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Unit 1: Family & HouseholdsEenheid 1: Gesin &

HuishoudingAnthropology (ANT) 214

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Two fundamentally different types of family

1. Nuclear family - based on marital ties (conjugal / aanververwant)

2. Extended family - larger social unit based on blood ties (consanguine / bloedverwant) among three or more generations of kin

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Nuclear Family / Kerngesin

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1. Consists of husband and wife and their children

2. A two-generation family formed around the conjugal or marital union

Most likely found in societies with greatest amount of geographic mobility

3. Declining in the United States◦ a. Women are delaying marrying and having children◦ b. Increased cost of maintaining a middle-class

household has caused couples to opt for remaining childless

◦ c. Increasing divorce rate has contributed to increase in nonnuclear families in recent decades

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Extended Family / Uitgebreide gesin

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1. Blood ties more important than ties of marriage2. Consists of two or more families that are linked

by blood ties3. Based on parent-child linkages4. Obligations to lineage may be more important

than relationship to spouse5. Rough correlation exists between extended

family systems and an agricultural way of life◦ a. Provide large numbers of workers◦ b. Prevent subdivision of land◦ c. Exist where there is a lack of man or woman power

to simultaneously carry out subsistence and domestic tasks

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Polyandrous family / Poliandiese gesin

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Polygynous family / Poliginiese gesin

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Single parent family / Enkelouergesin

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Same-sex family

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Blended family (reconstituded family)

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Cf. ◦Universal nuclear family group (universele kerngesingroep);

nonconjugal family (nie-aanverwante gesin)

◦Elementary conjugal family (elementêre aanverwante gesin)

◦Joint family

◦Composite (compound) family

◦Multi-generational family

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Modern-Day Family Structure

1. Progressive nuclearization of the family in the face of modernization

2. Extended family ties may be preserved (even U.S. has experienced a 38% increase in multi-generational families between 1990-2000.

3. No longer a “typical” family cf. Zhiel

ANT214 S du Plooy 26-01-2012 15

Households / Huishoudings

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