Ch. 2 Sociology of Families

A _________ backlash grew in the nineteenth century.

conservative

Patriarchal family - Bonds holding families together

Father's authority

Patriarchal family - Basis for choosing a spouse

Parental influence, social status, and economic needs

Why don't we know how much of slave family life was a reflection of African traditions and how much was an adaptation to their conditions and treatment in America?

They were thrown together from diverse backgrounds, and because their own languages and costums were suppressed by slavery.

Despite their inequality in the marketplace, husbands and wives were in fact...

dependent on each other, just as children were dependent on their parents.

Ancient villagers recognized and honored...

different family arrangements, not just the nuclear family.

In the end, industrialism and separate spheres increased...

economic inequality between husbands and wives, with men's advantage growing.

Gradually, the parent-child relationship became more...

emotionally close.

Even if these early "mail-order brides" felt more like indentured servants than beloved wives, the male colonists...

endorsed the idea of choice in principle and rejected the Old World practice of arranged marriages.

Each institutional arena includes an independent role to which people may aspire...

even if it is not attainable by everyone all the time.

For American Indians, ______ ________ were the model for non-biological relationships, including those between members of the larger community and people's connections with the environment and animals.

family relations

Slavery's demised made it possible for...

family revival, allowing some former slaves to reunite with long-lost spouses and children and allowing many others to marry, have children, and live together in the manner of their choosing for the first time in America.

We now understand that the human species could not have survived without a system of...

family support, providing care for children who couldn't care for themselves.

Although in principle based on equality and consensus, the relationship between husbands and wives in the companionate marriage was...

far from equal: husbands had more power because they earned all or most of the family's income.

An important exception to those following the separate spheres idea was ________ families, many of whom continued to work in the older "family mode" of production.

farm

The colonial way of family life represented the...

first phase of transition from the rural family, dominated by European Christian ideology, to the modern, urban, and industrial family system that was to come.

The archaeological records tell us that such _________ ________ ________ have always been a crucial element of human social life.

flexible family arrangements

The African American families that emerged in the late nineteenth century exhibited more...

gender equality, based on the greater economic role of women, than white families

What really cuts the time women spend on housework is...

getting out of the house and earning money.

The cultural shift toward the companionate marriage and away from parental authority, the economic opportunities for independence provided to men through industrial development, and the political incentives to marry offered by the government...

increased the motivation and ability of young people to marry in the first half of the 20th century.

The priciple of autonomy for the country, as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, also applied to the individual citizen. As a result...

individual free choice in marriage, as in democracy, was an ideal that was widely shared in the early years of the United States.

Modernity theory suggests that __________ emerged as a project in the 20th century, and parents seem to have adopted that project with respect to their children.

individuality

Children began to be thought of as a blank slate of _______, displacing the Calvinist notion that...

innocence, they harbored evil spirits that needed to be crushed.

The mid-nineteenth century welfare system...

isolated those in need of assistance from the rest of the population. Care was usually inadequate as well. (Think poorhouses, orphanages, etc...)

Beginning in the nineteenth century, the ________ and ________ emerged as dominant features of modern society, and as a result, the family arena was transformed.

market, state

In historical Europe, ____________ was a political and economic institution that served important functions in society.

marriage

(19th century) The federal regulation of family life revolved around...

marriage and citizenship.

heterogamy

marriage of man to woman

Late 19th century African American had more fragile...

marriages, often ending in divorve or widowhood.

In slave culture, most people...

married (if not legally) and had children in young adulthood, and most children lived with both parents.

One common (although not universal) characteristic that set American Indians apart from Europeans was...

matrilineal descent

The emerging _______ -________ changed the logic of child rearing.

modern childhood

At the end of the ________ century, the government at all levels laid a much heavier land on the family lives of its citizens than it had a century before.

nineteenth

The first major group of Latinos in the United States were...

not immigrants. They were descendants of Spanish colonists and Aztecs, and they became Americans when the United States won the Mexican-American War in 1848.

Politicians generally believed that social stability required what during the 19th century?

peace within the family

A combination of _____ and _______ programs offered the opportunity for more people to structure their lives independently.

pension, welfare

1950s have come to be seen as the...

pinnacle of the "traditional" American family, epitomized by the stably married and loving couple, headed by one male wage earner and made possible by a homemaking wife.

