Different views on the family.

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Different views on the family

There are many different views on the family, some positive and some negative. Four of the main types are Marxist, functionalist, feminists and the New Right.

Marxists view the family in a very disparaging light and views the family as a tool of Capitalism and the Bourgeoisie. Marxists believe that the family has many roles, which are beneficial to Capitalist society.  

 Marxists believe that the family aids Capitalism by being a big consumer of goods, which they have to pay for. As long as the family are around, people will keep buying the product and the bourgeoisie will continue to make money.

 Marxists also believe that housewives are producing the next generation of the proletariat. This means that more people will be created to fill the jobs of the retiring proletariat.

 Marxists believe that the family cushions the main provider. This is similar to the functionalist “warm bath theory”. After a hard day of being exploited by the bourgeoisie, the main provider, usually the male, will be comforted by his family the family are there to relieve the pressures so that he can go into work the next day feeling less stressed than when he left the evening before. This allows the bourgeoisie to have a worker in the next day and to have a guaranteed workforce. With little stress on him, the proletariat are less likely to rebel against the system.

 Marxists believe that family is a strong influence on education and is considered the primary source of socialisation. This is beneficial for the bourgeoisie because the family and education system will teach the norms and values, which are that the society in which they are living is correct. Education makes the proletariat believe in the ideology of Capitalism and will make the children learning believe in the myth of meritocracy.

The first modern Marxist perspective on the family was from a man called Engles who wrote a book called: “The origin of family, private property and the state”. He wrote this in the year, 1884. Engles traced back humanity, thinking that perhaps the family and its structure were evolutionary. Engles found that early humanity communally owned the means of production. The family did not exist. He also found that primitive communism was promiscuous, containing no rules upon sex. Engles concluded that primitive humanity was the family, and that they lived similar to how chimps live.

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 Engles found that the family evolved over time and only became the family we assume to be family now by the introduction of restrictions on relationships and the production of offspring. This included the loss of polygamy and the introduction of monogamy. With monogamy, private property was developed and the state began to emerge.

 In order to aid the continuation of private property, the state brought in laws to protect the private property and to protect monogamy. This was to eradicate the problems of inheritance, by stopping the problem of illegitimacy. Laws were made demanding that property must be passed ...

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