AFRICAN FAMILY AND KINSHIP BY KOTOR ASARE.pptx

LESSON ONE ON AFRICAN FAMILY AND KINSHIP
SYSTEM
• By the end of the lesson, you will be able to:
• Explain or define family in your own words
• Discuss at least any five (5) characteristics of a family
• Discuss at least any five (5) forms of a family
• Discuss at least any five (5) types of a family
• Discuss at least any five (5) functions of a family
5/6/2024
Kotor Asare's Presentation
1

DEFINITIONS OF FAMILY
• Family is often seen as a basic cell in every society. However, the organization of the family
unit, marriage, decent systems and the structure of kinship relations vary from society to society
and through time (Ingiabuna et al. 2003).
• Sociologists have therefore come up with different definitions of the family and this is owing to
the fact that the family has various manifestations, organization and structures in various
societies.
• Okodudu (2010) defines the family as a domestic group in which parents and children live
together, and in its elementary form consists of a couple and their children.
5/6/2024
2

DEFINITIONS OF FAMILY CONT………
• Duberman and Hartjen (1979; Ingiabuna et al. 2003) define a family as a
universal institution whose most important functions are tosocialise and nurture
the younger generation. To Farly (1994) the family is a group of people related by
ancestry, marriage or other committed sexual relationship, or adopted and live
together, form an economic unit, and rear their children (if any). Similarly, Smith
and Preston(1982) defined the family as a social group whose members are
related either throughcommon ancestry or marriage and are bound by moral and
economic rights and duties.
5/6/2024
3

DEFINITIONS OF FAMILY CONT………
• According to Burgess and Lock (1963) the family is a group of persons united
by ties of marriage, blood or adoption constituting a single household
interacting with each other in their respective social role of husband and wife,
mother and father, brother and sister creating a common culture. Murdock
(2010) defines the family as a social group characterized by common residence,
economic cooperation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes at least
two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship and one or more
children own or adopted of the sexually co-habiting adults.
5/6/2024
4

DEFINITIONS OF FAMILY CONT………….
• According to Maclver (2016) family is a group defined by sex
relationships sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for the
procreation and upbringing of children. Davis (1949) describes family
as a group of persons whose relations to one another are based upon
consanguinity and who are therefore kin to one another. Malinowski
(1969) opined that the family is the institution within which the cultural
traditions of a society are handed over to a newer generation.
5/6/2024
5

CONCEPTS UNDERLINING THE FEDINITION OF A FAMILY
• From the foregoing, the various definitions emphasized different ideas and that any proper
definitions of family could also include some of these concepts:
• The family is a group of people related or connected by bloodline, marriage rite oradoption
• They share common residency. They live together.
• They share sentiments of oneness. They view themselves as a unit.
• They share values and responsibilities. Perform caretaking services for others especially the
very young.
5/6/2024
6

CONCEPTS UNDERPINNING THE DEFINITION OF A FAMILY
CONTINUES…………………
• Biological, legal or emotional attachment
• Shared sense of history
• Devise strategies to meet needs as individuals and as a whole
• Many forms of families
• Group of ancestors
• Kinship groups
5/6/2024
7

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE DEFINITION OF A FAMILY
• In your own opinion what is a family? Simply put family can
therefore be seen as group of people who are related by blood-ties,
marriage or through adoption. Family is a social institution that unities
people into cooperative group to oversee bearing, upbringing and
raising of children. Family is made up of group of persons who are
directly linked by kin connection or adults who assume caring for
themselves and children
5/6/2024
8

CHARACTERISTICS OF A FAMILY CONTINUES…………….
• Mating Relationship
A family comes into existence when a man and woman establish mating relation
between them.
• A Form of Marriage:
Mating relationship is established through the institution of marriage. The society
regulates sexual behaviour between opposite sexes through the institution of marriage.
Through the institution of marriage, mating relationship is established. Without
marriage family is usually not possible. Hence, family is a form of marriage.
5/6/2024
9

