The Universality of the Family

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The Universality of the Family George Peter Murdock (1949) who has studies 250 societies across the world, both traditional and industrialised, has defined the family as follows: "The family is a social group characterised 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." Murdock has also claimed, based on his findings, that the family is a universal institution, that is, the family exists in every society worldwide in one form or another. He acknowledged the variations in family structure, but he also asserted that the nuclear family, as described above, forms the basis of every other form of family structures. As an initial definition, we can note three points that derive from the above: a) The concept of family is not necessarily linked to the concept of marriage. In the above view, it is the social relationship between individuals that is important, not the legal framework to their relationship. b) Family groups can involve any number of adults who maintain socially-approved sexual relationships. This means that families may involve a number of men related to a single woman (or vice versa) and the "sexual relationship" does not necessarily have to be heterosexual (between people of the opposite sex), since children may be adopted into the family group. c) The family group involves both adults and children. This means, presumably, that a husband and wife, for example, who do not produce children are not considered to be a family. Many sociologists have questioned this notion of universality, in particular the definition of the family provided by Murdock. Nowadays and in the past, there have been households with only one parent raising the children.
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