1

SOCIOLOGY PROJECT
ON
SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF FAMILY
SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda
Faculty, Sociology.

SUBMITTED BY:
Suhail Bansal
Roll no. 173
SECTION C
SEMESTER I,
B.A. LLB (HONS.)

SUBMITTED ON:
October 10
th
, 2014




2

DECLARATION
I, Suhail Bansal of Semester I, Section C declares that this project submitted to H.N.L.U. Raipur
is an original work done by me under the able guidance of Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda, Faculty of
Sociology. The work is a bona fide creation done by me. Due references in terms of footnotes
have been duly given wherever necessary.





Suhail Bansal
Roll No. 173
Semester I, Sec. C

3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I feel highly elated to work on the topic SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF FAMILY.
The practical realization of this project has obligated the assistance of many persons. I express
my deepest regard and gratitude towards Dr. Uttam Kumar Panda, Faculty of Sociology. His
consistent supervision, constant inspiration and invaluable guidance have been of immense help
in understanding and carrying out the nuances of the project report.
I take this opportunity to also thank the University and the Vice Chancellor for providing
extensive database resources in the Library and for the Internet facilities provided by the
University. Some printing errors might have crept in, which are deeply regretted. I would be
grateful to receive comments and suggestions to further improve this project report.



Suhail Bansal
Semester I
Section C


4

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration 2
Acknowledgements 3
Introduction 5
Objectives 6
Research Methodology 7
Chapter-1
Family: Understanding the Basics 8
Chapter-2
Structure of the Family 12
Chapter-3
Functions of the Family 17
Chapter-4
Changes in Family Functions 19
Chapter-5
Family: Formation and Growth 23
Chapter-6
Dysfunctions of Family 27
Major Findings 30
Conclusion 31
Bibliography & Webliography 32
5

Introduction
Family is the basic unit of social institution. It is the most important primary group in society. It
is the simplest and most elementary form of society. It is the first and the most immediate social
environment to which a child is exposed. It is an outstanding primary group, because it is in the
family that the child develops his basic attitudes.

Further, of all the groups that affect the lives of individuals in society none touches them so
Immediately or continuously as does the family. From the moment of birth to the moment of
death, the family exerts continuous influence. The family is the first group in which we find
ourselves. It provides the most for the most enduring relationship in one form or other. Every one
of us grows up in a family and every one of us too will be a member of one family or other.
Interactions within the family as well as other families is very important. Maintainig the code,
principles and roles of family is a crucial factor in understanding the nature of family. Family is
an universal institution. Every one is a part of a family whether it is big or small. Family in some
will always be with us.






6

Objectives
The objectives will clearly tell us what we intend to find out about the research project. Here are
the objectives for the topic Sociological Study of Family:
To study the structural and functional pattern of family.
To analyze the changing aspects of family
To understand the gender dynamics of Family
To study the dysfunctions of family



















7

Research Methodology
This Research Project is descriptive, analytical and doctrinal in nature. The Project deals with the
Sociological study of family at the Global as well at the Indian level.
Accumulation of the information on the topic includes wide use of secondary sources like e-
books, e-articles. The matter from these sources have been compiled and analyzed to understand
the concept from the grass root level. Websites, dictionaries and articles have also been referred.
Footnotes have been provided wherever needed, either to acknowledge the source or to point to a
particular provision of law.
The structure of the project, as instructed by the Faculty of Sociology has been adhered to
and the same has been helpful in giving the project a fine finish off.











8

Chapter-1
Family: Understanding the Basics
First of all we should know what is a family? How does a family works? Defining family can be
a very complicated task because of the rapidly changing circumstances and the changing
sociological world. But in simple words we can define family as a group of persons directly
linked by kin connections, the other members of which assume responsibility for caring for
children. In one sense whole society begins with the family because society is a living entity and
it must be continuously replenished. The system of a whole society cannot be stopped and started
again like a machine. If replenishment is halted the society ceases to exist. So the development of
family plays an important role in the development of society. The changes in family can be
simple or complex. Even a small change can affect the society as a whole. Family is a universal
social phenomenon. As Lowie writes It does not matter whether marital relations are permanent
or temporary; whether there is polygyny or polyandry or sexual license; whether situations are
complicated by the addition of members not included in our family circle; one fact that stands
out beyond all others that everywhere the husband, wife, and immature children constitute a unit
apart from the remainder of the community
1


