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Sociology of Kinship

Notes life or abandon the world but on the other hand, the importance of married life is also ap-
preciated in a big way. The joint family system has been prevailing in India till date since the
Vedic period.
Agriculture was the main occupation in the Vedic period and it needed a number of persons,
this is why a joint family system was followed by families. Ancient Vedic families were used to
be patri-local, patrilineal or patriarchal. According to Max Mullar, “Joint family is an ancient
tradition” in India which is provided to the Indians as a social tradition. According to Panikkar,
“In principle, caste and joint family are not related to each other but still both these institutions
are so much interrelated that they have become one institution. The unit of Hindu society is
not a person but it is a joint family. As per Keith and Mcdonald, “Joint family system is very
old in India. It is also verified by our Vedic Mantras. At the time of Marriage, the priest blesses
the bride and groom as,” Stay with each other without being separated, enjoy your whole life
at your home, playing with your sons and grandsons and be a queen to rules on your mother-
in-law, father-in-low, brother in-law and sister-in-law. It is necessary to understand the family
system in India to understand the Indian social life. According to Mrs. Karvy, “If we wish to
know any cultural fact in India, we must know the three things-linguistic structure, caste system
and family organisation. Each one of these three are closely associated with the other two and
collectively all three provide a base to other aspects of Indian culture and make it meaningful.

23.1 Meaning of joint family
Joint family as defined by scholars:
According to Irawati Karvy, “A Joint family is a group of persons who normally live in one
house, have common kitchen, own property jointly pray together, and they must have blood-
relations with one another anyway.”
According to R.P. Desai, “Joint family is a house where member of several generations (ie, three
or more) lie together as compared to nuclear family, and whose members are related to one-
another in respect of income, wealth, duties and responsibilities.
Joint family as defined by B.R. Aggarwal, “Members in a joint family live under the authority of
the eldest member of family and religion, collective investment of capital, collective use of profit
etc. and expenditure made out collective fund on the occasion of birth, death and marriage.”
According to Dubey, “If families of many generations live together, have common kitchen, and
work as a economic unit, then we can collectively call it a joint family.
As per Jolly, “Not only parents and their children, brothers and step brothers rather sometimes
children, ancestor, parallel relatives of several generations are also included in this.” Bulletin
of the Christian for the study of society has written as, “Joint family means a family in which
members of many generations remain attached with one-another to fulfill mutual duty and
obligations.

Joint family means a family in which members of many generations live to-
gether or all the brothers of one generation live together with their wives, mar-
ried children and other relations, who own the wealth and properties collec-
tively. Members of the family have common kitchen and they collectively
participate in religions ceremonies, festivals and celebrations, and remain at-
tached with one-another for mutual duties and responsibilities.

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