The History Of The Family Structure Outline

Submitted By cmsabol
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CHAPTER 2: THE HISTORY OF THE FAMILY
LECTURE OUTLINE
I. Introduction
A. Historical examination of “ordinary” families initiated by works of Aries and Demos in 1960.
B. History of family reveals that childhood not treated as a protected, extended stage until after
1800s
C. History of family reveals that public family is as old as civilization but private family emerged in the last several hundred years
II. What Do Families Do?
A. Origins of Family and Kinship
1. Hunters and gatherers
2. Settled agriculture
a. lineages
b. patrilineages
c. matrilineages
B. Best analyzed from public family perspective
C. Developed out of will to survive, prosper, and raise children
1. Kinship developed as a “weapon for survival”.
D. Most common Western family and kinship social organizations
1. Conjugal family
2. Extended family
E. Non-Western family forms
1. Extended family
2. Polygamous families
a. polygny (many wives)
b. polyandry (many husbands)
3. The Na of China (Families Across Cultures)
a. marriage was not the basis for family
b. there was no role for fathers or husbands
III. American family before 1776
A. American Indian families
1. Importance of tribe to social organization
2. Matrilineal vs. patrilineal organization
3. Children more independent and given more freedom than European American children
B. European colonists: Primacy of public family
1. No real lineages
C. Functioned as hospitals, orphanages, schools, nursing homes, poorhouses, and religious sources D. Strongly linked to other households
E. Family affairs considered public business
F. Family diversity
1. Children often lived in one parent or stepfamilies
2. Informal marriages common and even traditional among Europeans
a. Particularly common in Middle and Southern Colonies
b. Persisted into the 19th century
IV. Emergence of the “Modern American Family”: 1776–1900
A. Private family beginning to gain importance between 1776 and 1830
B. Characteristics of new family mostly middle class
1. Marriage increasingly based on affection and mutual respect
2. Woman’s role to take care of children and home
3. Increasing focus on children
4. Number of children per family declining
C. From Cooperation to Separation: Women’s and Men’s Sphers
1. Growth of commercial capitalism
2. Growth of separate spheres for men and women
a. Men’s work outside the home
b. Women’s work in the home and the cult of “True Womanhood”
E. African American, Mexican American, and Asian Immigrant Families
1. African American Families
a. African roots important part of heritage
1. Organized by lineages
2. Kinship ties strong
b. Impact of slavery
1. Especially strong on families from small plantations in the Appalachias
c. Women work outside the home
1. As domestic servants
d. Children out of marriage more common
e. Black women less likely to have male partners
2. Mexican American Families
a. Early settlers tended to be landowning elites
b. Later settlers tended to be laborers or mestizos
c. Large numbers of later settlers forced into barrios
3. Asian Immigrant families
a. Importance of Asian heritage and remittances
b. Chinese immigration began with California gold rush in