Chapter 2

The History of the Family

Prepared by Cathie Robertson, Grossmont College

1

© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved

2

The Study of the Family

• Upper class bias of historians

– Studied kings, nobles, wars, rise & fall of empires

• First, examination of “ordinary” families

– Began in 1960

3

Philippe Aries-- CENTURIES OF CHILDHOOD

•Institution of childhood began to emerge

• Situation of young began to change

• New term: “children”

•A theory of innocence of the child emerged.

• Children to be protected from adult reality

•The facts of birth, death, sex, tragedy, world

events hidden from the child.

Philippe Aries-- CENTURIES OF CHILDHOOD

4

•Children increasingly segregated by age

•The fact of having an age became important

•In the "ancien regime" people’s ages were

virtually unknown

17th Century

5

18th Century

6

19th Century

7

19th Century

8

20th Century

9

10

Evolutionary theory—infants need care

Hunter-gatherers

Settled agriculture

Lineages: Form of kinship in which descent is traced Patrilineage: Father’s line

Matrilineage: Mother’s line

Origins of Family and Kinship

11

Origins of Family and Kinship (cont.)

Kinship Groups

Ensure order

Defend against outsiders

Provide labor

Assist others in group

Recruit new members

Through marriage

12

Origins of Family and Kinship (cont.)

• In most societies--smaller family units

–Mother and children always

–Husband/father (usually)

–Other household members (sometimes)

13

Western culture—smaller kinship groups

Conjugal family: Husband, wife and children

Extended family: Other relatives in household

Origins of Family and Kinship (cont.)

14

• Polygyny: One man, many wives

• Polyandry: One woman, more than one husband

• Family and kinship systems developed to provide fundamental needs:

–Food production

–Defense

Origins of Family and Kinship (cont.)

Families Across Culture –Na Kinship

• Brothers & sisters live in mother’s household for life

• Instead of taking wives, men visit women in other households

– Visit any Na woman who consent to sex

• When children are born, they remain with mother and maternal aunts and uncles

15

Families Across Culture –Na Kinship

Fathers do not live with their children, but they are a presence in their lives

After Communist Revolution in China, government began to promote monogamy among the Na – they resisted

Government eventually backed down

16

17

The American Family before 1776

• American Indian Families

• European Colonists

• African Slaves

18

American Indian Families: The Primacy of the Tribes

• American Indian - Indigenous people in the 48 territories that became United States

• Family units based on lineages

• Tribes, both matrilineal and patrilineal

–Matrilineal ties to maternal kin

–Patrilineal ties to paternal kin

19

European Colonists: The Primacy of the Public Family

• Families performed public services

– Education

– Hospitals

– Houses of correction

– Orphanages

– Nursing homes

– Poor houses

20

• No room for privacy or private lives

–Family affairs are public business

–Houses not designed for privacy

–Little privacy from other households

–Conjugal family considered integral part of society, not apart from it

European Colonists: The Primacy of the Public Family (cont.)

European Colonists: The Primacy of the Public Family (cont.)

• Family Diversity

• Not all families fit ideal of conjugal family

• Many stepfamilies due to deaths of parents

• Marriage not always official, could be informal

–More common in Middle Colonies

–A form of bigamy if man migrated to West and began a new family

21

22

The Emergence of the “Modern” American Family: 1776 to 1900

• Four new characteristics:

1. Marriage—based on mutual respect and affection

2. Wife cared for home and children—seen as morally superior

3. Childhood as time to protect and support children

4. Number of children per family declined

The Emergence of the “Modern” American Family: 1776 to 1900 (cont.)

• Individualism

• Increase personal relationships in families

• Emotional rewards

• Autonomy

23

24

Change in the mode of production

– Commercial capitalism

– From “family labor” to “paid labor”

• Men worked outside the home

– Work governed by business ethic

– World outside the home

From Cooperation to Separation: Men’s and Women’s Spheres

25

• Women worked inside the home– Women renew husbands’ character &

spirituality

– True womanhood where women were:

• Pious upholder of spiritual values

• Pure

• Submissive to men

• Domestic

From Cooperation to Separation: Men’s and Women’s Spheres (cont.)

Cult of True Womanhood

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtXNNAs9u0M&feature=player_embedded#!

26

Happy Homemakers

27

28

• Africans forced to immigrate– Captured or bought in West Africa

– Sold as slaves

• Asians work as laborers on railroads, etc.

***African-American, Mexican-American, and Asian Immigrant Families

29

African-American Families

• An African heritage?

