SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS - module UCSP

CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS: The Family Today: Declining or Changing?

At the end of this module the student can:

- Explain the function of the family - Define kinship, marriage and household

- Enumerate and explain the different forms of kinship by blood, kinship by marriage and kinship by rituals - Discuss the different types of families

- Summarize recent changes in the family as an institution Motivation:

What is your own idea of a family? Draw a picture or make a sketch that matches your definition. In your drawing, be sure that you specify the members and the gender of the parents. Compare your work with your classmates’

own drawing or sketches.

Kinship is one of the main organizing principles of society. It is one of the basic social institutions found in every society. This institution establishes relationships between individuals and groups. People in all societies are bound together by various kinds of bonds.

The most basic bonds are those based on marriage and reproduction. Kinship refers to these bonds, and all other relationships resulting from them. Thus, the institution of kinship refers to a set of relationships and relatives formed thereof, based on blood relationships (consanguineal), or marriage (affinal).

Types of Kinship Kinship by blood

Consanguineal kinship or kinship based on blood is considered as the most basic and general form of relations.

This relationshipis achieved bu birth or blood affinity.

Descent refers to a biological relationship. Societies recognize that children descend from paerents and thatthere exists a biologicl relationship between parents and offspring.

Lineage refers to the line where one’s ddescent is traced.

Symbols used by anthropologists to study patterns of descent and kin groups

Male Female

= Marriage Bond Descent bond

Codescent bond

Unilineal Descent is a system of determining descent groups in which one belongs to one's father's or mother's line, whereby one's descent is traced either exclusively through male ancestors

(patriline), or exclusively through female ancestors (matriline).

Bilateral Descent some societies trace their descent through the study of both parents ancestors.

In a baliteral descent, kinship is traced through both ancestral lines of the mother and father.

Kinship by Marriage

Affinal Kinship refers to type of relations developed when marriage occurs. When marriage takes place new forms of social relations are developed.

Marriage- is an important social institution wherein two persons, eneter into family life. During this process, the partners make a public, official and permanent declaration of their union as lifetime couples.

Endogamy and Exogamy

Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific ethnic group, class, or social group, rejecting others on such a basis as being unsuitable for marriage or for other close personal relationships.

Exogamy is the custom of marrying outside a community, clan, or tribe.

Monogamy and Polygamy

Monogamy- refers to the marriage of sexual partnering practice where the individual has only one male of female partner or mate.

Polygamy- refers to the practice of having more than one partner or sexual mate. It can be polygyny (a man has multiple partner) or polyandry (a woman has multiple mate).

Family and the Household

The family is considered the basic unit of social organization. It is made up of group of individuals who are linked together by marriage,blood relations, or adoption.

The best way to look for the definition of “family” is to look at the government census definition. For example, the Census Bureau of Canada defines the family: Census family refers to a married couple and the children, if any, of either or both spouses; a couple living common law and the children, if any, of either or both partners; or, a lone parent of any marital status with at least one child living in the same dwelling and that child or those children. All members of a particular census family live in the same dwelling. A couple may be of opposite or same sex. Children may be children by birth, marriage or adoption regardless of their age or marital status as long as they live in the dwelling and do not have their own spouse or child living in the dwelling. Grandchildren living with their grandparent(s) but with no parents present also constitute a census family. (Source:

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/concepts/definitions/c-r-fam-eng.htm, accessed August 11, 2014)

The United Nations (UN) uses the term nucleus family: A family nucleus is of one of the following types (each of which must consist of persons living in the same household):

a. A married couple without children, b. A married couple with one or more unmarried children, c. A father with one or more unmarried children or d. A mother with one or more unmarried children.

Couples living in consensual unions should be regarded as married couples.

