Family as a Social Institution The word family originally meant A Band Of Slaves.(Coontz 1999) It is worth noting this when looking at the origins of Families. For even when the word came to apply to persons affiliated by blood and marriage this was more in relation to the notion of families as authority relations rather than our modern terminology being of families as groups of loved ones. It is also important to note that marriage in those other than the elite in most white Christian societies was not a ceremony performed until the last 250 years or so. This was because of the way in which land and other things of value were to be divided and as only the rich had to worry about disbursement of assets after their deaths they were the only ones that needed in essence to be legally married. But regardless of the Religious and or legal ceremonies surrounding the union of marriage past or present the concept of family has remained very strong. The family has always been a fundamental building block for all societies. In essence it is the relationship between family members that has always determined the way in which a whole society and community can function. Through learning to show respect towards others in your own family, by being nurtured and cared for by this small group of individuals we are taught very strongly that that is the way in which our society has chosen to demonstrate to us how we should treat each other. It is rather like a group of cells that join together to make a body part. That part is useless unless it has other parts to which it can then join onto in order to make the whole bodywork. Th... ... middle of paper ... ...milies. They do this on four main dimensions.(Bulbeck 1998) 1. The relationship to the person. 2. The purpose or activity concerned. 3. Particular circumstances in their case. 4. Their perceptions of the nature of their obligations. However they still are striving to be defined as a Family. To be seen as a family or part of a family is something that will be important to our society for a very long time to come. So as stated throughout this paper it is not so much a question of is family important but of the fact that it is very important and to what extent we will now as a society go to in the future in order to define our families, just so that we can all no matter if we are, gay, straight, childless, have 2 dogs, live with step parents foster parents etc call ourselves part of a family.