With the recognition of individual rights and the spread of industrialization in the 1800s, the essential _____ and _______ functions of marriage began to erode.

political, economic

Although less common now, _________ was the most prevalent form of marriage throughout human history.

polygamy

Whenever the standard of living permitted it, the ______ would embrace the principles of choice and independence in family life.

poor

Created in 1935, social security was initially intended to...

provide pensions to wives after their husbands retired or died.

Many adults (usually women) in their 40s find themselves...

raising children at the same time they are caring for aging parents.

homogamy

same-sex marriage

Family life for Latinos in early America often included long periods of...

separation, which required strong family bonds and extended family care relationships.

Late 19th century African American families developed...

stronger extended family networks of caring and cooperation.

Instead of being tyrants with unchecked power, fathers began to...

take on the role of moral authorities who (ideally) led more by persuasion than by force.

The system of marriage that prevailed in colonial times was supported by...

the Christian Church and by the power vested in local community leaders, who imposed their interpretation of Christian doctrine on marriage and divorce.

One of the most monumental changes in family life in the nineteenth century was...

the drop in the number of children in each family.

The ideal of separate spheres was most strongly embraced among...

the expanding white-collar middle class urban areas and promoted in new magazines targeted at that audience.

Extended households are less common than they were a century ago, mostly as a result of...

the greater independence of older people.

As with the relationship between God and man under Protestant doctrine...

the idea of free choice in colonial America only served to reinforce the wife's duty to serve her husband.

Although separate spheres were not attainable by the great majority of working-class families...

the ideal nevertheless was shared by men and women of most racial and ethnic groups and among the poor as well.

Dense urban environments helped create...

the new American adulthood in the 1920s.

Civil war widow's pensions created...

the resulting bureaucracy that was the precursor to our modern welfare system, providing federal support for hundreds of thousands of veterans and their widows.

Smaller families also meant that...

there were fewer adult children with whom elderly parents could live.

Even if prehistoric human societies had formed nuclear families,...

they would not have survived if small families were responsible for all of their own needs.

Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, a new set of specialized institutions arose to provide for, or at least supervise...

those who could not earn their keep in the industrial economy.

Colonia husbands' authority within marriage was...

virtually unchecked.

In the nineteenth century, for the first time in history, most people...

worked for someone else during their entire adult lives.

Five Dollar Day was intended to promote...

workforce stability, home ownership (and car buying), as well as worker loyalty. It succeeded.

On average, Americans married........ over the first half of the 20th century, but the birth rate...

younger and younger, continued to decline

It seems unnatural to believe that there is ______ ______, or natural, family form ordained by God or evolution.

one normal

extended families

Family households in which relatives beyond parents and their children live together

baby boom

The period of high birth rates in the United States between 1946 and 1964, reversed the long-standing pattern of declining fertility (Now, they're in their 50s and 60s)

Some grandparents have grown...

emotionally closer to their grandchildren than they were in the past.

Between 1880 and 1990, the percentage of adults who shared a household with any child under 18 dropped by...

half (from 70% - 35%)

The difficulties women encounter are exacerbated by their...

increased career commitments. They still do the majority of family care work and hold jobs.

Although independence is a welcome development, and most old people would rather live alone than with family members, it comes with a risk of...

isolation.

Although colonial couples had many children, most people did not...

live in large extended families under one roof.

Among Christians before the 1600s, the word ____ was usually reserved to describe feelings toward God or one's neighbors, not family members.

love

In American Indian tradition, even where matrilineal traditions increased women's power in the household, _________ usually had more political authority in the larger group.

men

Most American Indians practiced _________ marriage - although their marriage bonds were...

monogamous, not as strong as other relationships, and divorce was more common than among Europeans.

Today, most societies have a family system based on __________ , the marriage of one person to one other person.

monogamy

(19th century) Rules for marriage included __________ and...

monogamy, a moral standard that required women to be faithful to their husbands (though not necessarily the other way around), while husbands supported their wives and children economically

With less time in marriage and less overlap with the lives of their children, today's adults, young and old, experience...

more residential isolation from family over the course of their lives.

The greater physical distance between family members and the financial independence of older Americans make those relationships...

more voluntary, and some people never develop them.

The first Asian immigrants were...

mostly men, most of whom had wives and children in China, where they eventually returned.

The companionship family is characterized by...

mutual affection, sympathetic understanding, and comradeship of its members.

During the Roman Empire, the Latin word familia meant...

not just a man's wives and children, but also his slaves and servants, who would bear his name after they were freed.

