INDEX

Introduction……………………………………………...02

Structure of family……………………………………………….03

Forms of the family……………………………………………......04

Types of marital regulation……………………………………..05

Function of family………………………………………………..07

Family residence and authority patterns……………………...09

Divorce…………………………………………………………...11

Impact of divorce on children’s…………………………..........13

Alternative life style in Pakistan………………………………..15

Families in Pakistan……………………………………………..17

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The family as a social institution is present in all cultures. Although
the organization of the family can vary greatly, there are certain
general principles concerning its composition, descent patterns,
residence patterns, and authority patterns.

There are many variations in the “family” from culture to culture. A

family can be defined as a set of people related by blood, marriage
(or some other agreed-upon relationship), or adoption who share the
primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for members of
society. In this chapter, we will see that the family is universal found
in every culture through varied in its organization. We will look at the
primary functions of the family, and at the variations in marital
patterns and family life, including different types of child rearing.
Particular attention will be given to the increasing number of people
who are in dual-income or single-parent families. We will examine
divorce and will discuss such alternative lifestyles as cohabitation,
remaining single and lesbians and gay relationships. And also a brief
account on Families existing in Pakistan.

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 STRUCTURE OF FAMILY

What is the family? Although we all use the term and doubtless have
a gut-level feeling of what we mean by it, the ‘family’ is exceedingly
difficult to define. Many of us think of the family as a social unit
consisting of a married couple and their children – Mom, Dad and the
Kids.

In many societies it is the kin group, not a married couple and their
children, that is the basic family unit. Sociologist have traditionally
viewed the family as a social group whose members are related by
ancestry marriage, or adoption and who live together, cooperate
economically and care for the young.

But those who are unhappy with this definition argue that
psychological bonds are what families are all about. Defined in this
fashion, long-term relationships, heterosexual or homosexual, should
be considered families. Clearly, defining the family is not simply an
academic exercise: How we define it determines the king of intimate
groups we consider normal and the kind we consider deviant and
what rights and obligations we recognize as legally and socially
binding.

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 FORMS OF THE FAMILY

The family is a unique institution. In no sphere of social life are the

differences in human societies more evident and striking than in kin
and marriage patterns. Though out the world there are many
arrangements for regulating mating and reproduction, caring for and
bringing up children and meeting personal needs.
NUCLEAR FAMILY:

Social relationships between adult males and females can be

organized within families by emphasizing either spouse or kin
relationships. In the NUCLEAR FAMILY arrangement, spouses and
their offspring constitute the core relationship; blood relatives are
functionally marginal.

EXTENDED FAMILY:

A family in which relatives in addition to parents & children such as

grandparents, aunts or uncles live in the same home is known as an
EXTENDED FAMILY. While not common such living arrangements
do exist in the United Stats but still found in Pakistan. The structure of
the EXTENDED FAMILY offers certain advantages over that of the
nuclear family. Crises such as death, divorce, and illness involve less
strain for family members, since there are more people who can
provide assistance and emotional support. In addition, the
EXTENDED FAMILY constitutes a larger economic unit than the
nuclear family If the family is engaged in a common enterprise a farm
or a small business, the additional family members may represent the
difference between prosperity and failure.

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The fact that the parties to a marriage must be members of two
different kin groups has crucial implications for the structure of the
family. Indeed, the continuity, and therefore the long term welfare, of
any kin group depend on obtaining spouses for the unmarried
members of the group from other groups.

Accordingly, we need to take a closer look at matting arrangements,

particularly marriage, a socially approved sexual union between two
or more individuals that is undertaken with some ideas of
permanence.

FORM OF MARRIAGES:

The fact that the parties to a marriage must be members of two

different kin groups has crucial implications for the structure of the
family. Indeed, the continuity, and therefore the long-term welfare, of
any kin group depends on obtaining spouses for the unmarried
members of the groups.

Accordingly, we need to take a closer look at mating arrangements,

particularly marriage, a socially approved sexual union between two
or more individuals that is undertaken with some idea of permanence.

The relationship between a husband and wife may be structured in

one of four ways:

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MONOGAMY:

The term MONOGAMY describes a form of marriage in which one

woman and one man are marriage only to each other.

POLYGAMY:

Some culture allows an individual to have several husbands or wives

simultaneously. This form of marriage is known as POLYGAMY.

