Chapter 3.1 Family

Household

This is the residential unit of people living together in one home; the term is often used more specifically for when the people are not related to each other.

Monogamy

Having a single sexual or marriage partner at any given time.

Marriage

Union between two people, recognized by law.

Polygamy

Having more than one sexual or marriage partner at the same time.

Polygyny

When one man is married to a number of women.

Polyandry

When one woman is married to a number of men,

Nuclear Family

A family consisting of a mother, a father and their dependent children.

Functional Prerequisites

The things that any institution, such as family, must perform if its to continue to function successfully.

Primary Socialisation

Teaching and learning process normally first carried out within the family.

Kinship Network

Family relationships, based on biology, closeness or law, that form unique (distinctive) patterns and networks. Members of kinship groups may feel a special bond with, and responsibility for, other kin.

Privatised Nuclear Family

Structure that is home

Domestic Labour

Work done within the home, often performed by women.

Dual Burden (double shift)

The idea that women perform 'two shifts', one inside the home as domestic laborers and one outside the home as paid employees.

Triple Shift

Where a female double shift refers to women's roles as domestic and paid laborers, a third element of female responsibility is the emotional work they do

Serial Monogamy

A situation where an individual may be involved in a sequence of sexually exclusive relationships. For example, although one person may only be married to one other person at the same time, the failure (breakdown) of this marriage may result in each partner forming a new monogamous relationship with a different partner.

Cohabitation

A relationship where two people who are not married to each other live together as if they were married.

Empty Shell Marriage

Where the couple are married in name only, living in the same home but as separate individuals.

Divorce

The legal termination of a marriage,

Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage

The ending of a marriage relationship for reasons other than the death of a partner.

Confluent Love

Refers to the idea of love being contingent; it is given in return for something else.

Living Apart Together (LAT)

Couples who are married or in a long