Explain and demonstrate the social construction of the family?

Question

So yeah, explain how it is a social construct. Please provide backing to your answer (ie. website) Thanks

Answer 1

The notion of 'family' is based on the needs of society, and so we see different definitions of family all across the globe, and across eras.

While we do see some amount of geographic patterns in terms of these definitions, there is nothing to suggest that it is any sort of biological response to environmental pressures.

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Some quotes from the sourced article to help demonstrate the point:

"[The family is a] basic social group united through bonds of kinship or marriage [or union], present in all societies. Ideally, the family provides its members with protection, companionship, security, and socialization. The structure of the family, and the needs that the family fulfils vary from society to society."

"The family was an economic unit; men hunted, while women gathered and prepared food and tended children."

"With the advent of Christianity, marriage and child-bearing became central concerns in religious teaching."

"During the 20th century, extended family households declined in prevalence in the West. This change is associated particularly with increased residential mobility and with diminished financial responsibility of children for ageing parents, as pensions from jobs and government-sponsored benefits for retired people became more common."

"By the 1970s the prototypical nuclear family had yielded somewhat to modified structures including the single-parent family, the stepfamily, and the family without children."

"Specialized institutions now perform many of the other functions that were once performed by the agrarian (rural) family: economic production, education, religious schooling, and recreation. Employment is usually separate from the family group; family members often work in different occupations and in locations away from the home. Education is provided by the state or by private groups. Religious training and recreational activities are available outside the home, although both still have a place in family life. The family is still responsible for the socialization of children, but even in this capacity, the influence of peers and of the mass media has assumed a larger role."

Answer 2

Dad gets yelled at by boss, goes home and yells at wife.  Wife yells at son.  Son yells at sister.  Sister yells at dog.  Dog yells at cat.  Cat claws boss.