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The Family Is A Social Institution - Online Term Paper

The Family Is A Social Institution

Family is a social institution and has different definitions depending on who defines it.
Anthropologists say a culture's biological and marital kinship rules and patterns of reciprocal obligations define family. Structure-functionalists say the patterns of reciprocal obligations among people and between structures of people and the greater society define family.
Institutionalists define family as a "traditional," biological, procreative and child-rearing structure and emphasize the biological relationship among family members. Interactionists, on the other hand, define family based on the voluntary assumption of family-related role behaviors.
Which ever we may define family, all ...

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families, childless marriages, single parents etc. The key word now is variety where multi-generation households are making a comeback.

My views on family and marriage have remained more or less the same since early childhood. Indian marriage as it stands today is a very old institution. To outsiders it seems strange if not outright absurd sometimes. To some degree it can be both of things however to a large extent it has preserved the ages due to its basic principles.

The matching of horoscopes is principally due to the fact that astrology is very much alive and well in India. A large number of people believe in it. Even to the relative unbeliever it serves the purpose of some kind of confirmation while at the same time keeping the believers in the family happy.

The principle tenet however, in my opinion, is that of searching for families in the same socio-economic spectrum. Practically it makes a lot of sense for people to look for others from the same social, ...

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The Family Is A Social Institution. (2005, November 8). Retrieved January 9, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Family-Is-A-Social-Institution/36141

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 11/8/2005 03:53:56 AM
Category: Social Issues
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 534
Pages: 2

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