Page 100 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Unit 4: Family

Diagram 6 Notes

Ego+Wife

Filial and fraternal joint family Son+Wife Son+Wife Son Daughter

G.So G.Da G.So G.Da

Ego+Wife

Son+Wife
Filial joint family

G.So G.Da

Ego+wife Br+Wi Br Si
Fraternal joint family

So Da So Da
Gore (Ibid: 94) identifies two basic types of families—nuclear and joint—each having three sub-types.
The sub-types of a nuclear family are: (i) husband, wife and unmarried children; (ii) husband, wife,
children and unmarried (and unearaing) brothers; and (iii) husband, wife, children and widowed
mother as dependent or other dependents who are not co-parceners. The sub-types of a joint family
are: (i) husband, wife, unmarried and married children (lineal joint family); (ii) husband, wife,
unmarried and married children and unmarried brothers (fraternal joint family); and (iii) husband,
wife, married sons, married brothers and their families (lineal and fraternal joint family).
My contention is that the structural ideal of the Indian family is entirely different from the western
family. Since early family in India was one what is called ‘joint family’ today, we should consider this
family as our basic family unit and should term it as a ‘traditional’ family while the so-called ‘nuclear’
family should be termed as a ‘fissioned’ family, that is, one which has separated from its parental
unit. After the residential separation, it may continue to be dependent on its parental unit or may
function as a completely independent unit. The term ‘joint’ would be appropriate only when we take
‘nuclear’ family as our basic family unit and the joining together of two such nuclear units gives us a
new pattern of family. But knowing that ‘nuclear’ family was not our basic unit, it is necessary that
we take ‘traditional’ family as basic family unit and understand other forms in this context.
The normal custom in Indian society is that a young man and his wife begin their married life not in
an independent household but with the husband’s parents. Contrary to this, in western society, even
if a man and his wife begin their married life under the same roof with his or her parents, as sometimes
happens because of the housing shortage, they will consider such an arrangement to be an emergency
measure and, therefore, temporary. As soon as it is possible, they will set up an independent household
of their own. If for some reason they are unable to do so and if in the ensuing months there are some
marital difficulties, the first thing that they would do would be to move out from under the parental
roof. Because of this structural ideal, the basis of classifying our families should neither be the number
of persons composing the household (as done by Bowman) nor the orientation of actions of the
individual members (as done by Desai), but residence, dependence and range of kinship relationship
taken together. On this basis, we may classify families in two groups: ‘traditional’ and ‘fissioned’.

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