(Source:http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/fam/fammethods.htm#A3, accessed June 4, 2014)

Common in these definitions are the following elements: the biological component (with a child, married), the functional component (takes care of the children and provides economic support), and the residential component (living under one household or common residence). Whether the family is universal, whether it has existed from the beginning in all forms of societies, will depend on the definition of the family. But Friedrich Engels, who wrote The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), is right to argue that families do evolve in relation to the material and economic conditions of societies. Families have never been static all throughout human evolution. All definitions

of the family will have to address three components: residential, biological, and functional roles. If one defines the family simply as the nuclear family, meaning two adult couples with children, then this can be challenged immediately by the case of kibbutz in Israel and the Nayar in India. If one defines the family as taking care of the children, then it can be shown that in many societies, socialization is carried by kinship groups and not the nuclear family. Another challenge to the nuclear definition of the family is the emerging single-parent households, gay couples living together, and overseas families whose members do not live regularly with the family. These examples may not contradict and discredit the definition of the family, but they challenge the nature and functions of the family. The family as a basic unit of society performs several important functions or roles for society: (1) for biological reproduction;

(2) as the primary agent of socialization of children; (3) as the institution for economic cooperation through division of labor; and (4) to care for and nurture children to become responsible adults.

Different definitions of family according to Sociologists and Anthropologists Sociologist and Anthropologist Definition of Family

George Peter Murdock Family is a social group that has the following characteristics:

1. Share common residence

2. Presence of economic cooperation 3. Reproduce offspring

4. Includes adults of both sexes, wherein at least two of whom uphold a socially approved ofrm of sexual relationship.

5. Responsible for the socialization of infants and children.

Kingsley Davis Family is a group of individuals wherein the

relationship is based on consanguinity and kinship.

Talcott Parsons Family is a factory that develops and produces

human personalities.

Bronislow Nalinowski Faily is an institution that passes down the cultural traditions of a society to the next generations.

Assumptions of Major Sociological Perspective About Family

Theoretical Perspective Assumptions about Family

Structural Functionalism Family is important because it performs different roles for society

1. Agent of socialization

2. Provides emotional and practical support for family members

3. Controls sexual activity and sexual reproduction

4. Provides family members with social identity

Conflict Theory Family is a cause of social inequality because it strengthens economic inequality and allows the continuity of patriarchy.

Symbolic Interactionist Theory The family member’s interaction can produce a shared understanding of their situations.

Nuclear Family and Extended Family The Problem of Defining The Family

Traditional definitions Filipinos are family-oriented. The anak-magulang complex and the kamag-anak relationship are very important to Filipinos. Ama (father), ina (mother), and anak (children) are culturally and emotionally significant to us Filipinos who treasure filial attachment not only to our immediate family but also to our extended family (tiya and tiyuhin, inaanak, lolo, at lola). This family centeredness supplies a basic sense of belonging, stability, and security. It is from our families that we Filipinos naturally draw our sense of self-identity. This traditional view of the family leads many people to think that the family is an indispensable unit or institution of society. Today, however, many experts who study the family raise doubts about its future. Consider the following statistics:

- Declining marriage rate and increasing rate of cohabitation There were 476,408 marriages registered in 2011, down by 1.3 percent from 482,480 recorded in 2010, the NSO said in a report posted on its website, adding that the number of registered marriages has been declining since 2009. (Source: http:// www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/03/28/924859/fewer-pinoys-getting-married, accessed August 19, 2014)

- Increasing annulment rate in the Philippines The number of marriage annulment cases in the Philippines has risen by 40 percent in the last decade with at least 22 cases filed every day, according to a report by the Catholic bishops’ news agency. Citing data from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), CBCP News said the number of annulment cases had risen from 4,520 in 2001 to 8,282 in 2010.

- Increasing number of cases of domestic violence The 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed that one in five women aged 15–

49 has experienced physical violence since age 15; 14.4 percent of married women have experienced physical abuse from their husbands; and more than one-third (37%) of separated or widowed women have experienced physical violence, implying that domestic violence could be the reason for separation or annulment.

