FAMILY
Yanomami villagers

A young Machigenga couple with their child.


The family is the simplest social unit or form of social organization found in all human societies. Families are commonly, but not always, established on the basis of marriage. A man and a woman are formally recognized by members of their society as forming a long-term sexual and social relationship that will enable them to provide for their mutal subsistence and for the procreation and raising of children. Thus, a man, woman and children usually forms the core, or nucleus, of a family. However, there are many different types of families that represent variations on this basic social unit. There are extended families in which parents live with their married children and their children's children, or in which several siblings live together communally with their spouses and their children.

There are also single parent families and families in which the parents raising children are of the same sex. Families are dynamic groups. Their size and the nature of their economic, social , and emotional interactions change over time. The types of families characterisic of a given society are shaped by the environment, economic conditions and the history of a group or society. The harsh environment of the Arctic, for example, meant that during the harsh winter months the family was the basic social unit of Inuit (Eskimo) society, and families usually only consisted of parents and children, and sometimes an elderly grandparent, whereas among the Yanomami Indians of South America, the tropical jungle environment supported a large number of families living together communally under one roof.


Nancy C. Lutkehaus, Ph.D.
Department of Anthropology
Center for Visual Anthropology
University of Southern California
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