How have the functions of family changed over time?

Question

How have the functions of family changed over time?

Answer 1

Yes... and no: Functions of family - 1. Economic 2. Political 3. kinship 4. reproduce society

These value of these functions and the changes are different for different socioeconomic groups, and varies  w/in different racial and ethnic groups.  

1. In the US economic functions have changed the most - save families that have heavy agricultural occupations. Larger families are not as needed as they once were.

2. As gender roles change children acquire different freedoms which effects every institution.

3. Although families are smaller kinship bonds still exist just in different forms - nuclear, binuclear, extended, fictive kinships, cohabitation and more.

4. it is obvious that we are constantly reproducing society

There have been changes but they have usually stayed within a certain framework. Sitting with the family still occurs in many homes as well as the on-the-go-grab-take-out homes. But the times they are a changen' and the good old days weren't good for everyone...

Answer 2

yea, people don't take c**p from family members like they used to.

Answer 3

Yes. Let's examine family structure from 3 distinct types of societies; hunter-gatherers, peasants, and the nuclear family under capitalism.

First, in hunter-gatherers, family is the way your entire society is organized. You are related to most people you will ever come into contact with, and the degree of closeness determines your obligations to them. It determines who you have to feed, who you don't and so on.

Secondly, in peasant societies, family serves many of the same functions as described above but because you live with non-relatives as well, it determines how you form alliances, who works on who's land, who you can marry, and so on. It also, more importantly, determines who inherits what. Most importantly, however, the family is the basic working unit... meaning that a family is analogous to a small business.

Thirdly, in capitalist societies, the nuclear family basically exists to raise you and once you are a fully formed adult, you are more or less on your own. While you may still see your family on a regular basis, it isn't quite as important to you as a peasant's family.

Even under capitalism, the family has changed as time has changed. In early capitalism, you banded together to survive because resources were so scarce for workers. Everyone worked and pooled resources. You had many kids, because you had no safety net when you got old and couldn't work anymore, etc...so you wanted your children to remain with you as long as possible. Now, you want your children out as soon as possible because of the burden.

So as you can see, the structure of the family has changed over time but, more to your question, its function within society has changed over time as well.

Answer 4

Yes, for example, it used to be that everyone sat down at dinner and enjoyed a hearty meal and talked about their day.  Now everyone is busy busy busy running here running there.  Eating fast food eating frozen meals.  No one has family dinners that often anymore.  Nowadays family time means sitting down and watching a movie together.  Now to me personally that is unacceptable because you normally don't and relate during a movie.  I do but everyone tells me to be quiet.  I wished it would be like the old days when everyone played outside, not video games, and sat on front porches sipping lemonade and just talking and unwinding.