Religion and the Search for Ultimate Meaning

At the end of this module, the students are expected to:

- discuss the significant role of religion in society;

- distinguish religion from other social institutions;

- define and explain the meaning of religion;

- explain the various religious groups;

- connect contemporary religious movements with globalization; and –

- conduct participant observation (e.g., attend, describe, and reflect on a religious ritual of a different group).

The Nature of Religion and Its Meaning T

he English word religion is from the Latin verb religare, which means “to tie” or “to bind fast.” Religion is a powerful institution that connects human beings, both as individuals and collectively, to a

transcendent reality. A scholar studying the importance of religion in world history and in the evolution of humanity observes, “The evidence proves that since the remote past religion has been a part of our mental and emotional make-up. Even nonbelievers usually agree that the term homo religiosus [religious

man] aptly describes the human experience. Men and women by their nature are religious, and efforts to eliminate religion, as many social and political movements have done since the eighteenth century, come up short. Religion has a pervasive effect and influence on the development of humanity, society, culture, and the individual. However, many scholars in the early 20th century predicted the demise of religion as a social phenomenon because of the advancement in science and the unprecedented advancement in technology. As people rely more and more on scientific reason and method to explain natural events and so-called miracles, supernatural occurrences, and mysteries, many critics of religion such as Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and Karl Marx, the father of scientific socialism, believed that religion will gradually disappear. This view is called secularization (from the Latin word saeculum, which means “worldly”). Surprisingly, in the 21st century, religion seems to have grown stronger, with no sign of abetting. Headlines in both local and international scenes contain news about religious issues. Hence, one scholar on religious studies boldly concludes, “The fact is that atheism and rationalism no longer constitute (if they ever really did) the major challenge to Christian theology today.

That challenge comes not from the death of God but from the “rebirth of the gods” (and the goddesses!)” (Cox 2000, p. 9).

Some social scientists prefer a functional definition of religion that does not necessarily refer to the belief in a supernatural being (god or force). In the functional definition, religion is anything that provides an individual with the ultimate meaning that organizes his/her entire life and worldview. A classic statement of this definition is given by the American scholar of religion, Milton Yinger, who defines religion as “a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of people struggles with the ultimate problems of human life” (Yinger 1970, p. 7). In this definition, religion may also include humanism, individualism, nationalism, and even socialism. Peter L. Berger (1973), a pioneer in sociology of religion in the United States, singles out the problem of legitimation as a primary function of religion:

Religion legitimates social institutions by bestowing upon them an ultimately valid ontological status, that is, by locating them within a sacred and cosmic frame of reference. The historical constructions of human activity are viewed from a vantage point that, in its own self-definition, transcends both history and man (p. 43).

In this view, religion provides the ultimate basis for social order. The separation between the sacred and the profane or the unholy, for instance, is a reflection of the order of the cosmos. Religious myths designate and consecrate certain spaces as sacred. Hence, holy places are considered as places for worship and for connecting with the divine such as churches and burial grounds. Berger further adds that religion provides an all-encompassing explanation for the negative experiences in this world. For Berger, religion “maintains the socially defined reality by legitimating marginal situations [i.e., sufferings, pains, and miseries] in terms of an allencompassing sacred reality. This permits the individual who goes through these situations to continue to exist in the world of his [sic] society—not ‘as if nothing had happened,’ which is psychologically difficult in the more extreme marginal situations, but in the

‘knowledge’ that even these events or experiences have a place within a universe that makes sense” (p.

52).

