A very old social category is the family. It has been around for a while. It is as old as human life itself and older than civilisation. Nevertheless, it is not a static institution despite all of this. It constantly evolves with time. This is the main cause of the modern family's different structure from that of a century before.
J. Runnney and Joseph Maier note: "Although the family is universal, no particular structure of the family is required or inevitable in order to underline this fact. It is a social product that is subject to change and modification, like all institutions.
The family has undergone significant alteration in the past and has served a variety of different purposes, according to Nimkoff and Ogburn. The family has proven to be a very adaptable and resilient group. The family still exists in every known society, despite significant changes to its structure and role. These incidents make it quite evident that the family is undergoing ongoing adjustments. The conclusion is that the modern family has significantly evolved from the traditional family.
In a nutshell, the following can be used to highlight some of their significant distinctions:
The size of the family is the first major distinction between a modern family and an ancient family. The common family system was prevalent in ancient societies. There used to be several generations of members in very large families. In addition to parents, kids, and brothers, the same family also once included grandparents and widowed daughters as residents of the same home.
Such a family group is similar to a social unit and can occasionally have over 100 members, but in modern times, the single-family structure has taken over as the norm. Single families have now displaced joint families as a result of their dissolution. The average modern family consists of the parents and their young children.
Even grown children who get married and start their own families do so independently of their parents. Currently, a family hardly ever has more than ten people. Joint families are breaking up and being replaced by individual families, a phenomenon that started in the West and has since expanded around the world.
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While the traditional family is, the modern family has evolved into an individualist viewpoint. In the past, families were unite by the fact that they all resided in the same location and had similar social circumstances. There is no need for any outside parties to meddle in people's lives because all material and social requirements are supplied within the family.
However, due to the breakdown of the traditional family structure, this is not the case in contemporary households. Modern families no longer exist. the core of it as a social group. People now have more individualized opinions than they do societal concerns. Even members of the same family are now dispersed and work at various occupations.
Gisbert emphasizes this point by stating: "The family has opened the door to individualist impulses and viewpoints and has become somewhat more comfortable as a cohesive social unit. The spouse must now leave the house to work and make a living at a set time, location, and under rules established by others.
The place of women in traditional and contemporary homes is significantly different. Women used to have a very low status in the family. They are merely the property of males who lack personal identity. They lack both freedom and rights. They must obey the commands of the male family members. However, her position has totally shifted as of late.
In the modern family, a woman is neither a man's slave nor a partner in life with inferior status. In the present, the husband just requests his wife to carry out his orders. She is now free of the enslavement of men. She and her husband both have the right to divorce. She has the right to sue her husband for violating her rights, and he will sue her back. As a result, women's status in the family has evolved over time.
An extremely significant aspect of the modern family, which is lacking in the traditional family, is the woman's economic independence. Women used to rely entirely on males to satisfy their wants and needs. They lack any self-sufficient financial resources of their own. The men of the family had to provide for all of their basic requirements, including food, clothes, and shelter, because they were imprisoned within the four walls of the house.
Women are not permitted to hold any professions or possess property. For them, marriage is a compulsion that they must enter into in order to fulfill their financial obligations. But the situation has dramatically changed since then. In contemporary homes, women are becoming more economically dependent. Not only the husband, but also the wife, leaves for work each day. Women who work outside the home are becoming more and more prevalent.
They do not want to lag behind men in any way since they are now both property owners and salary earners. The mindsets of contemporary women have been significantly impacted by this economic reliance. Before, she was forced to look for a man who would marry her and provide for her financially.
She can now cope with a man on her own without feeling helpless in front of him. She was no longer a slave to the guy who had given her food, clothing, and a place to live so that she could support herself. Such a characteristic did not identify the conventional family.
While modern families have secular outlooks, traditional families maintain religious beliefs. Modern families no longer do traditional family religious rites like reciting the New Year's sutras or participating in yagya. Additionally, rather than being a religious ceremony, marriage is now a civil transaction. In one hour, it can be destroyed. Religion no longer has much influence over the terms of marriage and divorce. In contemporary families, divorce is a frequent occurrence. It is a rare occurrence in the traditional family.
Marriage is the cornerstone of the family. Parents marry in a conventional family. The idea of male dominance and female submission is the foundation of marriage. People are less under parental supervision when choosing a life mate in a modern household. The marriage is not planned by the parties involved, and it can be dissolved at any time.
Compared to modern families, traditional families engage in a far wider range of activities. Many of the traditional family's duties have been abandoned by the modern family. Specialized agencies now perform these duties.
The purpose of the modern family is quite minimal in comparison to the medieval family, claim Jay Rumney and Joseph Maier. all but its monetary, instructive, spiritual, and defense roles. They have been given up to the government, the church, the educational system, and business.
Additionally, many common domestic tasks like cleaning, laundry, cooking and baking are also carried out by specialist organizations outside the home. In this approach, the modern family is focused on completing necessary functions, whereas the traditional family is concerned with doing both essential and non-essential functions.
The modern family is no longer an economic unit in comparison to the traditional family. The conventional family engages in both production and consumption. It has all of its financial needs met. The family business was carried out by the entire living family. You can prepare every consumable at home.
There is no justification for relying on outside organizations to generate income. However, such a character does not exist in the modern household. It can no longer function independently. To locate an appropriate career, family members must look outside of the family. Due to the fact that the majority of everyday essentials are now bought from the market, it has also ceased to be a production unit.
The modern family is no longer the economic unit of the Middle Ages, where production, distribution, and consumption grew inside the family as a natural unit. sustenance in the agricultural and handicraft economy, Gisbert rightly recognized. Although it would be incorrect to suggest that the family is abandoning its economic functions, it is undoubtedly radically changing them.
The aforementioned data make it quite evident that the family has undergone significant changes to its economic, social, and biological makeup. The modern family is no longer an agrarian society. However, it can still be claimed that the family is still a crucial social institution.