POLYANDRY:

Two or more husband and one wife.

GROUP MARRIAGE:

Two or more husbands and two or more wives.

All societies regulate he pool of eligible from which individual are

expected to select a mate. A child’s kin generally have more in mind
than simply getting a child married. They want the child married to the
right spouse, especially where marriage has consequences for the
kin group. Two types of marital regulations define the “right” spouse:

• Endogamy
• Exogamy

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 • ENDOGAMY:

Endogamy is the requirement that marriage occur within a group.

People must marry within their class, caste, race, ethnic group, or
religion.

• EXOGAMY:

Exogamy is the requirement that marriage occur outside a group.

People must marry outside their kin group, be it their immediate
nuclear family, clan, or tribe.

FUNCTION OF FAMILY

The family fulfills a number of functions, such as providing religious

training, education, and recreational outlets. Yet there are six
paramount functions performed by the family;

• Reproduction
• Protection
• Socialization
• Regulation Of Sexual Behavior
• Affection And Companionship
• Providing Of Social Status

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• REPRODUCTION:

For a society to maintain itself, it must replace dying members. In

this sense, the family contributes to human survival through its
function of reproduction.

• PROTECTION:

Unlike the young of other animal species, human infants need

constant care and economic security. Infants and children
experience an extremely long period of dependency. Which places
special demands on older family members. In all cultures, it is the
family that assumes ultimate responsibility for the protection and
upbringing of children.
• SOCIALIZATION:

Parents and other kin monitor a child’s behavior and transmit the
norms, values, and language of a culture to the child.

• REGULATION OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR:

Sexual norms are subject to change overtime (for instance,

changes in customs for dating) and across cultures (Islamic Saudi
Arabia compared with more permissive Denmark). However,
whenever the time period or cultural values in a society, standards
of sexual behavior are most clearly defined within the family circle.
The structure of society influences these standards so that,
characteristically in male-dominated societies, formal and informal
norms permit men to express and enjoy their sexual desires more
freely than women may.

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• AFFECTION AND COMPANIONSHIP:

Ideally, the family provides members with warm and intimate

relationships and helps them feel satisfied and secure. Of course,
a family member may find such rewards outside the family from
peers, in school, at work and may perceive the home as an
unpleasant place. Nevertheless, unlike other institutions, the family
is obligated to serve the emotional needs of its members. We
expect our relatives to understand us, to care for us, and to be
there for us when we need them.

• PROVIDING OF SOCIAL STATUS:

We inherit a social position because of the “family background”

and reputation of our parents and siblings. The family unit presents
the newborn child with an ascribed status of race and ethnicity that
helps to determine his or her place within a society’s stratification
system.

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FAMILY RESIDENCE:

In every society, there are social norms concerning the appropriate

residence of a newly created family, which are as under;

• Neolocal
• Patrilocal
• Matrilocal

• NEOLOCAL:

A married couple is expected to establish a separate household.

• PATRILOCAL:

A married couple lives with husband’s family.

• MATRILOCAL:
A married couple lives with wife’s family.

AUTHORITY PATTERNS:

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Imagine that you have recently married and must begin to make
decisions about the future of your new family. You and your
spouse face many questions. Where will you live? How will you
furnish your place of residence? Who will do the cooking, the
shopping, the cleaning? Whose friends will be invited to dinner?
Each time a decision must be made, an issue is raised: “Who has
the power to make the decision?” In simple terms, who rules the
family? From a conflict perspective, these questions must be
examined in light of traditional gender stratification, under which
men have held a dominant position over women.

Societies vary in the way that power within the family is distributed.
If a society expects males to dominate in all family decision
making g, it is termed a patriarchy. Frequently, in patriarchal
societies, the eldest male wields the greatest power. Women hold
low status in such societies and rarely are granted full and equal
rights within the legal system. It may be more difficult, for example,
for a woman to obtain a divorce than it is for a man. By contrast, in
a matriarchy, women have greater authority than men.
Matriarchies may have emerged among Native American tribal
societies and in nations in which men were absent for long periods
of time for welfare or food gathering.

Some marital relationships may be neither male-dominated nor

female-dominated. The third type of authority pattern, the
egalitarian family, is one in which spouses are regarded as
equals. This does not mean, however, that each decision is shared
in such families. Wives may hold authority in some spheres,
husbands in others. In the view of many sociologists, the
egalitarian family has begun to rplace the patriarchal family as the
social norm.

