Chapter 2

The History of the Family

Prepared by Cathie Robertson, Grossmont College

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© 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved

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The Study of the Family

• Upper class bias of historians– Studied kings, nobles, wars, rise & fall of

empires

• First, examination of “ordinary” families– Began in 1960

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Philippe Aries-- CENTURIES OF CHILDHOOD

•Institution of childhood began to emerge

• Situation of young began to change

• New term: “children”

•A theory of innocence of the child emerged.

• Children to be protected from adult reality

•The facts of birth, death, sex, tragedy, world events hidden from the child.

Philippe Aries-- CENTURIES OF CHILDHOOD

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•Children increasingly segregated by age

•The fact of having an age became important

•In the "ancien regime" people’s ages were virtually unknown

17th Century

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18th Century

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19th Century

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19th Century

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20th Century

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Evolutionary theory—infants need care

Hunter-gatherers

Settled agriculture

Lineages: Form of kinship in which descent is traced Patrilineage: Father’s line Matrilineage: Mother’s line

Origins of Family and Kinship

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Origins of Family and Kinship (cont.)

Kinship Groups Ensure order Defend against outsiders Provide labor Assist others in group Recruit new members

Through marriage

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Origins of Family and Kinship (cont.)

• In most societies--smaller family units

–Mother and children always

–Husband/father (usually)

–Other household members (sometimes)

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Western culture—smaller kinship groups

Conjugal family: Husband, wife and children

Extended family: Other relatives in household

Origins of Family and Kinship (cont.)

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• Polygyny: One man, many wives• Polyandry: One woman, more than one

husband

• Family and kinship systems developed to provide fundamental needs:–Food production–Defense

Origins of Family and Kinship (cont.)

Families Across Culture – Na Kinship

• Brothers & sisters live in mother’s household for life

• Instead of taking wives, men visit women in other households– Visit any Na woman who consent to sex

• When children are born, they remain with mother and maternal aunts and uncles

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Families Across Culture – Na Kinship

Fathers do not live with their children, but they are a presence in their lives

After Communist Revolution in China, government began to promote monogamy among the Na – they resisted

Government eventually backed down

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The American Family before 1776

• American Indian Families

• European Colonists

• African Slaves

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American Indian Families: The Primacy of the Tribes

• American Indian - Indigenous people in the 48 territories that became United States

• Family units based on lineages• Tribes, both matrilineal and patrilineal

–Matrilineal ties to maternal kin–Patrilineal ties to paternal kin

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European Colonists: The Primacy of the Public Family

• Families performed public services– Education– Hospitals – Houses of correction – Orphanages – Nursing homes – Poor houses

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• No room for privacy or private lives–Family affairs are public business–Houses not designed for privacy–Little privacy from other households–Conjugal family considered integral part

of society, not apart from it

European Colonists: The Primacy of the Public Family (cont.)

European Colonists: The Primacy of the Public Family (cont.)

• Family Diversity

• Not all families fit ideal of conjugal family• Many stepfamilies due to deaths of parents• Marriage not always official, could be

informal–More common in Middle Colonies–A form of bigamy if man migrated to West

and began a new family21

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The Emergence of the “Modern” American Family: 1776 to 1900

• Four new characteristics: 1. Marriage—based on mutual respect and

affection2. Wife cared for home and children—seen as

morally superior3. Childhood as time to protect and support

children4. Number of children per family declined

The Emergence of the “Modern” American Family: 1776 to 1900 (cont.)

• Individualism• Increase personal relationships in families • Emotional rewards• Autonomy

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Change in the mode of production– Commercial capitalism– From “family labor” to “paid labor”

• Men worked outside the home– Work governed by business ethic– World outside the home

From Cooperation to Separation: Men’s and Women’s Spheres

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• Women worked inside the home– Women renew husbands’ character &

spirituality

– True womanhood where women were:• Pious upholder of spiritual values• Pure• Submissive to men • Domestic

From Cooperation to Separation: Men’s and Women’s Spheres (cont.)

Cult of True Womanhood

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtXNNAs9u0M&feature=player_embedded#!

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Happy Homemakers

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• Africans forced to immigrate– Captured or bought in West Africa– Sold as slaves

• Asians work as laborers on railroads, etc.

African-American, Mexican-American, and Asian Immigrant Families

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African-American Families

• An African heritage?–Historically maintained stronger ties to

extended kin–Children before marriage –Women worked–African society was organized by lineages

• Marriage much more of a process–Slavery stripped elders of authority

over marriage process

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Impact of Slavery• E. Franklin Frazier believed slavery had

destroyed social organization among slaves

• In 1976, Gutman found substantial evidence that slaves often married for life, and kept track of extended family

• Most families—two parents

• Black women—work outside the home

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Mexican-American Families• Mexicans settled frontier of N. Mexico• Landowners & farmer-laborers, compadres

–Farmer-laborers—Mestizo—part Spanish and part Native American

–Compadrazgo: In Mexico, the godparent relationship of wealthy or influential person outside the kinship group asked to become compadres

Mexicans Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

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• One of most far reaching treaties of American history• Signed on Feb. 2, 1848• Ended the U.S.-Mexican War

• A war declared against Mexico by the U.S. Congress on April 23, 1846.

