1. Skim the texts below and think up a title for each of them. Write down the titles in the blanks before the texts.

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A family is a group of persons united by the ties of marriage, blood, or adoption, constituting a single household and interacting with each other in their respective social positions, usually those of spouses, parents, children, and siblings. The family group should be distinguished from a household, which may include boarders and roomers sharing a common residence. It should also be differentiated from a kindred (which also concerns blood lines), because a kindred may be divided into several households. Frequently the family is not differentiated from the marriage pair, but the essence of the family group is the parent-child relationship, which may be absent from many marriage pairs.

At its most basic, then, a family consists of an adult and his or her offspring. Most commonly, it consists of two married adults, usually a man and a woman (almost always from different lineages and not related by blood) along with their offspring, usually living in a private and separate dwelling. This type of unit, more specifically known as a nuclear family, is believed to be the oldest of the various types of families in existence. Sometimes the family includes not only the parents and their unmarried children living at home but also children that have married, their spouses, and their offspring, and possibly elderly dependents as well; such an arrangement is called an extended family.

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The nuclear, or conjugal, family is the basic unit of family organization in virtually every society. It is generally defined as a married couple and their children (including adopted and fostered children, as well as the couple's natural children). Other forms of family organization, such as compound and joint families, are in a sense built upon the nuclear family or contain units comparable to it in their structure.

In many modern societies the nuclear family is identical to the typical household unit. Members of the nuclear family share the same dwelling place, usually a single house or apartment. In agricultural societies the nuclear family is often the primary unit of production, sharing tasks and taking collective responsibility for the income that sustains them. In both agricultural and other types of communities, the nuclear family is almost always the primary unit of economic consumption. One or both parents, and sometimes children, earn money outside the home and then share at least some of the fruits of their labour with the family as a whole.

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There is no precise distinction between the joint family and the extended family, and the latter term can be used to encompass both. In a narrower sense, sociologists usually think of the extended family as being larger and maintaining less control over its members than does the joint family. In most extended families, the marital bonds between spouses are stronger than the kinship bonds between, for example, the brothers who are the focal people in Indian joint families.

As a household unit, the extended family is most common where ties between kinsmen are important for economic reasons. It was common in Europe during and just after the Industrial Revolution and, more recently, among European immigrant communities outside Europe. It is still common in many parts of the Third World, in both agricultural and industrial contexts, and in Asian communities in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. Typically, a group of kinsmen live together and share resources. In a traditional context, there may be common property in the form of agricultural lands, livestock, or ritual property such as sacred objects and sacred sites. These last are important in some African societies and among the Australian Aborigines. In modern societies the extended family offers benefits in areas where government agencies have not penetrated or where essential services are not adequate or not provided. Even where there is no common property, members of extended families may draw on one another when they need financial help.

The term extended family also applies to family units that do not establish a single place of residence. The case mentioned above, of working-class people in London who at least into the 1950s shared domestic chores, is one example. The key aspect of the extended family is not that it necessarily shares the same dwelling or place of residence but that relatives give material assistance to one another and share economic responsibilities.

2. Now scan the texts and work out answers to the following questions.

1. How can family members be united in a family?

2. What positions do family members occupy?

3. What is the difference between a family and a household?

4. What differs a family from a kindred?

5. Does the notion family pair mean the same as family?

6. What is the very essence of a family?

7. What is the oldest type of family?

8. Why should husband and wife be from different lineages and not related by blood?

9. Who might elderly dependents living in the same household be?

10. Why is the nuclear family the basic unit of family organization in virtually every society?

11. Why is a nuclear family often identified with a household?

12. What is special about an extended family from the point of view of kinship ties?

13. Where are extended families most commonly found in the world?

14. What are economic advantages of living in an

extended family in a modern society?

3. Explain the following paying attention to the words in italics.

1. Family members can be united by the ties of marriage, blood, adoption or fostering?

2. A household may also include boarders and roomers.

3. Frequently the family is not differentiated from the marriage pair.

4. Sometimes the family may include not only parents and their offspring but also elderly dependents.

5. In agricultural societies the nuclear family is often the primary unit of production and economic consumption.

6. The extended family maintains less control over its members than does the joint family.

7. In most extended families the marital bonds are stronger than the kinship bonds.

8. Typically, a group of kinsmen live together and share resources.

9. Often members of extended families may draw on one another when they need financial help.

10. The key aspect of the extended family is that relatives give material assistance to one another and share economic responsibilities.

Getting professional

1. Using words and phrases from the text, prepare a short talk about types of families common in this country.

2. Prepare a short talk about kinds of families people live in in other cultures or in a culture you know other than yours.

 Reading comprehension

1. Read the passage below and do the tasks that follow. Pay attention to the words given in bold.

At its best, the family performs various valuable functions for its members. Perhaps most important of all, it provides for emotional and psychological security, particularly through the warmth, love, and companionship that living together generates between spouses and in turn between them and their children. The family also provides a valuable social and political function by institutionalizing procreation and by providing guidelines for the regulation of sexual conduct. The family additionally provides such other socially beneficial functions as the rearing and socialization of children, along with such humanitarian activities as caring for its members when they are sick or disabled. On the economic side, the family provides food, shelter, clothing, and physical security for its members, some of whom may be too young or too old to provide for the basic necessities of life themselves. Finally, on the social side, the family may serve to promote order and stability within society as a whole.

Historically, in most cultures, the family was patriarchal, or male-dominated. Perhaps the most striking example of the male-dominated family is the description of the family given in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament), where the male heads of the clans were allowed to have several wives as well as concubines. As a general rule, women had a rather low status. In Roman times the family was still patriarchal, but polygamy was not practiced, and in general the status of women was somewhat improved over that suggested in the Hebrew Bible, although they still were not allowed to manage their own affairs. The Roman family was an extended one. The family as it existed in medieval Europe was male-dominated and extended.

In the West, industrialization and the accompanying urbanization spawned—and continue to spawn—many changes in family structure by causing a sharp change in life and occupational styles. Many people, particularly unmarried youths, left farms and went to urban centres to become industrial workers. This process led to the dissolution of many extended families.

The modern family that emerged after the Industrial Revolution is different from the earlier model. For instance, patriarchal rule began to give way to greater equality between the sexes. Similarly, family roles once considered exclusively male or female broke down. Caring for the home and children, once the exclusive duty of the female, is often a shared activity, as, increasingly, is the earning of wages and the pursuit of public life, once the exclusive domain of the male. The structure of the family is also changing in that some couples choose not to marry legally and instead elect to have their children out of wedlock; many of these informal relationships tend to be of short duration, and this—as well as the rise in levels of divorce—has led to a rapid increase in the number of one-parent households.

Especially in Western cultures, the modern family is today more of a consuming as opposed to a producing unit, and the members of the family work away from home rather than at home. Public authorities, primarily governmental ones, have assumed many of the functions that the family used to provide, such as caring for the aged and the sick, educating the young, and providing for recreation. Technological advancements have made it possible for couples to decide if and when they want to have children.

2. Answer the questions.

1. According to the passage, what functions does the family perform?

2. Which of them is the most important?

3. The family performs a reproductive function, doesn’t it?

4. What regulative function does it provide?

5. What are the main social and economic functions fulfilled by the family?