All of the innovation in automated cleaning machines has...

not lead to a reduction in the total work done by housewives.

In historical Europe, regardless of how marriage and family life were structured, family relations were...

not matters of personal preference or choice.

The separation that came with separate spheres - women at home, men at work - was said to provide...

the balance necessary for social harmony.

The suburban environment helped make...

the unique style of family life that emerged from the 1950s - living in single-family homes relatively isolated from each other.

Most colonial people lived close to...

their sibling's families, and they shared in labor and resources.

______ families were common in colonial America.

Stem

Although men wielded more _________ power, women's influence over the _________ and ________ was enhanced.

economic, children, household

The shift to market work reinforced women's independence...

within their families as well as from their families.

The biggest challenge to the 1950s ideal was...

women's tendency to leave home for paid work.

In many American Indian cultures, ________ were the property owners in the household, and ____ were relative outsiders surrounded by their ________ kin, _______ had greater authority within the clan.

women, men, wive's, women

companionship marriage

A view of marriage as a companionship, a friendship, and a romance, rather than as a practical platform for cooperation and survival

What type of families did the Civil War mark a decisive turning point for?

African American families

Patriarchal family - Family goals

Duty and tradition

The changes in family life must be understood in relation to these four historical trends:

1. Most people today live much longer than in the past. 2. People have many fewer children than they used to. 3. In recent decades, families have become more diverse. 4. Family members perform fewer functional tasks at home.

In colonial America, the average woman bore about _______ children in the course of her life, but...

7, one or more of them were likely to dies at a young age.

Companionship family - Family goals

Happiness and personal growth

monogamy

A family system in which each person has only one spouse

polygamy

A family system in which one person has more than one spouse, usually one man and multiple women

Aid to Families with Dependent Children

A federal program created as a part of the Social Security Act to support widows and women who had been abandoned by their husbands.

coverture

A legal doctrine that lasted until the late nineteenth century, under which wives were incorporated into their husband's citizenship

nuclear family

A married couple living with their own (usually biological) children and no extended family members

conjugal family

A nuclear family that is also functionally independent of extended family members

familism

A strong orientation toward family needs and obligations that persists today (Practiced by Mexican Americans)

Even if they had families, _________ _____ for the most part were excluded from the emerging modern family practices until after ________ ended.

African Americans, slavery

What group of people have a strong respect for elders and a reliance on extended family networks for sharing resources and meeting essential needs?

American Indians

The relations between ________ __________ men and women in general remained more equal than they were among _________.

American Indians, Europeans

companionship family

An ideal type of family characterized by the mutual affection, equality, and comradeship of its members (popularized by the 1950s)

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Anti-Chinese racism in the West caused this act, which cut off most new immigration.

Companionship family - Husband-wife relationship

Equality based on consensus

Patriarchal family - Family size

Extended

Motor Company crossed a symbolic threshold when it dramatically increased pay, introducing the...

Five Dollar Day in 1914.

________ forces increased the independence of middle-class and more highly educated women, while ______ forces increased the independence of poor women.

Market, state

split-household family

Married workers spending years separated from their spouses

The enforcement of monogamy led to a long-running legal and political feud with the new _________ Church.

Mormon

Why were the formation and recognition of family lineages among slaves difficult or impossible?

Most slaves had only a given name with no family name.

Companionship family - Bonds holding families together

Mutual affection and common interests

Companionship family - Family size

Nuclear

____________ is found in societies marked by great power inequality between men and women.

Polygamy

patriarchal

Power is wielded by men in the family

matriarchal

Power is wielded by women in the family

_____________ regulation of family life has varied considerably over the centuries, but from the time the _________ _________ consolidated its power throughout the Roman Empire in the late fourteenth century CE, ___________ set guideposts along the road of family life.

Religious, Catholic Church, Christianity

Companionship family - Basis for choosing a spouse

Self-directed motivation based on affection and personality

Some of the movement toward independence came from improving health at older ages, and increased homeownership, but it is also the result of the...

Social Security pension program, which gives many retired people enough income to live on their own.

Patriarchal family - Husband-wife relationship

Subordination of wife to husband

family wage

The amount necessary for a male earner to provide subsistence for his wife and children without heir having to work for pay (popularized in the 20th century)

separate spheres

The cultural doctrine under which women were to work at home, to make it a sanctuary from the industrial world in which their husbands worked for pay

stem family

The household formed by one grown child remaining in the family home with his or her parents.

During the nineteenth century, in most cases the state did not interfere with who's authority?