CHARACTERISTICS OF A FAMILY CONTINUES…….
• A Common Habitation:
A family requires a home or household for its living. Without a dwelling place the task of child-
bearing and child rearing cannot be adequately performed. The members of a family have a
common habitation or household.
• A System of Nomenclature:
• Family is known by a particular name. It has own system of reckoning descent. Descent may be
recognized through male line or through the mother’s line. In patrilineal family’s descent is
recognized through male line. Similarly, in matrilineal family’s descent is recognized through
mother’s line.
5/6/2024
10

CHARACTERISTICS OF A FAMILY CONTINUES…………
• An Economic Provision: Every
Every family needs an economic provision to satisfy the economic needs. The head of the
family carries on certain profession and earns to maintain the family.
• System of Interaction and Communication:
The family is composed of persons who interact and communicate with each other in their
social roles such as husband and wife, mother and father, son and daughter etc.
It is important to mention that the family is composed of persons united by ties of
marriage, blood or adoption. The family maintains a common but a distinctive culture.
5/6/2024
11

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE FAMILY
CONTINUES…………
• Universality:
• The Family is a universal institution. It was found in many simpler societies. In advance societies, the whole social
structure is built of family units. According to Maclver, “It is found in all societies, at all stages of social development
and exists far below the human level among myriad species of animals”. Every human being is a member of some
family.
• Emotional Basis:
• Every family is based on human impulses of mating, procreation, motherly devotion and parental love and care.
The members of a family have emotional attachment with each other. Love between husband and wife, parents and
children make the family an institution of self-sacrifice. Hence, emotion is the foundation on which every family is
built.
5/6/2024
12

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE FAMILY CONTINUES…….
Limited Size:
The family is very small in size. It is known as the smallest primary group. It is a small social institution. It includes
husband and wife and the persons who are born in it or are adopted. The relations among the members of family are
direct, intimate, close, personal and permanent. This is possible only due to small size of the family. Further,
smallness of the family brings stability in the family.
• Nuclear Position:
With regard to all the different types of groupings, the family plays an important role in so far as it prepares the
individual for participation in all these secondary groups, for their demands and situations. It serves as the nucleus for
the growth of other types of groupings which never deal with the cultureless creatures that a newly born child is.
5/6/2024
13

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE FAMILY CONTINUES……
• Formative Influence:
Family exerts most profound influence on its members. The personality of the individual is
moulded in the family. The family customs, traditions, mores and norms have great influence in
shaping the personality of its members during childhood. Family is the most effective agency of
the process of socialisation and social control.
• Responsibility of the Members:
The members of the family have a deep sense of -d. responsibility and obligation for the family.
Due to this sense of responsibility, all the member discharges their duties. All the members of the
family have joint responsibility. In family, the children learn about responsibility and cooperation.
5/6/2024
14

DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE FAMILY CONTINUES…..
• Social Regulation:
Society, that is the collectivity, keep the collective and wider view in mind, has to ensure, by evolving
mores and folkways, that the individual member in a family do perform all those functions towards each
other on the basis of which the wider network of social relationships in dependent for its success. Thus, for
example, there are social restrictions on divorce, in almost every society.
• Persistence and Change:
The family may be permanent and temporary by nature. As an institution it is permanent. When a couple
after marriage settle in an independent residence, the family continues to exist with another member.
Hence, family is permanent as an institution. Family on the other hand is temporary and transitional.
Because structure of the family changes over a time in terms of size, composition and status of persons.
5/6/2024
15

FORMS OF FAMILY CONTINUES……………..
Sociologists and anthropologists have identified various forms and kinds of
families with regards to the cultural peculiarities as obtainable in various
societies over time. However, according to Ingiabuna and Obaro (2009)
families are categorized based on the number and generations of people
involved in the family groups and the leadership or power/authority holders in
the group.
5/6/2024
16

FORMS OF FAMILY CONTINUES……………..
Nuclear Family: The nuclear family refers to a couple along with any
dependent, unmarried children who share a residence and form a social
unit. In other words, it is made up of a husband, wife and dependent
children living together in a single dwelling. The nuclear family is the
smallest unit of society and it is also called the „elementary family
(Kottak 2004)‟.The typical household units in many modern societies
are the nuclear family
5/6/2024
17

