Page 111 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes towns but even among the communities concentrated in the big cities. Thus, the traditional (joint)
family has not disintegrated but is passing through severe stresses and strains and its future is not
bleak. Despite the clashes between different generations, there is a strong feeling for this traditional
(joint) family in the generation that is coming up. There is respect for discipline, co-operation in
family work and a general feeling of content in the family environment.
Aileen Ross (1961: 51), however, holds a different viewpoint. She feels that if families (living separately)
do not come into contact over long periods of time, feelings of family obligation and emotional
attachment to family members will almost certainly weaken and the authority of the former patriarch
break down. When this happens, there will be little left to maintain a feeling of and desire for identity
within the larger kinship group.
This author’s view is that we must give importance to those factors which affect/change the pattern
of family structure through time. Five of these most important factors are: (1) marriage of a son and
entering of a daughter-in-law in the family, (2) demise of a senior male/female member, (3) getting a
high status work assignment in other place, (4) jeopardizing of economic stability in the family, and
(5) conflicts among brothers, severance of sibling ties, and diverting of a man’s loyalties from lineal
ties to conjugal ties. Thus, every family has a potentiality of the developmental cycle. Though joint
family is a cultural ideal of domestic organization in India, yet the family cannot be viewed as a static
entity. Since the kinship obligations are normally not easily ignored in Indian/Hindu family, we
may have small-range, intermediate-range and large-range kinship families, as well as dependent
nuclear families along with the independent nuclear families. Thus, we cannot conceive of the
formation of many ‘independent fissioned’ families detached and divorced from kin-group and
traditional (joint) family interests, even after several decades when there is bound to be considerable
progress in industrialization and educational and other fields in our country.
Change in Intra-family Relations

After discussing change in the structure of family, we will now analyze change in the intra-family
and inter-family relationships. The traditional (joint) family in India was organized around the
important relationships between parents and children, husband and wife, mother-in-law and
daughter-in-law, and between brothers. These relationships have undergone some change in recent
years. We will assess change in each set of relationship separately.
Relations between Parents and Children
Relationship between father and son in the traditional family was based more upon respect and fear
rather than only on affection. These feelings toward the father were quite strong so that an effective
bond was created. Today, the relations between parents and children may be discussed in terms of (i)
holding of authority, (ii) freedom of discussing problems, (iii) opposition of parents by children, and
(iv) modes of imposing penalty.
Power and authority in the traditional family stood generally in inverse relationship. Power was
based upon generation, sex and relative age, and it was vested principally in males of the older
generation. The patriarch was virtually all powerful. It was he who decided the type of education to
be imparted to children, the occupation they had to take to, and even the selection of mates for them.
He was not obliged to consult the young children on any issue. It was considered to be bad manners
for the youngsters to argue with or talk back to their seniors. They were not to question the orders or
the deeds of the elders. This was based on the expectation that a man of the upper generation and an
elder man in the same generation should be looked upon with respect. The eldest woman had also
her own authority so much so that in many respects it was she whose decision was final, for example,
in the management of the household. Kathleen Gough too found in her study of Tanjore village in
1952 (cf. McKim Marriott, 1955: 44) that within each patrilineal extended family, all submit to the
oldest man. David Mandelbaum in his analysis of Indian family (cf. Ruth Anshen, 1949: 94) mentioned
that the grandfather was theoretically the head of the family until his death. This gave him power
over his wife, children, and younger brothers and sisters. Even those who moved away to distant
cities were theoretically still members of the family and, therefore, under his control, although he
could not supervise their day-to-day affairs. On his death, the authority passed to the next eldest

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