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Important of kinship
A discussion of how family systems vary in different cultures
Influences of culture in family
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The planet that we live on is no longer the same as it was several hundred years ago, nor are its inhabitants. An ongoing depletion of our world’s flora and fauna and biological simplicity has left us with a sharp increase in globalization and a convoluted network of people. There is no certainty about what lies ahead but we can question and seek to understand the state in which we are living. One particular by-product of this worldly complexity is that of kinship—family relationships through blood, marriage, or adoption. The significance and importance of biological family ties has changed drastically in the passing years and it’s interesting to note how. On February 29, I interviewed a UCLA freshman who I will call Annora Cook for the sake of keeping her anonymity. Annora is one of my good friends here at UCLA. She is an only child of Vietnamese and Caucasian descent and was born in Santa Ana, California. She is a Design | Media Arts major at UCLA and is planning to double major in Communications. Through my findings I have noted the differences between nuclear, extended, and postmodern families. In particular the importance of consanguineal relations as well as other kinds of familial ties. Annora’s family consists of her mother, father, four grandparents, sixteen aunts and uncles, ten cousins, and many second cousins. Annora’s mother emigrated from Vietnam along with her mother, father, and brothers and sisters. For the most part they all settled down in Gorbis 2 Orange County, California. Annora’s father is from the San Fernando Valley in California but his ancestors originated from Germany and Denmark. When Annora was describing her family initially she alluded to the 2002 film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, directed by J... ... middle of paper ... ... can become stronger than bonds between blood relatives. The saying “blood is thicker than water” draws many comparisons to the debate concerning nature versus nurture. Nature versus nurture addresses the argument regarding an individual’s nature or genetic makeup versus the environment in which the individual grew up in. In a way, nature parallels to consanguineal relationships and nurture to postmodern families. There need not be a direct answer to which one is best. Instead, a general acceptance and awareness is indispensable in our maturation as a species. As human beings we are not static individuals. With the ebb and flow of life’s phenomenons, blood relations may drift away and water may take its place for there is no set equation for family. Though genetically we remain unchanging, we are not born from a mold and instructed to remain constant, we evolve.
The idea of “family” is almost entirely socially constructed. From grandparents, to friends, to wives and fiancés, the means by which we decide who is related to us and who is not is decided by the person and their milieu. In Mignon R. Moore’s “Independent Women: Equality in African-American Lesbian Relationships”, Eviatar Zerubavel’s Ancestors and Relatives: Genealogy, Identity and Community, and Franz Kafka’s The Judgement, this idea is tested. Who do we consider close enough to us to share our most intimate details and how do we choose them? Each piece offers a different view, which is the “right” way for each of the people described, whether broad (as in Zerbavel’s reading) or specific (as in Moore’s reading), but there are also many similarities in the ways family is defined and actualized.
Lasch-Quinn, Elisabeth. "Family." Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. Ed. Mary Kupiec Cayton and Peter W. Williams. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. Student Resources in Context. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Throughout time, family dynamics continually adapt to fit an always changing society. Using the sociological imagination, I can analyze my family’s history to understand the shift between Puritan farming life to the Industrial Era to the modern-day family I live in now.
In understanding others, one must first understand our own family background and how it affects our understanding of the world. Conversely, family systems draw on the view of the family as an emotional unit. Under system thinking, one evaluates the parts of the systems in relation to the whole meaning behavior becomes informed by and inseparable from the functioning of one’s family of origin. These ideas show that individuals have a hard time separating from the family and the network of relationships. With a deeper comprehension of the family of origin helps with the challenges and awareness of normalized human behaviors. When interviewing and analyzing the family of origin, allow one to look at their own family of origin
This essay will discuss the Nature versus Nurture debate, and how twin and adoption studies have influenced on this debate. This is essay will go into support of how over time adoption and twin studies helped form this debate into understanding that both nature and nurture impact development. Adoption studies have played a vital part in the hereditary (Nature) aspect of this debate and twin studies will show support of how the environment (Nurture) still plays a large role within development. Further discussing how both Nature and Nurture jointly play a vital role in human development
For this first analytical essay, I have decided to have a go at analyzing the Nature Vs. Nurture using my own viewpoint as a sibling. No doubt this is a topic that has been debated to mental death already, but I think it is something I will benefit from thinking about. Also, at the end of my main topic, I will quickly address a topic brushed on in the book.
