulfilled. They may be called preconditions. What are they? A social system consists of interacting individuals. For a system to operate, therefore, it is essential that it have a regular supply of individuals to serve as actors. The first prerequisite for…