Chapter XV

THE FAMILY

Biological and sociological meanings of the term

Taken at its simplest, a family might with some propriety be defined as the group constituted when a man (or a group of men) and a woman (or a group of women) live together on terms of sexual intimacy in accordance with an established social arrangement. But such a statement really points only to the bare skeleton of the institution. The family group may also include the children and relatives of these persons, their servants and retainers, and any other persons regularly quartered with them, according to the particular status of the group in question and the patterns of the culture to which they belong; and in addition the familial relationship often persists beyond the period of biological fertility and even beyond the period when the children are developing to maturity.

The family is therefore both a biological and a sociological unit. From the biological point of view it serves to organize and stabilize sexual relations and establishes an accredited means of bringing children into the world. At the same time the family forms the most permanent and influential of all social groups. Indeed, in every culture, the sociological functions of the family best distinguish it, although it is, of course, true that there would probably be no such social group if it were not for the precise nature of our sexual urges and the need for their control and canalization. The family performs significant functions in the culture complex quite apart from the manner in which it regulates sex needs, while on the other hand few, if any, societies are without extra-familial organizations of sexual relations. In our own culture, for example, prostitution is a well-established institution. Sexual intercourse and the bearing of children take place outside of the family bond in all cultures, usually

according to thoroughly conventionalized patterns, but in every society the family forms the smallest distinct social unit-the atomic structure around which nearly all primary social activities center.

Diverse forms of the family

Probably no institution exhibits a wider variety of concrete forms, joined with the performance of such surprisingly similar functions, as does the family. There is a multitude of ways of obtaining a mate, being married, living together, joining in the different group enterprises, having children and bringing them up, annulling the relationship and breaking up the family, etc. With all the diversity of arrangements, the behaviors are nearly always thoroughly institutionalized, so that certain things are proper and other things tabooed. Thus no society allows a person to choose absolutely anyone of the opposite sex as a mate, since incest restrictions always prohibit marriage with persons who are too closely related according to the canons of the group. Among many peoples where exogamy prevails, individuals must find their mates outside of a specified group (and perhaps inside of another specified group just as though the Smiths could marry only among the Joneses). More precise regulations for marriage are often laid down, as when a person must espouse one of his cross-cousins (his father's sister's children or his mother's brother's children), or when a man's widow is inherited by his younger brother or some other near kinsman (levirate), to name but two extremely common marital arrangements.

It also often happens that a man is entitled to more than one wife (polygyny), as among the Eskimo and in some parts of Africa, although this privilege is exercised much less frequently than might be supposed; and in a few instances a woman is entitled to more than one husband (polyandry), as in Tibet and among the Toda of southern India. These arrangements in every case seem to depend either upon peculiar economic conditions or upon unusual distributions of the sexes, brought about by female infanticide or by an unequal sexual death-rate under the differ

ential rigors of a severe environment. It must be pointed out that none of these marriage relationships need have unfortunate effects on the parties concerned, however they may offend our conventions. Thus Lowie writes:2

Polygyny is not by any means a sign of feminine inferiority or felt as a degradation by the women concerned. The husband may be prompted to take a second wife not by an excessive libido but by his first wife's eagerness to shift part of her household duties on other shoulders. "Why do I have to do all the work; why do you not buy another wife?" querulously asks the Kikuyu wife. In the same spirit, a Kai chief's consort will have so many social obligations to fulfill that she gladly welcomes the arrival of a helper. . . . The sexual factor pure and simple is of course not to be wholly ignored in the discussion, but everything goes to show that its influence on the development of polygyny is slight.

There are always many ways of obtaining the wife one is entitled to marry, as by exchange of sisters, the rendering of personal services, purchase, inheritance, capture from an enemy tribe, courtship, parental negotiations, the passing of certain tests,* etc. Several different ways of finding a wife are usually endorsed by the group; thus in our own culture we have marriages based on love and unions motivated by economic, political, or dynastic considerations. The esteem in which the different arrangements are held varies according to the culture pattern. Thus we prefer love matches while the Crow Indians rate higher marriage by purchase.

