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Introductory
Terms
Domestic
Group: "A group of people who habitually share a common dwelling
and a common food supply" (Smith); thus, equivalent to "household"
Nuclear Family: "The association of a married couple with
their young children… it is frequently a discrete residential and
economic unit with its own dwelling and its own property. It is formed
when the first child arrives. If the children grow up and leave to found
families… its numbers decline and it disappears with the death of
the parents" (Barnes)
Elementary Family: "A unit consisting of a man and his wife
and all their children, whether young or old, living at home or outside
it, married or unmarried" (Barnes)
Universality of Nuclear Family: "The nuclear family is a universal
human social grouping. Either as the sole prevailing form of the family
or as the basic unit from which more complex familial forms are compounded,
it exists as a distinct and strongly functional group in every society"
(Murdock)
Also: "The conjugal family limited to mother and children is practically
universal since it is based on the physiological dependency which exists
between them at least for a certain time, and… the conjugal family
consisting of husband, wife and children is almost as frequent of psychological
and economic reasons…" (Levi-Strauss)
Orientation, Family of: Elementary family into which ego is born
(natal)
Procreation, Family of: Elementary family which ego creates by
procreating/marrying (conjugal)
Compound Family: "A unit consisting of three or more spouses
and their children; it may be produced in monogamous societies by a second
marriage giving rise to step-relationships"
Joint/Extended Family: "A group may be described as a joint
family when two or more lineally related kinsfolk of the same sex, their
spouses and offspring, occupy a single homestead and are jointly subject
to the same authority or single head. The term extended family should
be used from the dispersed form corresponding to a joint family"
(Notes & Queries)
Stem Family: Two nuclear families living together, of different
generations’ linked by an individual who is father in one and son
in the other (or mo./da/)
Joint Family: Two (or more) nuclear families living together, of
same generation, linked by sibling bonds
Virilocal: Literally, place of the husband; better than "patrilocal"
since it show that a couple lives with the husband’s lineage rather
than with the father
Uxorilocal: Literally, place of the wife; better than "matrilocal"
since it show that a couple lives with the wife’s lineage rather
than with the mother
Neolocal: The couple establish an independent residence, away from
either male or female’s lineage
Avunculocal: Literally, place of an uncle; "a norm in which
unmarried males leave their paternal homes to reside with a Mo.Bro.; upon
marriage their wives are brought into the household" (Schusky)
Ambilocal: Choice open as to virilocal or uxorilocal residence
Intimate Kin: "Social contact is purposeful, close and frequent"
(Firth)
Peripheral: "Contacts are… distant, accidental, or sporadic"
(Firth)
Joking Relationship: "Patterned behaviour between relatives
that calls for mild to taunting or ribald joking" (Schusky)
Reference
Adams,
B. N. "The Social Significance of Kinship" extract in Anderson,
M., Ch10, (eds) Sociology of the Family, Penguin
Bott, E., Family and Social Network
Chagnon, N., Yanomamo, The Fierce People
Fortes, M., "Time and Social Structure", in Fortes, M., Social
Structure, and reprinted in Fortes, M., Ch.1, Time and Social Structure
Keesing, R., Ch.8, Kin Groups and Social Structure
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