FORMS OF MARRIAGE CONTINUES………….
One or Single Parent Family: This consists of one parent and
his or her children. One- parent families may be formed through
widowhood, divorce, or separation. They may also be formed
when an unmarried person, usually a woman, raises children on
her own.
5/6/2024
18

FORMS OF MARRIAGE CONTINUES……………….
Extended Family: Units larger than the nuclear family are usually known as the
extended families; they are extended nuclear units (Haralambos and Holborn 2008).
An extended family according to Knuttila (2005) is when three or more generations
connected by blood or marriage relationships form a social unit and live together.
Hence an extended family is a constituent of several related persons by descent,
marriage or adoption such as a husband and a wife and their children and at least
oneof their sets of parents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews all living together in a
single dwelling or in close proximity (Kottak 2004, Knuttila 2005).
5/6/2024
19

FORMS OF FAMILY CONTINUES………
• Blended Families: This is a family made up of a couple and children either or both raised in
an earlier marriage, and children they raised together (if any). Most people who divorce
eventually get remarried. A good number of such persons often times divorce leaving behind
children. Remarriage frequently result in step families, also called „reconstituted‟,
„reorganizing‟ or „blended‟ families. Because a good number of those who remarry are parents,
their new partners become stepparents. This form of nuclear family has become very common in
modern times (Ingiabuna, 2012).
5/6/2024
20

FORMS OF MARRIAGE CONTINUES………
• Compound Family: This form of family organization can be seen as an
overlapping set of nuclear families, each with the same man as family
head. It consists of a man (head of households); his wives and
concubines who live in different homestead with their children. In this
case, the wives become head of their own respective household while
the man rules and runs all households. This kind of family is mostly
popular amongst traditional West African societies.
5/6/2024
21

TYPES OF FAMILY
Though family is a universal institution, its structure or form varies from
one society to another. Sociologists and anthropologists have mentioned
about different types of families found in different cultures.
Classification of families is generally done on the basis of organisation
(nuclear and joint), forms of marriage (monogamous or polygamous),
authority (matriarchal or patriarchal) and residence etc. Classification of
families on different basis is given below.
5/6/2024
22

TYPES OF FAMILY CONTINUES……….
On the Basis of Organisation:
In terms of organisation families may be of two broad types; the nuclear family and the extended/joint family.
Nuclear Family:
The nuclear family is a unit composed of husband, wife and their unmarried children. This is the predominant form in
modern industrial societies. This type of family is based on companionship between parents and children.
Extended / Joint Family:
The term extended family is used to indicate the combination of two or more nuclear families based on an extension
of the parent-child relationships. According to Murdck, an extended family consists of two or more nuclear families
affiliated through an extension of the parent-child relationship … i.e. by joining the nuclear family of a married adult
to that of his parents.
5/6/2024
23

TYPES OF FAMILY CONTINUES…..
• On the Basis of Authority:
The family may be either patriarchal or matriarchal on the basis of authority.
• (i) Patriarchal Family:
• Patriarchal family is a type of family in which all authority belongs to the paternal side. In this family, the eldest male or the father is the
head of the family. He exercises his authority over the members of the family. He presides over the religious rites of the household; he is
the guardian of the family goods.
• (ii) Matriarchal Family:
• It is a form of family in which authority is centred in the wife or mother. The matriarchal family system implies rule of the family by the
mother, not by the father. In this type of family women are entitled to perform religious rites and husband lives in the house of wife.
• (iii) Egalitarian Family: This describes an arrangement in the family where power and decision- making authority are equally
distributed between the husband and wife. Due to Western education, skills, paid employment for women, women emancipation
programmes in recent times, women now share equal authorities with men in the family as they jointly contribute to the family welfare
etc.
5/6/2024
24