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What is to be done when a married couple can’t live comfortably
together?

Although most societies make some provision for divorce, some

make it very difficult or perhaps give the privilege of divorce only to
the men. Some make divorce very simple. The social and family
structure of many societies makes divorce a fairly painless and
harmless operation.

In many societies where there is no great emphasis upon romantic

love and no intense individual love attachment, divorce entails no
great heart break. The meaning of divorce depends upon how it
relates to other aspects og the institution of the family. A divorce may
complete the collapse of the emotional world for both child and adult.

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH HIGHER

PROBABILITY OF DIVORCE:

• Marriage at a very young age (15 to 19 years old)

• Short acquaintanceship before marriage (less than two years)
• Short engagement (under six months) or no engagement
• Parents with unhappy marriages
• Disapproval of marriage expressed by kin and friends
• General dissimilarity of background
• Membership in different religious faiths
• Failure to attend religious services Incomplete education
(leaving school before getting diploma or degree)
• Disagreement of husband and wife on role obligations Urban
background
In addition to these strains in each individual relationship,
however, there are overall social changes which have contributed
to the nation’s rising divorce rate.
Perhaps the most important factor in the increase in divorce
throughout the twentieth century has been the greater social

12
acceptance of divorce. In particular, this increased tolerance has
resulted from a relaxation of negative attitudes toward divorce
among various religious denominations. Although divorce is still
seen as unfortunate, it is no longer treated as a sin by most
religious leaders.

A few other factors deserve mention. Many states have adopted

more liberal divorce laws in the last two decades. Divorce has
become a more practical option in newly formed families, since
they now tend to have fewer children than in the past. A general
increase in family incomes, coupled with the availability of free
legal aid for some poor people, has meant that more couples can
afford the traditionally high legal costs of divorce proceedings.
Finally, as society provides greater opportunities for women, more
and more wives are becoming less dependent on their husbands
both economically and emotionally. They may then feel more able
to leave if the marriage seems hopeless. The most extreme cause
of marital breakdown is domestic violence.

IMPACT OF DIVORCE ON CHILDREN:

Traditionally, family researchers have suggested that divorce has

a more detrimental effect on boys than on girls. These researchers
have often written that the absence of fathers is more harmful for
the development of boys than for girls and that girls receive
greater emotional support from custodial mothers. However, more
recent studies have led to a reexamination of these long-held
assumptions.

For girls, the harmful effects of divorce emerge somewhat later

than for boys, sometimes only in adolescence or even in
adulthood. When compared with daughters from intact families,
daughters of divorce are more likely to have feelings of lowered
self-worth. Moreover, a daughter of divorce may find it difficult to
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achieve a healthy separation and independence from her custodial
mother.

While the detrimental effect of divorce is sometimes more obvious

and more dramatic in boys because of their greater tendency
toward aggressiveness and antisocial behavior, we should not
underestimate the harmful impact of divorce on girls.

While divorce can obviously be a painful experience for both

female and male children, it is important to avoid labeling young
people as “children of divorce” as if this parental experience is the
singular event defining the life of a girl or boy.

if divorce does not lower children’s access to resources and does

not increase stress, its impact on children may be neutral or even
positive. Divorce does not ruin the life of every child it touches,
though its effect on a child is not always benign.

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Sometimes many people have chosen alternative lifestyles rather
than the traditional Nuclear Family norm.

• Cohabitation
• Remaining Single
• Lesbian and Gay Relationships
• Marriage without Children

• COHABITATION:

One of the most dramatic trends of recent years has been the
tremendous increase in male-female couples who choose to live
together without marrying, thereby engaging in what is commonly
called COHABITATION.

Increase in cohabitation has also been found in Canada, France,

Sweden, Denmark, and Australia. Data released in Great Britain
indicate that more than 12 percent of people ages 18 to 24 are
cohabiting. One report notes that in Sweden it is almost universal for
couples to live together before marriage. Demographers in Denmark
call the practice of living together “marriage without papers”. In
Australia, these couples are known as “de factors”.

Such couples choose cohabitation rather than marriage for many

reasons:

Because of the religious differences, because they wish to preserve

the full Social security benefits they receive as single people, out of
fear of commitment, to avoid upsetting children from previous
marriages, because one partner or both are not legally divorced, or
because one or both have lived through a spouse’s illness and death
and they don’t want to experience that again.

