Is the nuclear family universal according to Murdock's theory

 Evidence against Murdock

The first type of family that I am going to look at is the Nayar tribe which was studied by Kathleen Gough. This is a society which is mainly centered round the woman, in this society when the woman reaches puberty she is married to her tali husband this is a sacred and traditional rite but although they are married by law the husband not wife have any obligations to each other, the woman is then allowed to take on up to 12 visiting sandbanhan husbands who must come after tea and the stay the night and leave before breakfast the next morning. Any children which are born to the woman must be admitted to by one of her husbands but it doesn’t have to be her tali husband. This family is matrilineal, marriage played no significant part in the raising of children forming of households or meeting economic needs.  Therefore this family is not nuclear but as it is still accepted by society it proves Murdock’s theory wrong.

The second family I wish to look at is the matrifocal family which is mostly found in America and in islands off the West Indies, this type of family is for the most part headed by a black African-American woman these families may have come about because of the lifestyle and the beliefs of the parents and the way that they believe that their children should be raised. This family is obviously not nuclear as the father has very little if any effect on how the children are raised and how the family is run. Therefore this family type does not support Murdock’s view.

The third family is homosexual families even thought these families are two people who share a household and the responsibility for children this family is not consider to be a proper family, even though people in these families can either adopt children or have there own with people outside of the relationship and they are becoming more common and accepted in society so they are an accepted family type they still do not agree with Murdock’s view of the family because both parents or partners are the same sex.

The fourth example is a kibbutz, this is a community of people who share the chores of cleaning cooking working and taking care of the children this type of family was started in Israel and slowly spread to the rest of the world and whilst it is not as  common as other types of family it is still a family community and therefore does disagree with Murdock’s family rule.

To expand Murdock’s rule to accommodate other types of families would make it better and more sensible for modern day society but then it wouldn’t be Murdock’s rule. When Murdock was writing the nuclear family may have been the most socially accepted family but times have changed and the family has evolved to accommodate different peoples views opinions and feelings towards what the family is, so even though Murdock’s view of the family was right in the 1940’s it is no longer a valid view of the family.  Therefore the nuclear family is universal but so is the matrifocal step reconstituted and single parent.