Types of Religious Organizations

Religion is necessarily social. Beliefs and rituals are usually shared by people belonging to a definite religious community. While an individual may opt not to belong to or affiliate with an established religion or religious tradition, that person is still religious and belongs to an individualistic or spiritualistic

interpretation of religion. In the age of global capitalism, more and more people tend to retreat into their own private world and create their own individualized religion. But they do not create it from scratch. They also borrow and pick from various religious traditions in the market of religion. Even the practicing New Age believers who have their own distinctive personal beliefs are influenced by non-Western religious traditions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and other beliefs. These people are called un-churched believers. Those who belong to organized religious groups may belong to any of the following (Furseth 2006, pp. 137ff):

Church

The church is a religious organization that claims to possess the truth about salvation exclusively. A classic example is the Roman Catholic Church. The church includes everybody or virtually everybody in a society. Membership is by childbirth: new generations are born into the church and are formally

inducted through baptism. The church adapts to some extent to the fact that it must embrace everyone.

Unlike the sect, the church tends to be oriented toward compromises with the prevailing culture and the political sphere. Hence, the church is relatively moderate in its demands on its members. In the

Philippines, the National Statistics Office estimates the Roman Catholics at about 74,211,896 in 2014 (http://web0.psa.gov.ph/sites/default/files/2014%20PIF.pdf, accessed September 10, 2014). Being the largest religious organization in the country, it is a very powerful institution as attested by the recent controversy regarding the reproductive health bill.

Sect

The sect also perceives itself as a unique owner of the truth. However, it constitutes a minority in a given society. Recruitment takes place through conscious individual choice. A good example is the resurgence of “born again” Christianity that recruits members by asking them to accept Jesus Christ in their lives.

Once an individual has joined, the sect requires a high level of commitment and activity. Members are expected to support the teachings of the sect and to comply with its lifestyle, which may be strict and ascetic. Life as a sect member constitutes a major contrast to the lives of people in society. Therefore, the sect and the larger society may harbor mutual suspicions toward each other. Sects tend to depict society as a place full of dangers and moral and religious decay. Sects often are breakaway groups from the mainstream churches. An example of sect in the Philippines is the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC, or Church of Christ) that has 2,251,941 members in 2014. The INC was established in 1914 by Felix Manalo, who served as the first executive minister. As a sect, the Iglesia ni Cristo believes itself to be the one true universal church. It preaches that all other Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, are apostates

Denomination

In contrast to the church and sect, the denomination is oriented toward cooperation, at least as it relates to other similar denominations. People join through individual and voluntary choice, although the most important form of recruitment in established denominations takes place through childbirth. The demands for activity and compliance are moderate, and there is a relatively harmonious mutual

relationship between the denomination and the larger society. The liberal branches of Protestant groups belong to this category. In the Philippines, the religious groups affiliated with the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) are usually tolerant of other forms of religious organizations. The NCCP, founded in 1963, is composed of ten mainline Protestant and non-Non-Catholic denominations, and ten service-oriented organizations in the Philippines. It is a member of the World Council of

Churches and the Christian Conference of Asia. These groups usually maintain dialogues and cooperative programs with other religious groups (http:// nccphilippines.org/about-us/, accessed August 7, 2014).

Cult

The concept of another form of religious organization, the cult, was introduced in 1932 by sociologist Howard Becker. After reviewing the literature on cults, Gerry Lanuza (1999) provides a comprehensive definition of a cult: “a non-traditional form of religion, the doctrine of which is taken from diverse sources, either from non-traditional sources or local narratives or an amalgamation of both, whose members constitute either a loosely knit group or an exclusive group, which emphasizes the belief in the divine element within the individual, and whose teachings are derived from either a real or legendary figure, the purpose of which is to aid the individual in the full realization of his or her spiritual powers and/or union with the Divine” (p. 494). The label cult is often attached to a religious group that society considers as deviant or non-traditional. Hence, the term cult is often used in a negative way. Cults are often considered as deviant groups within society. In the 1960s, when a series of unusual religious groups emerged to challenge the dominant religious institutions, the members were considered as cultists. They were considered as “brainwashed” by their religious organizations. “Brainwashing” means that cult members were forced to believe in the doctrine of the group by force. Cults include the Moonies of the Unification Church, the Hare Krishna of the International Society for Krishna

In document module UCSP (Page 35-69)