What Is the Family, Essay Example

Family seems to be among the very basic and most common terms used in sociology. Basically any person has been brought up within a family and therefore has certain personal experiences concerning the experience of being part of it. Surprisingly, sociologists still argue about the definition of the family and use rather different criteria to classify this social unit. Indeed, various nations may have very unlike ideas over what a family should like and the norms that seem obvious for us, may be weird for people from other cultures. The essay by Diana Gittins looks into the matter deeply, discussing the various forms of the social relations, such as household and kinship, which allows the reader to get more insights into the matter.

In her essay “What Is the Family? Is it Universal?” author uses several approaches towards the issue, which allows seeing various ways of classifying the social union. The first one that is stressed is the functional approach that has been widely used until rather recent times. It defined the family by such criteria as the common budget, residence and reproduction (Gittins 1985). Author, however, does not agree with all of these criteria, proving that none of them is a must. Some families often do not reside together as the children move out or because of the different working locations or for some other reasons. Actual co-residing and sharing some basic activities at home is more of a household than a family. Gittins (1985) argues that people might reside together without being a family, as well as remain a family while living separately – there are multiple examples for both. Economic cooperation and codependence does not necessarily mean being a family, as in the modern society even husband and wife may be financially independent. Sexuality and reproduction, according to the article are also not decisive to define a family. Some norms that used to be unacceptable before are rather acceptable today. Author’s main point is that functional approach can not fully reflect the diversity of social relations that appear in the family life.

Gittins also pays much attention to the anthropological theory that provides a much better explanation to this aspect of social life. According to this approach, household is not as important factor; kinship is a much better name for it. Author summarizes the anthropologists’ ideas, describing kinship as the combination of relationships, created by the birth or through mating (Gittins 1985). However, even this explanation is unsatisfactory for Gittins. She argues that the entire concept of kinship has been greatly deformed recently, as people consider blood relations as a crucial factor, which is not always so. Step parents are as important as the birth parents; adopted kids are as much part of the family and are involved to a kinship to the same extent. The final attempt to classify the family is made through the concepts of maternity and fatherhood, which are considered to be the strongest ties. However, even this approach is not accepted as the reasonable explanation. In many cultures even these basic ties are often not considered important. Author states that in some Tahitian tribes giving birth to a child does not necessarily mean any obligations concerning maternity or fatherhood, as the newly-born baby may be adopted by grandparents or even other families. Fatherhood often implies even less responsibility, due to the men’s nature (Gittins 1985).

In the article “What Is the Family? Is it Universal?” Gittins criticizes most of the present theories that try to define and explain family as a social phenomenon, arguing that none of the criteria is capable to provide an adequate tool to identify whether this or that group of people is a family. I completely agree with this statement, as I think that being a family is much more than having the same house, sharing financial resources or being tied by blood.

Generally, family is the most important and valuable social phenomenon that largely predetermines the person’s personal growth. I suppose that being a family is very personal and involves a lot of deep emotions, Therefore, I suppose that using generally accepted social criteria is absolutely not reasonable. I think that such factors as marriage or belonging to the same household is external factor that can not be used for judgment. Modern society is becoming much more diverse and gets rid of regular stereotypes. Regular sexual intercourse without living together, raising children by single mothers and fathers, financial independence within a household are regular practices today. Relations by birth are not necessarily indicators of the same family. At the same time, some bonds may be much stronger than the factual relations described by the anthropological or functional approaches. Some friends might be much more important than relatives and remain with you for the rest of his life. Such friendship beyond any doubt can be classified as family. Children may leave the parents’ house and never come back, breaking up the relations, or stay with the step-grandparents with no seeming ties and be a strong family.  Civil marriage may last much longer and generate much greater satisfaction for both sides than the regular union, approved by the society.

To sum up, I would like to say that defining a family is a useless task, it is not a matter of being with someone but rather feeling something. Gittins proves that, showing that no existing theory can consider all the diverse social factors, and I agree judging from my personal feelings and experiences.

Works Cited

Gittins, Diana. “What is the family? Is it universal?” The family question. New York; Macmillan, 1985