Sociology exam 2 pt2

Polygyny

Societies where men have more than one wife

Polyandry

Societies where women have more than one husband

Family

A group of two or more people who consider themselves related by blood, marriage (or adoption)

Live together (or has lived together)

Household

Consists of all people who occupy

the same housing unit

Nuclear family

just a Husband, wife, and children in the house

Extended Family

A nuclear family plus other relatives

Family of Orientation

The family in

which a person grows up

Family of Procreation

The family

formed when a couple’s first child is

born

marriage

A group’s approved mating arrangement

Usually marked by a ritual

Endogamy

is the practice of

marrying within one's own group

Exogamy

is the practice of marrying

outside one's own group

Three major patterns of descent (i.e kings, and generations)

Bilineal

• Patrilineal

• Matrilineal

Bilineal

Descent traced on both the mother’s and the father’s side

property passes to males and females

Patrilineal

Descent traced only on the father’s side

property passes only to males

Matrilineal

Descent traced only on the mother’s side

property passes only to females

Patriarchy

A social system in which men

dominate women

• Found in all societies

Matriarchy

A social system in which

women dominate men

Egalitarian

A social system authority is

more or less equally divided

between men and women

Functionalists

Stress that to survive, a society must meet certain

basic needs

 They examine how the family, in turn, contributes

to the well-being of society

The family is universal

it serves functions essential to the wellbeing of

society

 Includes economic production, socialization of

children, care of the sick and aged, recreation,

sexual control, and reproduction

Incest taboo

Rules specifying which people are too closely

related to have sex or marry

 Helps the family avoid role confusion and forces

people to look outside the family for marriage

partners, creating an extended network of support

Conflict Theorists

The issue is the struggle over power

• Argue that within the family, the

conflict over housework is really

about control over scarce

resources—time, energy, and the

leisure to pursue interesting activities

Symbolic interactionists

Look at the meanings people give to their

experiences

• For example, they are interested in how

husbands view housework

Romantic love

provides the ideological context

in which people in the United States seek mates

and form families

Emotional

A feeling of sexual attraction

Cognitive

A feeling we describe as being “in

love”

Homogamy

The tendency of people with

similar characteristics to marry one another,

usually resulting from spatial nearness

Working-class parents

want their children

to behave in conformity with social

expectations

Middle-class parents

more

concerned that their children develop

curiosity, self-expression, and self-control

Upper-middle class

have nannies, who

provide individual attention and selective

daily plans

Families that are voluntarily

childless

There are a growing number of this type

of family

• The percentage varies with the education

of the woman

• The more education she has, the more

likely she expects not to bear children.

Same-Sex Families

have the same

problems of heterosexual

marriages: housework, money,

careers, problems with relatives,

and sexual adjustment

Blended Families

one whose

members were once part of other

families (i.e., two divorced persons

marry and bring their children into

a new family unit)

• Increasing in number and often

experience complicated family

relationships

Same-Sex Families