The husband's

courtship

The mate selection process in which couples begin a relationship with supervised contact in public, then proceed to additional dates in the woman's home and then to marriage if the parents approve

dating

The mate selection process in which young adults spend time with a variety of partners before making a long-term commitment (popularized in the 20th century)

patriarchy

The system of men's control over property and father's authority over all family members

patrilineal

When wealth and power are transmitted form fathers to their sons

matrilineal

When wealth and power are transmitted from mothers to their daughters

patrilocal

Young couples live with or near the husband's family home

matrilocal

Young couples live with or near the wife's family home

In the late 1940s, the shortage of workers combined with the growing economy produced...

a dramatic spike in wages

The dominant married-couple household of the first half of the twentieth century was replaced not by a new standard, but rather by...

a general increase in family diversity.

If the basis for marriage truly had become mutual affection - rather than strict authority, duty to follow tradition, and economic necessity - then...

affection was all that held couples together.

Sioux Indians used family relationship terms for....

all members of the community, based on the nature of their cooperation.

Today's evolving family life is contributing to...

a new transformation of our cities.

In colonial America, marriage was...

a practical arrangement that was considered necessary for civilization, not a source of love and affection.

The children could only survive with the help of...

additional adults beyond the mother.

Some people argue that the state should provide...

additional protections to individuals as insecurity in the market and family arenas has increased.

10,000 years ago, large social groups, which had been necessary for low-tech hunting, were...

augmented by more independent family units.

During the nineteenth century, being short on family members often went along with...

being short on necessities.

During the 19th century, most families couldn't afford a ...

breadwinner homemaker family.

By the middle of the 20th century, the goal of the ..... was for the first time within the reach of most Americans.

breadwinner-female homemaker

Colonial America even had "mail-order...

brides"

In the state arena, independence is marked...

by the role of citizen and the rights it prescribes.

Independence in the market arena is chiefly expressed...

by the role of worker.

Young, single adults - especially women - are increasingly drawn to...

cities where the best new job opportunities are found.

As people become free to make choices, they are also...

compelled to make choices. This causes many varied outcomes.

The _______-_________ relationship helped foster a sense of individual identity, reflecting American democratic ideals.

wage-labor

It is true that by treating marriage as a true love relationship...

we raise our expectations, and any marriage that falls short of this emotional standard no longer seems acceptable.

Although it always carried a shameful stigma and provided a minimal level of monetary support, _______ nevertheless underwrote the independence of many poor single women.

welfare

Most colonists held to the Calvinist view that children...

were guilty of original sin, and their evil impulses needed to be controlled through harsh discipline and hard work.

Even if 19th century government didn't interfere with male authority within the household, it nevertheless became much more assertive about regulating...

who was married and under what conditions.

Conservatives believed that _______ ________ threatened the traditional family.

women's freedom

In the nineteenth century, less ___________ and more ________, the modern family was emerging as a distinct institutional arena.

economic, emotional

The declining birth rate was also the result of...

couples wanting fewer children.

In the 20th century, marriage was becoming more attractive to young people for...

cultural, economic, and political reasons.

The second theme we see in European families is the...

extreme inequality and the separate family worlds of rich and poor.

Being without a _______ was one of the many problems that confronted members of America's minority groups in the nineteenth century.

family

For American Indians, _________ ______ were the basic building blocks of social structure.

family connections

Children began to question...

father's domination in the family.

African American and American Indian families may rely on...

grandparents - many of whom are healthy, active, and under age 60 - to help care for their children.

The formation of relatively smaller, stable families - including some nuclear families - probably occurred only in the last 10,000 years or so, with the beginning of...

organized food production.

A pervasive theme through European family history and family structure is...

patriarchy

In the family arena, with the development of love-based marriage and the expectations of mutuality and affection within the family that it entails, independence is implied by...

the role of family member.

The period of rapid change brought about by democracy and industrialism also created a family characteristic that we often thing of as "traditional":

the sharply divided roles of fathers as breadwinners and mothers as homemakers

The courtship system made it difficult for young women...

to act entirely against their parents' wishes, but offered some elements of free choice.

The growth of women's employment was more striking among those...

with higher earning power, especially college graduates.

Baby boom parents experienced a rare sequence of events...

with severe economic depression and all-consuming war followed by sudden prosperity.

By the end of the 20th century, Americans on average spent much less of their lives ....

within marriage than at any earlier time in the nation's history.