FAMILY IN INDIA
India family structure is believed to the unit that teaches the value and worth of an honest living

1
R. H. Lowie, Primitive Society (1920), pp 66-7.
9

that have been carried down across generations. Since the Puranic ages, the Indian family
structures was that of a joint family, indicating every person of the same clan living together. In
India, people learn the essential themes of cultural life within the bonding of the family. In
ancient days, the basic unit of society had been the patrilineal family unit with wider kinship
groupings. The most widely preferred residential unit is joint family, ideally consisting of three
or four patrilineally related generations, all living under one roof, working, worshiping, eating
and cooperating together in communally beneficial social and economic activities. Patrilineal
joint families include men related through the male line, along with their wives and children.
Most young women expect to live with their husband's relatives after marriage, but they retain
important bonds with their natal families.
Large families tend to be flexible and well-suited to modern Indian life, especially for the 67
percent of Indians who are farmers or agricultural workers or work in related activities. The joint
family is an ancient Indian institution, but it has undergone some change in the late twentieth
century. Although several generations living together is the ideal, actual living arrangements
vary widely depending on region, social status, and economic circumstance.
Many Indians live in joint families that deviate in various ways from the ideal, and many live in
nuclear families--a couple with their unmarried children--as is the most common pattern in the
West. However, even where the ideal joint family is seldom found (as, for example, in certain
regions and among impoverished agricultural laborers and urban squatters), there are often
strong networks of kinship ties through which economic assistance and other benefits are
obtained. Not infrequently, clusters of relatives live very near each other, easily available to
respond to the give and take of kinship obligations. Even when relatives cannot actually live in
10

close proximity, they typically maintain strong bonds of kinship and attempt to provide each
other with economic help, emotional support, and other benefits.
As joint families grow ever larger, they inevitably divide into smaller units, passing through a
predictable cycle over time. The breakup of a joint family into smaller units does not necessarily
represent the rejection of the joint family ideal. Rather, it is usually a response to a variety of
conditions, including the need for some members to move from village to city, or from one city
to another to take advantage of employment opportunities. Splitting of the family is often blamed
on quarrelling women--typically, the wives of co resident brothers. Although women's disputes
may, in fact, lead to family division, men's disagreements do so as well. Despite cultural ideals
of brotherly harmony, adult brothers frequently quarrel over land and other matters, leading them
to decide to live under separate roofs and divide their property. Frequently, a large joint family
divides after the demise of elderly parents, when there is no longer a single authority figure to
hold the family factions together. After division, each new residential unit, in its turn, usually
becomes joint when sons of the family marry and bring their wives to live in the family home.
Of all our social institutions, the family is perhaps the one with which we are most familiar. As
we proceed through our lives, our experiences within the family give rise to some of our
strongest and most intense feelings. Within the family context lies a paradox, however: although
most of us hope for love and support within the family -- a haven in a heartless world, so to
speak -- the family can also be a place of violence and abuse.
2

The common ideal is that of filial and fraternal solidarity, which prescribes that brothers should
remain together in the paternal household after they marry , sharing equally in one purse and in
common property, helping each other according to need and each giving according to his best

2
MARILYN POOLE, Family: Changing Families, Changing Times
11

ability.
3
But the reality is that sons generally dont stay in their paternal houses. This may be due
to various factors like economic, social or religious.





















3
Mandelbaum, David G, Society In India, Part II Family and Kinship Relations, Popular Prakashan.
12

Chapter-2
Structure of the Family
There are various types of families found all round. They may be based on authority, or
residence, or on the basis of size of household, on the basis of descent,on the basis of
relationships.

On the basis of residence
i) Patrilocal Family:
In this type of family, after marriage the wife goes and lives in the family of her husband, As
such, the family of this kind is based on partilocal residence. This family is also known as
Virilocal family.
ii) Matrilocal Family:
Matrilocal family is just opposite of the patrilocal family. In this family, after marriage the
husband goes and lives in the house of his wife. Hence, he occupies a secondary position. This
type of family is also known as Uxorilocal Family.
iii) Neo-local Family:
When the married couple after marriage reside in a new place and establish family independent
of their parents or of their relatives they said family is known as neo-local family.
iv) Bilocal Family:
In some societies after marriage the married couples change their residence, i.e. sometimes the
wife joins her husband at his residence and vice versa. This type of family is known as family by
changing residence.
13

v) Avuncu local family:
When the couple goes to live in maternal uncle's house after marriage they said family is known
as Avuncu-local family.