–Stronger ties to extended kin

–Children before marriage

–Women worked

–African society was organized by lineages

• Marriage much more of a process

–Slavery stripped elders of authority over marriage process

30

Impact of Slavery

• E. Franklin Frazier believed slavery had destroyed social organization among slaves

• In 1976, Gutman found substantial evidence that slaves often married for life, and kept track of extended family

• Most families—two parents

• Black women—work outside the home

31

Mexican-American Families• Mexicans settled frontier of N. Mexico

• Landowners & farmer-laborers, compadres

–Farmer-laborers—Mestizo—part Spanish and part Native American

–Compadrazgo: In Mexico, the godparent relationship of wealthy or influential person outside the kinship group asked to become compadres

Mexicans Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

32

•U.S. Congress declared against

Mexico on April 23, 1846

•Treaty signed on Feb. 2, 1848

• Ended the U.S.-Mexican War

Mexicans Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

33

U.S. took from Mexico the land area of:

Texas

New Mexico

California

Arizona

Nevada

Utah

Half of Colorado

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

•Treaty defined border between the United States and Mexico

• Border has remained mostly the same along the Rio Grande

34

Mexico & U.S. After Treaty

35

36

Mexican-American Families (cont.)

• Social structure disrupted by wars, revolts and land grabs in 1830s and 1840s

• Mexicans became more of a working class

• Many were forced into barrios:

• Segregated neighborhoods in U.S.

Mexican-American Families

37

• Five centuries of Spanish colonization

•Contemporary family cultural hybrid

character, combines:

• Feelings of indigenous peoples

•Traditional feminine subculture

• And Spanish expectations and norms

• The masculine machista orientation

Mexican-American Families

38

• Estimated that 74.2% of contemporary

Mexican families are nuclear

•However:

• Relations & structure appear to be nuclear

• In practice, continue to be extended

Asian Immigrant Families

• Asian Heritage– Immigrants from China and Japan and their

descendents

– Family systems sharply different• Fathers had authority over family

• Kinship—patrilineal

• Children expected to take care of elderly and live with them

– Greater emphasis on family loyalty

39

40

• Mostly men

• Remittances

• No citizenship

• Discrimination

–Arranged marriages

• When Japanese migrated to Hawaii in 1880s, more balance of ratio of women to men, so more families formed

Asian Immigrant Families (cont.)

41

Asian Immigrant Families (cont.)

• Discrimination led to Japanese internment camps—WW II

• 1965 Immigration Act changed the restrictions that blocked most Asian immigration and substituted a yearly quota

• Asian population expanded rapidly• 2000 census: 11.9 million Asian

Americans

Japanese Internment Camps

42

43

The Early Decades

• Rise in premarital sex

• Decline in births

• Rising divorce rate

• Rise in marriage rate

• Greater emotional satisfaction from marriage

The Rise of the Private Family: 1900-Present

44

• Families less of a dominant force in people’s lives

• Marriage less necessary economically and materially

• Marriage more fragile

The Rise of the Private Family: 1900-Present( cont.)

45

• Privacy & private families increase

• Birthrate decline

• Adult life expectancy increased

• More apartments for independent living

The Rise of the Private Family: 1900-Present (cont.)

46

• Basis of marriage—economics to emotional satisfaction and companionship

• Men and women—more economically independent

• Marriage bonds weakened

• Divorce more common

The Rise of the Private Family: 1900-Present (cont.)

The Depression Generation

47

48

• Affected family finances

• Undermined authority of father

• Divorce rate fell

• Marriage & childbearing later

• 1 in 5 never had children (1 in 10 norm)

• Children helped out by working

The Depression Generation

49

• Baby boom renewed emphasis on marriage and children

• Young adults from depression married earlier and had more children than ever before

• Highpoint of breadwinner-homemakermodel

–Not really traditional family

–Faded quickly

The 1950s

1950s Family

50

Figure 2.1

Percentage never married among men and women aged 20 to 24

51

Figure 2.2

Percentage of children aged 0-17 living in each of four types of families

52

53

• Birthrate plunged

• Married on average 4-5 years later

• Young people wanted independence

• Divorce rate doubled 1960s–70s

–Declined slightly since then

• Cohabitation—1970s

• Women working outside home

1960s and Beyond

1960s Family

54

55

• Figure 2.3, show changes in family and personal life

• Twentieth century—great change in the kinds of family lives

Social Changes in the 20th Century

Figure 2.3

A life-course perspective on social change in the 20th century

56

Emergence of Early Adulthood

• Early adulthood:

• Between mid-teens & about 30

• Labor force:

• All people who are working for pay or looking for paid work

57

The Role of Education

• Main factor in lengthening early adulthood

• More employment opportunities for college-educated

• Young adults may still marry

• May postpone children to further education

58