The Difficulties in Defining the Family Essay - 632 Words

The Difficulties in Defining the Family The Oxford Dictionary gives the meaning of family as parents and their children, sometimes including grandchildren and other relations. Murdocks definition of the family is: The family is a social group characterised 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 of more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults. While this may have been satisfactory when it was written, changing times and social standards mean that we should reconsider the definition of the family. The numbers of men and women who†¦show more content†¦All supplies, clothes and other privileges are distributed equally between the members of the community; women and men work as equals in the fields and children consider those they grow up with to be their brothers and sisters, they do not come in contact with their parents as often as most children and dont seem to consider them anymore than close friends. It is obvious that although they have not created a nuclear family, it can still be considered a family. The counterpart to this example is the Nayar communities, where one woman can take one or more husbands, who are often brothers. This provides an economically stable family as in the event of death or illness of one of the husbands, another can take over. It also helps that they are brothers and although they argue, they get on most of the time and there is not as much chance of rivalry between them. The legality of divorce has allowed there to be more single parent families and reconstituted families, and although in some cases it may be harder for a single parent to provide for their children, often the children receive just as much attention and help from the one parent as they would from both. Another cause of single parent families is promiscuity, adoption, artificialShow MoreRelatedDepression: Real or Imaginary?1471 Words   |  6 Pagesactual illness. Depression has many symptoms, and it is when a person is diagnosed with five or more of these that they are officially declared â€Å"depressed.† The main symptoms of depression include constant sadness, irritability, hopelessness, difficulty sleeping, continuous state of fatigue, feelings of worthlessness, feelings of guilt, significant weight change, inability to concentrate, and loss of interest in what once were favored activities (Depression Symptoms). 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