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Family at a Glance

The term “family” usually means a group of related people
who share a home, resources, responsibility for decisions, values and
goals, and have commitments to one another over a period of time.
The smallest family unit consists of two people, such as a couple or a
parent and child who share a home and companionship. Families in
which there is a mother, a father, and children living in one house are
considered “nuclear” families. Parents are required by law to feed,
clothe, shelter, and educate their children. “Extended” families
usually consist of parents, married children, their offsprings,
grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins living either in one house or in
separate homes. Most families are based on kinship – that is, the
members belong to the family by blood (through birth), affinity
(through marriage), or adoption. When people marry, they gain a new
set of relatives, called in-laws.
Some cultures have a patriarchal family system, that is the
father alone makes the major family decisions and is considered the
head of the family. Others have a matriarchal one in which the mother
heads the family and holds most power in society. Some have an
equalitarian family system in which each member is respected and
neither parent tries to be the head of the family.
Throughout history, most Western and non-Western societies
have practiced a form of marriage called monogamy which means
that a person has only one spouse at a time. Many other cultures,
especially non-Western ones, have permitted polygamy which allows
a person to have more than one spouse at a time.

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