Family and Kinship

The family is the first social world we know. We are born into it, spend most of our early years within it, and often feel intensely about it — pride, affection, resentment, longing. It is a space of deep warmth and care, but also of bitter conflict, injustice, and violence. Female infanticide, violent property disputes between brothers, and ugly legal battles are as much a part of family and kinship as stories of compassion, sacrifice, and care.

The structure of the family can be studied in two ways: as a social institution in itself, and in its relationship to other social institutions of society.

Internal Structure of the Family

In itself, a family can be classified along several dimensions:

• Size and composition: nuclear or extended (joint)
• Head of household: male-headed or female-headed
• Line of descent: matrilineal (through the mother) or patrilineal (through the father)

This internal structure is usually related to other structures of society — political, economic, cultural, and educational. For example, the migration of men from villages in the Himalayan region can lead to an unusually high proportion of female-headed families in those villages. Similarly, the work schedules of young parents in India's software industry may lead to an increasing number of grandparents moving in as caregivers for young grandchildren. The composition and structure of the family thus changes, and these changes can be understood only in relation to other changes in society.

The family (the private sphere) is linked to the economic, political, cultural, and educational (the public) spheres.

Change and Resistance

We often take our own family for granted and assume that other people's families must be like our own. But families have different structures, and these structures change. Sometimes these changes happen accidentally — as when a war takes place or people migrate in search of work. Sometimes they are purposely brought about — as when young people decide to choose their own spouses instead of letting elders decide, or when same-sex love is expressed openly in society.

These changes show that not only family structures change, but also cultural ideas, norms, and values. However, such changes are not easy to bring about. Both history and contemporary times suggest that change in family and marriage norms is often resisted violently.

Nuclear and Extended Family

In India, discussions on the family have often revolved around the nuclear and extended family.

The extended family is often seen as symptomatic of India. Yet this was by no means the dominant form either now or earlier. It was confined to certain sections and certain regions of the community. Indeed, the term 'joint family' itself is not a native category. As sociologist I.P. Desai observed, the expression 'joint family' is not the translation of any Indian word. The words used for joint family in most Indian languages are themselves equivalents or translations of the English word 'joint family'.

The Diverse Forms of the Family

Studies have shown how diverse family forms are found in different societies.