Mexicans Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

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U.S. took from Mexico the land area of:TexasNew MexicoCaliforniaArizonaNevadaUtahHalf of Colorado

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

• Treaty defined border between the United States and Mexico• Border has remained mostly the same along the Rio Grande

(With the exception of the Gadsden Purchase called The Treaty With Mexico of Dec. 30, 1853 and the purchase of Chamizal land near El Paso, Texas)

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Mexico & U.S. After Treaty

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Mexican-American Families (cont.)

• Social structure disrupted by wars, revolts and land grabs in 1830s and 1840s

• U.S. acquired by conquest the current Southwestern U.S.

• Mexicans became more of a working class• Many were forced into barrios:

– Segregated neighborhoods in U.S.

Mexican-American Families

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• Five centuries of Spanish colonization• Mexican contemporary family cultural hybrid character, combines:

• Feelings of indigenous peoples•Traditional feminine subculture

• And Spanish expectations and norms• The masculine machista orientation

Mexican-American Families

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• Estimated that 74.2% of contemporary Mexican families are nuclear

• The rest are extended family types

Relations & structure appear to be nuclear

• In practice, they continue to be extended

• In fact, families give emotional & instrumental support and guidance at all times.

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Asian Immigrant Families

• The Asian Heritage– Immigrants from China and Japan and

their descendents– Family systems sharply different

• Fathers had authority over family• Kinship—patrilineal• Children expected to take care of elderly

and live with them– Greater emphasis on family loyalty

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– Few families, remittances, no citizenship, discrimination

• Arranged marriages

– When Japanese migrated to Hawaii in 1880s, more balance of ratio of women to men, so more families formed

– Figured out ways of building family-like ties in U.S.

Asian Immigrant Families (cont.)

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Asian Immigrant Families (cont.)

• Discrimination led to Japanese internment camps—WW II

• 1965 Immigration Act changed the restrictions that blocked most Asian immigration and substituted a yearly quota– Asian population expanded rapidly

• 2000 census: 11.9 million Asian Americans

– Filipinos bilateral kinship —both sides

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The Early Decades• Rise in premarital sex, decline in

births, rising divorce rate, “inappropriate behavior”—1920s

• Rise in marriage rate—greater emotional satisfaction from marriage

The Rise of the Private Family: 1900-Present

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• Families becoming less of a dominant force in people’s lives– Marriage become less necessary

economically and materially• Marriage become more fragile

The Rise of the Private Family: 1900-Present( cont.)

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• Privacy and private families on increase– Birthrate decline– Adult life expectancy increased – More apartments were built for

independent living

The Rise of the Private Family: 1900-Present (cont.)

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• Basis of marriage—economics to emotional satisfaction and companionship

• Men and women—more economically independent

• Marriage bonds weakened – Divorce more common

The Rise of the Private Family: 1900-Present (cont.)

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• Affected family finances• Undermined authority of father• Divorce rate fell• Postponement of marriage and childbearing

– 1 in 5 never had children (1 in 10 norm)

• Children helped out by working

The Depression Generation

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• Baby boom renewed emphasis on marriage and children– Young adults from depression married

earlier and had more children than ever before

– From a relatively small birth cohort– Preferred family size shifted

• Highpoint of breadwinner-homemaker model– Not really the traditional family– Faded quickly

The 1950s

Figure 2.1Percentage never married among men

and women aged 20 to 24

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Figure 2.2Percentage of children aged 0-17 living

in each of four types of families

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• Birthrate plunged• Married on average 4-5 years

later than before• Young people wanted

independence• Divorce rate doubled 1960s–70s

– Declined slightly since then• Cohabitation—1970s• Women working outside home

1960s and Beyond

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• Looking at Figure 2.3, show changes in family and personal life– Twentieth century—great change in

the kinds of family lives individuals lead

Social Changes in the 20th Century

Figure 2.3A life-course perspective on social change in the

20th century

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Emergence of Early Adulthood

• Early adulthood – period between mid-teens and about 30

• Labor force – all people who are working for pay or looking for paid work

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The Role of Education• Education – main factor in lengthening

of early adulthood• More employment opportunities for

college-educated• Young adults may still marry, but they

may postpone children to further education

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Declining Parental Control

• A century ago, young people lived with parents until marriage – today they live apart and parents have less control

• The more unconventional young adults were (e.g. cohabitating w/out marriage), the more likely they were to have moved out of the state they were born

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Early Adulthood and the Life Course Perspective

Life-course perspective: Study of changes to individuals’ lives over time and related to historic events

Focuses on key transition• Lengthening period from adolescence to adulthood• Historical changes such as

– Decline of manufacturing jobs– Growing employment for well-educated– Greater acceptance of cohabitation and childbearing outside

of marriage56

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Americans come from regions of the worldDifferent family traditionsSome mix of American and

other traditionsEuropean American family

systems Conjugal unitDivision of laborBroke down in late 20th

centuryPlaced weight on individual

satisfaction

What History Tells Us

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• Family systems non-European – Place more emphasis on kin

• Sometimes lineages

– Marriage still central• Larger family structures could support

• Weakening of marriage left European family systems more vulnerable

What History Tells Us (cont.)