TYPES OF FAMILY CONTINUES………….
• On the Basis of Residence:
• In terms of residence, we find following types of families.
• (i) Patrilocal Family:
• When the wife goes to live with the husband’s family, it is called the patrilocal family.
• (ii) Matrilocal Family:
• When the couple after marriage moves to live with the wife’s family, such residence is called matrilocal. The husband has a secondary position in the
wife’s family where his children live.
• (iii) Neolocal Residence:
• When the couple after marriage moves to settle in an independent residence which is neither attached to the bride’s family of origin nor bridegroom’s
family of origin it is called neolocal residence.
• (iv) Avunculocal Family:
• In this type of family the married couple moves to the house of the maternal uncle and live with his son after marriage. Avonculocal family is found
among the Nayars of Kerala.
• (v) Matri-Patri Local Family:
• In matri-patrilocal family, immediately after marriage the bridegroom moves to the house of the bride and temporarily settles there till the birth of the first
child and then comes back to his family of orientation, along with wife and child for permanent settlement
5/6/2024
25

TYPES OF FAMILY CONTINUES………
• The Basis of Descent:
On the basis of descent, families may be divided into two types such as patrilineal and matrilineal.
• (i) Patrilineal Family:
• When descent is traced through the father, it is called patrilineal family. In this type of family inheritance of property takes place along
the male line of descent. The ancestry of such family is determined on the basis of male line or the father. A patrilineal family is also
patriarchal and patrilocal. This is the common type of family prevalent today.
• (ii) Matrilineal Family:
• In this type of family descent is traced along the female line and inheritance of property also takes place along the female line of
descent. The Akans in Ghana, some people of other tribes in Africa are matrilineal. Generally, the matrilineal families are matriarchal and
matrilocal.
• (iii) Besides the above types, there are other two types of family based on descent namely bilateral and Ambilineal family. When the
ancestry or descent is traced through both father and mother, it is called bilateral family. Ambilineal family is one in which one’s ancestry
may be traced through father’s line in one generation, but in the next generation one’s son may trace his descent or ancestry through his
mother’s line.
5/6/2024
26

TYPES OF FAMILY CONTINUES……..
• On the Basis of Marriage:
On the basis of marriage, family has been classified into two types such as monogamous and polygamous.
• (i) Monogamous Family: A monogamous family is one which is consisted of one husband and one wife. In this type of
family one man has one wife or one woman has one husband at a given time. Hence a husband and a wife living together,
constitute a monogamous family. It is an ideal form of family prevalent widely.
• (ii) Polygamous Family: When one man marries several women or one woman marries several men and constitute the
family, it is polygamous family. Again, polygamous family is divided into two types such as polygynous family and
polyandrous family.
• (a) Polygynous Family: It is a type of family in which one man has more than one wife at a given time and lives with
them and their children together. This kind of family is found among Ghanaians and the Muslims, Naga and other tribes of
central and East Africans.
• (b) Polyandrous Family: In this type of family one wife has more than one husband at given time and she lives with all
of them together or each of them in turn. Polyandrous families are found among some East Africans, Australians, the
Sinhalese (Srilankans), the Tibetans, some Eskimos and the Todas of Nilgiri Hills in India.
5/6/2024
27

TYPES OF FAMILY CONTINUES…….
• Endogamous Family:
Endogmy is the practice of marrying someone within a group to which one belongs. An endogamous family is one which
consists of husband and wife who belong to same group such as caste or tribe.
• For example, in a caste-ridden society like India a member of a particular caste has to marry within his own caste. When a
person marries within his caste group, it is called endogamous family.
• (ii) Exogamous Family:
• Endogamy means marriage within a group, while exogamy means marriage with someone outside his group. For
example, most Ghanaians must marry outside his Kinship group. When a family is consisted of husband and wife of
different groups such as kinship is called exogamous family.
• In some tribes in Ghana marriage between same kinship has been prohibited. Hence, one must marry outside his own
kinship. Similarly, some tribes follow the practice of clan exogamy. Accordingly, they marry outside their group (clan). The
practice of clan exogamy is widely followed among most tribes in Ghana and Africa in general.
5/6/2024
28

