'The Family Is Universal'

Authors Avatar

‘The Family Is Universal’. Evaluate this clam

This claim means that the nuclear family is the basic unit found within all societies. Functionalists, such as Murdock, agree with this claim, suggesting that the nuclear unit is ideal and biologically inevitable. However, there is an opposing argument which suggests that it is possible to live in alternative living arrangements which do not fit Murdock’s definition of the family.

In 1949 the American anthropologist George Peter Murdock published the results of a major survey of kinship and the organization of families based on a worldwide sample of 250 societies. Murdock's starting point was the family, and on the basis of his survey he argued that the nuclear family is universal. He claimed that every society had some kind of family. Murdock suggested that each contained an arrangement consisting of a husband, a wife and one or more children. He also stated that an extended family is just an expansion of the nuclear family.

Murdock’s definition for the family is, ‘The family is a social group characterised by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction.  It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintains a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted of the sexually cohabiting adults.’ This definition states a nuclear family. ‘Common residence’ means that everyone in the family lives in the same household. Murdock refers to ‘Economic Co-operation’, this means that that everyone in the family has shared income and outgoing, and everyone in the family support each other financially.

Murdock says that family is biologically determined because nuclear families are formed through the instinctive needs for that type of unit. Murdock believes that the mother and father in a family have needs and wants. The father wants to be ‘hunter – gatherer’ part of the unit and wants power over the family financially and the mother as she gave birth to the baby being the carer emotionally in this unit. So the nuclear family acquires for the mother and the fathers needs, so Murdock sees the nuclear family as being biologically determined.

Join now!

There are many other living arrangements that can be classed as a family and carry out all the functions that the nuclear family carries out. Some sociologists would say that Murdock’s definition is dated and is too exclusive, that it doesn’t take into account the different things that have changed in society. Sociologist would say that Murdock’s definition should be updated to make it more inclusive. This should include fostering, same sex relationships, married couple with no children and cohabiting couples. This proves that Murdock’s definition should be made more inclusive because of the changes in culture worldwide.

...

This is a preview of the whole essay