A universal family is a nuclear family. By studying 250 societies, Murdock found a variety of characteristics that these societies have in a family. Some of the characteristics are that the family live in a common residence and have economic co-operation. The family consists of adults of both sexes who are married and maintain a sexual relationship; the adults have biological children or children from adoption, and socializes them. By socializing their children they are transmitting the culture of their generation to their children. As Murdock is a functionalist he regards the family as being a function to society as a whole. According to Murdock the family is a multi-functional institution, which is indispensable for the individual and society. The family helps bring about harmony and integration in society. Other institutions have nowadays taken on these functions.

Talcott Parsons agrees with Murdock that the family has become specialized in its fu

They are criticized that this is a too negative image of the family. These theories emerged from the author’s relationship with families with a schizophrenic member of the family. They do not also take into consideration and the fact that different families from different social classes might have different ways of relating to vary family members.

Radical feminists Christine Delphy & Diana Leonard studied farmers’ wives, and found that wives do a lot of work around the farm, such as taking care of poultry, weeding, selling of products in the farm, which is a unit of production. The money made by the farm is collected by the male head of the household and distributed to the family on the basis of ascribed status and informal negotiations. Delphy and Leonard said that with the amount of work these women did in the house and on the farm, they had less leisure time than the rest of the family and less economic remuneration (salary). This resulted in their being, being exploited by their family.

Some topics in this essay:
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