How Far Is It True That Murdock’s Definition of the Family Is Universal?

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Functionalists attempt to define the family on the basis of the functions that the family performs. In 1949, George Peter Murdock defined the family as "a social group characterized by common residence, economic cooperation, and reproduction”. He added that the family 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". He believed that the nuclear family was the universal core of the world's large variety of kinship systems. Murdock went on to describe four main functions of the family which included: sexual relationships, economic cooperation among members, reproduction and socialization of infants and children. Murdock's definition came under attack for a number of reasons. First of all, many people pointed out that there were many societies that were exceptions to Murdock's stated functions. Other people thought that Murdock’s functions were too narrow. It can also be seen like this in the present day. Murdock's definition does not cover the types of family that differ from the traditional family structure. Eventually most sociologists adopted a definition based on the idea of kinship and limited to the function of childcare. The debate over the universality and necessity of the nuclear family began in the early twentieth century. Pioneer anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski (1913) stated that the nuclear family had to be universal because it filled a basic biological need—caring for and protecting infants and young children. No culture could survive unless the birth of children was linked to both mother and father in legally based parenthood. Anthropologist George P. Murdock, elaborated on the idea that the nuclear family is both universal and essential: "Whether as the sole prevailing form of the family, or as the basic unit from

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