George Peter Murdock's Definition of Family

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George Peter Murdock (1895 – 1985) was an American anthropologist, who in 1949 provided the following definition of a family, “the family is a social group characterized my residence, economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adult of both sexes, at least two of whom maintains a socially approved relationship, and one or more children own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adult.” At that time in history his definition probably fit the majority of people that call themselves families reasonably well, except for maybe the odd exception. However in today's post industrial revolution society, his definition only fits a few specific families as the family as an institution itself has become more diverse. The first component of Murdock’s definition is that a family shares the same household that is all members live in the same house. However this, does not take into consideration many factors such as couples who may have divorced, and are no longer living in the same house. Also in this modern industrial society, we see many people traveling abroad for work, for example petr...

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