Among nearly all peoples marriage is looked upon as the common sequel to arrival at puberty. Celibacy is regarded as unnatural and is taken to merit either contempt or high respect. The following views are typical:

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So indispensable is marriage considered by the Chinese, that even the dead are married, the spirits of all males who die in infancy or in boyhood being in due time married to the spirits

"Among the Arawak of British Guiana the prospective husband was obliged to prove his marksmanship by shooting an arrow into a woodpecker's nest from a moving boat and to give further demonstration of his mettle by clearing a field and filling a large number of crab baskets within a specified span of time." 3

of females who have been cut off at a like early age. There is a maxim by Mencius, re-echoed by the whole nation, that it is a heavy sin to have no sons, as this would doom father, mother, and the whole ancestry in the Nether-world to a pitiable existence without descendants enough to serve them properly, to worship at the ancestral tombs, to take care of the ancestral tablets, and duly to perform all rites and ceremonies connected with the departed dead. . . . The Hebrews looked upon marriage as a religious duty. According to the Shulchan Aruch, he who abstains from marrying is guilty of bloodshed, diminishes the image of God, and causes the divine presence to withdraw from Israel; hence a single man past twenty may be compelled by the court to take a wife. . . "When a servant (of Allah) marries," said the Prophet, "verily he perfects half his religion." . . According to the "Laws of Manu," marriage is the twelfth Sanskara, and as such a religious duty incumbent upon all. Among the Hindus of the present day a man who is not married is generally considered to be almost a useless member of the community, and is indeed looked upon as beyond the pale of

nature.

At the same time few societies are without persons-priests, wizards, shamans, vestals-whose lives are devoted to chastity (or in some cases to unusual sex practices), and who are the recipients of high honor and respect from the group.

In spite of the theories of the earlier anthropologists, existing conditions both among men and the higher animals furnish no evidence that man has at any time been genuinely promiscuous in his sexual life. In every known society the relations of the sexes are regulated by definite social institutions. The arrangements usually differ from those prevailing among ourselves, and a much wider degree of sexual license is often allowed prior to marriage (and even after) than we are willing to countenance, but conditions of absolute sexual freedom are unknown among men, and are probably of infrequent occurrence among the higher animals.

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The family and the organization of life activities

A large proportion of the vital activities of a culture. centers around the family. It is everywhere the primary

face-to-face group. Children are born and reared in the family environment, and it is within the family circle more than anywhere else that adults are thrown into intimate contact with each other. A great deal therefore depends upon the conventional patterns and routines of family lifeupon the manner in which a new family is established and upon its relations to already existing families; upon the recognized obligations to relatives, the treatment and education of the young, and the manner in which children finally leave the home; upon the economic functions of the family, including the division of labor between the sexes, the production of goods, the administration and bequeathal of property; upon the part the family plays in religious life; etc.

The mere matter of residence is of no small importance in its effects on social life. Among some peoples, as with us, the marriage mates usually set up an independent household; but in many other instances they continue to live either with the wife's or the husband's people. These three general types of residence obviously have widely different social effects, for, as the conditions attending the establishment of a new household vary, one or the other or both. mates must become adapted to new surroundings. Our culture commonly requires a greater change in the woman's life than in the man's, since she usually takes a new name, a new status, and a new occupation, and in addition is conventionally expected to make most of the inevitable adaptations, while the man is still regarded as the legal and economic head of the household. Among many peoples, the husband goes to live with the wife's parents (matrilocal residence), and sometimes both descent and ownership are reckoned in the female line; but this does not necessarily imply feminine sovereignty, since the wife's father or the maternal uncle may be the effective ruler of the new household. The specific arrangements vary greatly from group to group, but they are invariably influential in determining how people conduct their daily lives.

Kinship usages are also important for their effects on daily life. Since these behaviors are usually taken entirely for granted by those who follow them, it is not strange that