Families On the Basis of Descent
i) Partilineal Family:
The family in which the descent is traced through the father or the ancestry is determined on the
basis of male line or the father is known as partilineal family. In this type of family system the
property and the family name etc. is inherited through the male line. This is the most common
type of family.

ii) Matrilineal family:
Matrilineal family is the opposite of partilineal family. The ancestry of such family is traced
through mother or female line. The female members alone enjoy all the rights of property and of
inheritance. In other words, a property right is handed down from mother to daughter and so on
and so forth. This type of family is found among the Khashis and Garos in India, Veddas of
Cyclone, and also among the North American Indians.

Families on the basis of size
(i) Nuclear family:
Nuclear family consists of a husband, wife and their unmarried children. This type of family is
also known as elementary or primary or single or individualistic family. The size of nuclear
family is small. It is an autonomous unit and is the most ideal form of family in the modern
industrial urban civilized society.
Murdock divides the nuclear family into two types.
14

(a) The Family of Orientation.
(b) The Family of Procreation.
The family of orientations is family in which the individual is born and reared. It consists of
father, mother, brothers and sisters. The family of procreation is the result of marriage. In other
words, after marriage the individual forms the family of procreation. It consists of husband, wife
and children.

(ii) Conjugal Family:
When some relations are added to the nuclear family they said nuclear family is known as
conjugal family. Sometimes this family is also called as mixed family. This type of family
basically exhibits the characteristics of nuclear family.

(iii) Extended Family:
An extended family is the collection of number of nuclear families. This family is organized on
blood relationship. It is therefore known as consanguineous family. The members of the
extended family belong to several generations. Thus, the extended family is composed of father,
mother, their sons, the son's wife, grand children, uncles, aunts, their children, grand children,
grandfather, and grandmother and so on. So the size of an extended family is very large. This
extended families are found is agrarian economy and in rural community.
Most of the sociologists treat extended family as synonymous to joint family. To them, joint
family in addition to the above characteristics; possess the features like common ancestors,
common residence, common property, common kitchen, rule of the head etc.

On the basis of Authority
i)Patriarchal family
15

A form of social organization in which the male is the family head and title is traced through the
male line. In other words a family where the father is the authority figure and everyone gains his
approval or follows his instructions.
4


ii) Matriarchal Family
A form of social organisation where female is head of the family. All members listens to female
head. Every one oberys and follows her orders.

Hierarchy in Family Roles
Hierarchy within family roles rests on the biological facts. Parents have to exert authority to
socialize their children and human offspring must remain dependent on their parents for years.
5

Human males posses certain authority in the family. Age and sex are the main ordering
principles in family hierarchy. Men have more authority than the women and elders are rested
with more authority than the younger members of the family. A difference of a year or two is
enough to firmly establish who is superior. Men have formal property rights, and so the formal
authority of a young man is higher than that of his older sister.
The spheres of mens and womens activities tend to be sharply separated. A husband is expected
to his wifes superior and to receive symbolic and actual deference from her.
6
A woman moves
about within her household and perhaps in those fields and place that may work, while men have
a much wider ambit in space and among people.
A woman is deferent as wife, but not as mother. Children owe permanent deference to both

4
wiki.answers.com\WikiAnswers\Categories\Technology
5
Mandelbaum, David G, Society In India, Part II Family and Kinship Relations, edn 33 Popular Prakashan Mumbai,
2010
6
Ibid at 38
16

parents. Parental authority is unceasing as an ideal and is sustained in fact, though the actual
duration and degree of this authority are effected by economic circumstances and jati traditions.





