“individuals cannot be understood in isolation from one another, but rather as a part of their family, as the family is an emotional unit. Families
How different are families compared to the past? Lately there has been some major changes in relationships, weather female dominance, or even just having no relationships at all. We also see that relationships are based only on a basis of reproduction and sometimes the child of the relationship is rather irrelevant. In a Temporary matter by Jhumpa Lahiri, the reader can see how relationships have developed with the rest of the world into failing, no relationship, and feminist relationships.
Noted psychologist Jerome Kagan once said "Genes and family may determine the foundation of the house, but time and place determine its form" (Moore 165). The debate on nature versus nurture has been a mystery for years, constantly begging the question of whether human behavior, ideas, and feelings are innate or learned over time. Nature, or genetic influences, are formed before birth and finely-tuned through early experiences. Genes are viewed as long and complicated chains that are present throughout life and develop over time. Nature supporters believe that genes form a child's conscience and determine one's approach to life, contrasting with nature is the idea that children are born “blank slates,” only to be formed by experience, or nurture. Nurture is constituted of the influence of millions of complex environmental factors that form a child's character. Advocators of nature do not believe that character is predetermined by genes, but formed over time. Although often separated, nature and nurture work together in human development. The human conscience is neither innate from birth or entirely shaped through experience, instead, genetics and environmental influences combine to form human behaviorism, character, and personality traits that constantly change and develop throughout life.
Throughout history we have seen that family values have been one of the most important aspects of societies around the world. Although these values may be different from one another, we can see that it is a ma...
introduces us to several case studies that seem to be the main nucleus of family
Hansen’s “The Cranes, An Absorbent Safety Net,” she details a case study conducted with Patricia Crane as she divulges about the non-kinship extended family network she is the leader of. Hanson’s case study uses a “deficit comparison model “to explain nontraditional family structures based on “relationships that are neither genetically nor legally bound.” All of the members within Patricia extended family are dependent on each other in one way or another to endure the “challenges of their daily lives.” Daunting tasks as providing daily meals, and responsibilities of caring for the children and elderly dependents of this extended family is a shared responsibility. The cranes network from a traditional standpoint, goes against the grain of a common “nuclear family” consisting of two parents and dependent children. With the ever-changing society and culture within America, the very definition of family has changed immensely. Social economic restraints coupled with individuals in the family not holding their obligations, force families such as the Cranes to “adapt social constructionism.” This allows them to cope with their everyday individual issues by solving them as a collective family unit. The Crane’s unique family situation of the non-kinship is defined by the article “Constructing family: a topology of voluntary kin” as “persons outside of blood and legal ties who are considered as family.” Although the traditional nuclear family and a non-kinship family
The word “family” is often used in connection with a person’s ancestry. Most families are based on kinship. Members belong to the family through birth, marriage, or adoption. Family plays the most vital role in our daily life and family is the finest thing that you can ever desire for. It’s the family who assists their child in hardships of life and give affection no matter what happens. Human personality reflects on what his /her family status is and what their families have taught them.
Kinship is used to describe the relationship that exists between or among entities or individuals that share a common origin in terms of culture, historical ancestry or biological relationship. Kinship refers to the relationships defined by a particular culture among or between individuals who have a common family ties. Kinship is used as a basis to classify people and to form social groups in the different societies.
Everyone is born into some form of family, with the family taking the responsibility of nurturing, teaching the norms or accepted behaviors within the family structure and within society. There are many types of families, which can be described as a set of relationships including parents and children and can include anyone related by blood or adoption. Family is the most important, “for it is within the family that the child is first socialized to serve the needs of the society and not only its own needs” (Goode, 1982).