Family
hideFamily denotes a group of people or animals (many species form the equivalent of a human family wherein the adults care for the young) affiliated by a consanguinity, affinity or co-residence. Although the concept of consanguinity originally referred to relations by "blood," anthropologists[who?] have argued that one must understand the idea of "blood" metaphorically, and that many societies understand 'family' through other concepts rather than through genetic distance.
One of the primary functions of the family is to produce and reproduce persons, biologically and socially. Thus, one's experience of one's family shifts over time. From the perspective of children, the family is a family of orientation: the family serves to locate children socially, and plays a major role in their enculturation and socialization. From the point of view of the parent(s), the family is a family of procreation the goal of which is to produce and enculturate and socialize children. However, producing children is not the only function of the family; in societies with a sexual division of labor, marriage, and the resulting relationship between two people, is necessary for the formation of an economically productive household.
A conjugal family includes only the husband, the wife, and unmarried children who are not of age. The most common form of this family is regularly referred to as a nuclear family.
A consanguineal family consists of a parent and his or her children, and other people.
A matrifocal family consists of a mother and her children. Generally, these children are her biological offspring, although adoption of children is a practice in nearly every society. This kind of family is common where women have the resources to rear their children by themselves, or where men are more mobile than women.
For more information about Family, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with family
A virtual physician's conference
12 hours ago |
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Telemedicine facilitates communication between family physicians, hospitals and nursing services -- yet current solutions lack flexibility and are consequently very expensive. A new software program is now ...
The therapeutic benefits of the human-animal bond
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Nov 30, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (5) |
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A pet owner knows the enormous joy and comfort that an animal can provide, especially in troubled times. Most pets are considered important members of the family and irreplaceable companions. A growing body of research now ...
Widowed facing higher mortality risk, researcher finds
Dec 02, 2009 |
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Married people in the United States are living longer these days, but the widowed are experiencing a higher mortality rate, according to new research by a Michigan State University sociologist.
Most runaway teens return home with help of family ties, study finds
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 04, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Runaways who maintain contact with pro-social peers and have parental support, especially from their mothers, tend to return home.
New rules for court reporting puts the privacy of children 'at risk'
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Dec 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- New legislation to relax the restrictions on media reporting of family court cases could put the privacy of vulnerable children at risk, according to a paper published by the Department of ...
UN: Fight climate change with free condoms
Nov 18, 2009 |
2.9 / 5 (12) |
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(AP) -- The battle against global warming could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free condoms and family planning advice more widely available, the U.N. Population Fund said Wednesday.
Distrust of Men Doesn't Keep Low-Income Mothers from Romantic Unions
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Nov 30, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (4) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Contrary to popular scholarship that attributes low rates of marriage among low-income mothers to their general distrust of men, a new study led by a Duke University sociologist finds that gender distrust ...
Low-income women 4 times more likely to report fair or poor health
Nov 30, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Low-income women are four times more likely than higher-income women to report fair or poor health and nearly twice as likely to report a health condition that limits their basic physical activities, according to a new policy ...
Bosses exaggerate women's family-work conflict
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Nov 18, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (3) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Decades into the era of two-earner households, the virtues of family-friendly policies are all but universally assumed in the corporate world. But now new research suggests serious potential pitfalls for ...
Involving family in medical rounds benefits both family and medical team
Nov 24, 2009 |
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Involving family members of pediatric cancer and hematology patients in medical rounds benefits both the family and the medical team, according to a new Indiana University School of Medicine study.
AIDS research reveals a lack of family-planning programs in Uganda
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Nov 23, 2009 |
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University of Alberta graduate student Jennifer Heys wants to make her message clear: there needs to be more education in Ugandan communities about contraception.
DU professor advises families to refocus for holidays to ease financial tension (w/ Video)
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Nov 13, 2009 |
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Martha Wadsworth, associate professor of psychology at the University of Denver (DU), says during the holidays families should focus on what has been proven to matter most in psychological research - quality family time.