TYPES OF FAMILY CONTINUES…….
• On the basis of Blood-relationship:
• Ralph Linton has classified family into two main types namely, consanguine and conjugal.
• (i) Consanguine Family:
• The consanguine family is built upon the parent-child relationship (on blood-descent). The family is a descent group
through the male line which is firmly vested with authority. The consanguine family comprises a nucleus of blood relatives
surrounded by a fringe of wives and others who are incidental to the maintenance of the family unit. Such families can
become very large.
• (ii) Conjugal Family:
• The conjugal family is a nucleus of the husband, the wife and their offspring, who are surrounded by a fringe of relatives
only incidental to the functioning of the family as a unit. In this type family, the authority and solidarity of the family group
reside solely in the conjugal (husband and wife) pair. In contrast to consanguine type of family, the conjugal family is much
more isolated from wider kinship relationships.
5/6/2024
29

FUNCTIONS OF THE FAMILY
Functions of the Family
The family as stated earlier is the smallest and most basic social unit of the
society and in whatever form it expresses itself, it is found in every society.
This implies that the family as the basic social institution is playing a vital
role central to the survival of any society and some of these functions are
considered here:
5/6/2024
30

FUNCTIONS OF FAMILY CONTINUES……
a. Nurture: Every child is born into a family and every child is expected to be fed, clothed, educated and
cared for. This responsibility lies in the hands of the family; hence the family ensures providing for the
welfare needs of the children thereby ensuring the survival of the next generation of society.
b. Regulation of Sexual Relationships: One of the paramount biological needs of man in all society is
sexual relationship. Such relationship is often protected with rules and regulations in all societies and it
is the family that helps and enforce such rules. This is done to prevent incestuous relationships for
example the need for one not to have sexual relationship with close relative or kin etc. The family also
screens and approves sexual partners and spouses for members.
5/6/2024
31

a. Procreation: The family through the regulation of sexual relationship function
fulfils the biological need of reproduction and perpetuation of both the immediate
family andthe society as a whole (Okodudu 2010).
• Social placement: As earlier mentioned, the family is the basic unit of identity for
every individual. An individual acquires his identity and place in society through
his family. The family ascribes many statuses to its members such as; race, ethnic
affiliation, nationality, religion, royalty etc
5/6/2024
32

a. Material and Emotional Security: It is the function of the family to ensure that the
material and psychological needs of its members are satisfied by providing necessary
economic, social and psychological supports.
b. Affection and companionship: The family is expected to provide affection and
companionship for its members. Children are given warm affection within the family to
develop a positive self-image, and adults in the family need intimate companionship to
cope with life. This breeds a sense of belonging, (Ingiabuna and Obaro 2009).
5/6/2024
33

a. Protection: The family in almost all societies of the world offers some degree of physical,
social, economic and psychological protection to its members. Nevertheless, the government
through its apparatus like the police, social welfare department now shares this function with
the family (Ingiabuna et al 2003).
• Socialization: Every society has its norms, values, customs and approved behaviouralcodes of
conduct which is passed on from generation to generation. The familyperforms the function of
socialization, teaching the young ones the values and norms of the society. Indeed, the earliest
and continuous form of education and socialization takes place within the family.
5/6/2024
34

FUNCTIONS OF FAMILY ENDS……
• Legitimizing Inheritance: The family often confers inheritance rights
on the members. It does this by identifying relationships through
kinship. In most Nigeriancommunities, except one is able to trace
relationship to a family, he or she could be denied of land rights
(Okodudu 2010).
5/6/2024
35

THE END
•Thank you for listening.
•Questions and contributions are now
welcome.
5/6/2024
36

AFRICAN FAMILY AND KINSHIP BY KOTOR ASARE.pptx

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Semelhante a AFRICAN FAMILY AND KINSHIP BY KOTOR ASARE.pptx

Semelhante a AFRICAN FAMILY AND KINSHIP BY KOTOR ASARE.pptx (20)

Último

Último (20)

AFRICAN FAMILY AND KINSHIP BY KOTOR ASARE.pptx