This chapter in kinships, families, and descents has taught me a lot about other cultures and their family systems, but it also has opened my eyes to my own family and our interactions. Not only was I not aware that there were other kinship systems around the world, but I also learned the reasons behind my family’s interactions. I knew that I called my aunt my aunt because she was my dad’s sister. I did not know the implications of the word “aunt” or how the word would shape interactions and define roles. I knew that extended families were more important in other cultures than in my own, but I did not know that they were important to the extent of calling their mother’s sister “mother.” I will take what I learned from this chapter and apply it to my own family relations. The last interaction that I had with a large group of my family was in July of this year. It was our annual family reunion. This family reunion was only with family on my dad’s side. My mom and dad are divorced, so my mom was not there. We have this reunion every year in July at Boeing Lake in Wichita. My grandpa m...
Since the beginning of time, mankind began to expand on traditions of life out of which family and societal life surfaced. These traditions of life have been passed down over generations and centuries. Some of these kin and their interdependent ways of life have been upheld among particular people, and are known to contain key pieces of some civilizations.
In the book, ‘American Kinship, A Cultural Account’, by David. M. Schneider, we find that he lays down the basic tenets for which a kinship ties, is considered to be
Every family members welcome those family members who are not blood related into a blended family. In her essay “Stone Soup,” Barbara Kingsolver describes the scene that a blended family is watching the boy playing soccer. Today, blended families are sprawling. My husband lived in the blended family when he was a child. Kingsolver indicates that “Any family is a big empty pot, save for what gets thrown in” (144). The term of “family” is not limited to those who have blood relations; family is the community where welcomes everyone to join.
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.
A family might include anyone related by blood or by adoption such as: step parents, grandparents acting as parents, and even brothers and sisters sharing the same household. However, worldwide “the family is regarded as the most ba...
There was an article in The New York Times called “The Changing American Family” by Natalie Angier that illustrates this point. The writer discussed the way in which the typical family structure has morphed into the many versions that can be seen today. Through her research, Angier noted that “anthropologists have traditionally used the term ‘fictive kin’ to separate such relationships from ‘true’ kinship based on blood or law, but many researchers have recently pushed back against that distinction, arguing that self-constructed families are no less real or meaningful than conventional ones.” (23) Personally, I think that if someone acts like family, then they become my family. These “fictive kin” do not exist to me. The title of a family member must be
Family, defined by the Online Merriam Webster Dictionary is, “a group of related people including people who lived in the past.” I believed that the wording of this definition is important because of the word related. The Online Merriam Webster Dictionary defines related as “belonging to the same group because of shared characteristics, qualities, etc.” This goes to show that a family does not have to be lineage, heritage, or chromosomes. There are many different types of families, and though many people think of a nuclear family when they think of a family, there are so many more qualities to consider when deciding how to personally define family.
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
In a world where society is mostly driven by our faults, family can be a relative term that brings it all back down to earth. Since societies can be extremely divided at times, it is important to have a back bone and a community that understand your own values, customs, and practices. It has been said that “minority group” families, which in Canada or the United States, could be considered anyone who isn’t Caucasian, are less stable in form and function than families who are a part of the general societal “majority”. Throughout this essay, I would like to discuss how untrue this statement is. From racial and cultural differences, to relying on each other and to growing as a unit, it is evident that minorities can have an even stronger relationship than those from the majority.
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 family is a societal institution which initiates the positive and negative process of social interactions between people. Over the last few decades what constitutes the family has changed all over the world. Family in today’s environment is diverse in nature and may go beyond the scope of parents and children. Families can consist of variations in relationships such as close relatives, stepparents, half siblings and extended non-biological family members. Normally, immediate family members live in the same house, nearby, until the child reaches a specified age and maturity to go into the world and start their own family. Most often members of the families have intimate and personal relationships with each other. Within the family there is a continuation of social interactions between members that can influence and shape peoples responses and reactions to their larger societies.
"The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you." -Kendall Hailey. Many people among us think that a family reunion is boring. It is an unpleasant social affair where our parents drive us to go and stay there for a considerable length of time. There are odd individuals who come to us and kiss or embrace us while we are still considering "do I know him/her?”. It is because we believe that enjoying the holiday out with friends is much better than investing hours with the people, we “unfortunately” belong to. They have no other subject for discussion aside from our studies and grades. On the other hand, family gathering is always a new experience for someone who lives far away from his blood relations.
In this discussion, I will be explaining how I define family. I will also include my immediate and extended family. I will also describe what family means to me, how mine differs from other families in my neighborhood, and also how they are similar. I will also describe my family’s ethnicity and how it may affect any of my family’s health.
The family unit is as diverse as the societies they each represent. This sometimes can manifest traditional roles of doting mothers and providing fathers into a home with two sets of parents (Kurrien & Dawn Vo, 2004). Therefore, the involvement and importance of the extended family: grandparents and other family members such as aunts and uncles play a significant role in both its economic and social function.
... the right thing. These families don’t always have to be blood-related, as there are many other “families” that people are parts of. Although different societies may provide a sense of love and belonging to a certain extent, the bonds between mother, and child, and husband and wife are significantly cherished and irreplaceable.