But this king of cohabitation would not be accepted in our society,

and it is considered as a sin according to our religion (Islam).

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• REMAINING SINGLE:

The trend toward maintaining an unmarried lifestyle is related to the

growing economic independence of young people. This is especially
significant for women. From a financial point of view, it is often no
longer necessary for a woman to marry in order to enjoy a satisfying
life.

There are many reasons why a person may choose not to marry.
Singleness is an attractive option for those who do not want to limit
their sexual intimacy to one partner. Also, some men and women do
not want to become highly dependent on any one person and don’t
want anyone depending heavily on them.

In a society which values individuality and self-fulfillment, the single

lifestyle can offer certain freedoms that married couples may not
enjoy.

• LESBIAN AND GAY RELATIONSHIPS:

According to traditional estimates, lesbians and gay men together

constitute perhaps 10 percent of the nation’s population.

The lifestyles of lesbians and gay men vary greatly. Some live alone,
others with roommates. Some live in long-term, monogamous
relationships with a lover and with children from formal heterosexual
marriages. Others remain married and have not publicly
acknowledged their homosexuality.

• MARRIAGE WITHOUT CHILDREN:

According to the data found from a research is that, about 16 percent

of women in their forties will complete their childbearing years without
having borne any children. As many as 20 percent of women in their
thirties expect to remain childless.

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Childlessness within marriage has generally been viewed as a
problem that can be solved through such means as adoption and
artificial insemination. Some couples, however, choose not to have
children and regard themselves as child-free, not childless. They do
not believe that having children automatically follows from marriage,
nor do they feel that reproduction is the duty of all married couples.

PAKISTANI FAMILY TODAY:

Pakistani Family is the basic social institution, which varies greatly in

form. The Urban Families, especially in Karachi are Conjugal,
composed of husband, wife and children. But in many Rural areas,
which includes Interior Punjab, Interior Sindh, Lahore, Rawalpindi,
family unit is consanguine, a much larger group of blood relatives with
a fringe of spouses.

In Pakistan, the Urban Family of Karachi and the Rural Family of rest
of Pakistan is quite different. In Rural areas, all societies practices
Endogamy, to choose a mate within some specified groups that is in
their own family. While in Karachi, Societies leads to Westernize
norms, and families practice Exogamy, to choose a mate outside of
some specified groups for the marriage, that is in their Universities
mate or Office Colleagues.

In Karachi, 90% families are ideal, that is one husband got one wife.
But in rest of Pakistan, societies permit Polygamy (Polygyny),
wherein it is the husband who has more than one mate at a time.

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The rate of Divorce in Pakistan (Urban + Rural) is very low, it is
because of our culture and our religion.

FUTURE OF THE FAMILY OF

PAKISTAN
In Pakistan, we experience a strong bounding of blood relatives,
that’s why family’s actual concept (Husband + Wife+ Children) never
be decline. There is no space of single parent in Pakistan, because
here wife or husband did compromise with each other despite of their
dislike ness and their children are the main reason of this
compromise.

But the concept of Consanguine Family is declining in Pakistan

because of low resources of income and increasing responsibilities.
We have experienced that many Consanguine Family broke up into
several Conjugal Families.

The Problem of getting marriage proposal in Pakistan is a big

problem for girls, that’s why scope of Exogamy is increased and
restriction to get married in their own cast or language is declined.
We experienced lots of cross cultural marriages in Pakistan. Thus the
concept of endogamy will be decreased.

In Pakistan, an ideal family will be boosting where only one wife and
one husband is present. Currently Polygyny (plurality of wives) exist
in rural areas but due to increasing awareness and low resources of
income, Polygyny will be decline in Rural Areas, and will be perceived
as sin in Urban areas.

Currently Patrilocal marriages exists in Pakistan where married

couple live with husband’s family, but its for just as a custom and
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often few months, the newly married couple will detached and create
a new conjugal family.

The number of working women is increasing in the recent era; the

main reason is nothing, only to fulfill the income resources of the
family. Because of this the number of Montessori institutions is
increasing day by day and the culture of Babysitting will soon be
introduce in our society in future,

Pakistan will be a country of Conjugal family, where there’s no

place of Polygamy or Divorce.

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