Chapter 12

•A nuclear family is a heterosexual couple with one or more children living in a single household

nuclear family

While "childfree" means the condition of being without children, it implies that everyone who does not have children would not like to have them. However, being "childless," means that a woman is unable to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term. Not all childless women are happily childfree

"childfree

: a system of multiple-person partnership

Polyamory

a system of marriage that allows people to have more than one spouse at a time

Polygamy

•Homogamy means "like marries like," and is demonstrated by the fact that we tend to choose mates who are similar to us in class, race, ethnicity, age, religion, education, and even levels of attractiveness.

Homogamy

According to sociologists, a family is defined as a social group whose members are bound by legal, biological, or emotional ties, or a combination of all three.

a family

(laws that said that interracial couples could not marry)

anti-miscegenation laws

refers to marriage to someone from a different social group.

• Exogamy

the practice of marrying (or being in a relationship with) one person at a time, is still considered the only legal form of marriage in modern western culture.

• Monogamy

Individuals and couples can choose not to get married or not to have children

•Childless families

Families can consist of stepsiblings and half-siblings; there are many single-parent families.

Blended families

y refers to marriage to someone within ones social group (race, ethnicity, class, education, religion, region, or nationality).

Endogamy

•An extended family is a large group of kin, defined as relatives or relations usually related by common descent. Extended families usually including at least three generations living either in one household or in close proximity.

n extended family

•Cohabitation: living together in an intimate relationship without formal legal or religious sanctioning.

•Cohabitation

Propinquity is the tendency to marry or have relationships with people in close geographic proximity.

•Propinquity