17

Chapter-3
Functions of the Family
A family in India, as elsewhere, is a corporate group, whose members act to meet their common
purpose. Typically they live in the same house and eat the food prepared in the same kitchen;
they work together, pool their income, expenditures, and property and perform rituals as a
family.
7

These functions are scarcely distinctive; similar functions are performed by family groups
through much of the world. But in village India a great many of a persons activities are carried
out with his family throughout his lifetime. In the larger joint families, in which several adult
men and women and their children live and work in close proximity, lines of authority must be
made plain lest disagreements about them escalate. In joint families, the nature of the family as
system, with its regular, expected interchange and regressive counterchange, becomes more
readily apparent.
A family is a unit before the gods. In almost every house there is a special place for the holy
things that help guard all in the household. That place may be no more than a litograph tacked
tacked to a wall or it may be an elaborate shrine in a shrine in a separate room; in either case all
in the family come under its protection.
8
Families generally tend to have faith upon god who will
protect them from all bad circumstances and help them to achieve all the success they want to
achieve.
Rites of familys ancestors are particularly important in families of higher varnas and in these


7
Mandelbaum, David G, Society In India, Part II Family and Kinship Relations, edn 33 Popular Prakashan Mumbai,
2010.
8
Ibid
18

families the father acts on behalf of all.
9
It is the function of all families to hand down all the
traditions and customs to their children who will in turn pass on them to their children. The
children must perform these duties after the death of their parents. The crisis of death and birth
affect all those who together in a family ; all must observe proper seclusion and cleansing to rid
themselves of their defilement.
10
The whole purity and pollution of the jati rests largely on
conduct in the family context as in eating, in mating, in ritual observance.
11

A family is not only a reproductive unit and a socializing agency; it also provides each person
with the main link to the wider society. It may be noted here that while premarital or extramarital
mating is permitted or tolerated in some societies, however, every society places some
restrictions on such mating ; though these restrictions may vary from culture to culture.
12

The inevitable result of sexual satisfaction is procreation. This ensures the continuity among the
family. Family is an institution par excellence for the production and rearing of child. The
function of child rearing is better performed now than in the past because of more skill and
knowledge are devoted to the care of the unborn and new born child.
13

Family also provides the man with his basic needs of home, food and clothing. This function of
family is considered to be an essential function as it provides with the basic neccessities to the
man. The psychologists hold that probably the greatest single cause of emotional difficulties,
behaviour problems is lack of love, that is, lack of warm, affectionate relational within a small
circle of intimate associates.


9
Ibid
10
Giddens, Anthony, Sociology, fourth edition, Polity Press.
11
Mandelbaum, David G, Society In India, Part II Family and Kinship Relations, edn 33 Popular Prakashan Mumbai,
2010.

12
Bhushan, Vidya and D.R. Sachdev, An Introduction to Sociology, pp. 304, edn. 2010, Kitab Mahal
13
Ibid at 305.
19

Chapter-4
Changes in Family Functions
Within a family the constellation of relations change in the course of the family cycle. Within a
village and region there are differences in family relations according to wealth, occupation, and
jati rank. These difference are the major cause of changing relationships in the modern world.
The way in which family functions are carried on differs in various ways over period of time
even though the same person is involved.
(a) Change in roles
A girl of fifteen, newly arrived in a family as a bride, owes and gives deference to her mother-in-
law. Twenty years later, as the mother of sons, she is still a daughter-in-law and still owes
deference to her husbands mother.
14
There is clearly a change in her role. Firstly she was a
newlywed bride owing deference to her mother-in-law. Later she became mother and after her
sons marriage started to command respect as a mother-in-law. A womans change of role can be
quite great. Mrs Karve writes that it is not rare to see women who were nothing but meek non
entities blossom into positive personalities in their middle-aged widowhood, or boss over the
weak old husband in the latter part of the married life.
15

The relation between father and son gradually change as the son grows into adolescence. A
father is expected to act more sternly to an adolescent son as compared to a toddler. Again this
relation changes as the boy begins to be held responsible for all his actions and the father
becomes a disciplinarian. After the son marries, and certainly when he begets a son of his own,
he can become somewhat more independent, though he must always observe great respect for his

14
Ibid at 46.
15
Ibid at 46
20

father.
16

(b) Economic factors
Within a village, there are difference in family relations according to jati rank, occupation, and
wealth. Economic factors bolster the differences in family roles.
17
The people owning land
becomes land owner and they generally belong to high castes such ad Brahmins, whereas the
people working on those land form the labour group belong to lower castes. The decisions in the
joint family is taken by head of the family, also the owner of the land. In the upper castes the
young male can easily start out after marriage. The people of the liwer caste try to ape them to
bring more status to their caste. There is difference among the males and females in the castes.
Females do not own any land in their names but they manage the entire household as seen in the
higher castes. They have full authority over the management and functioning of family. Where as
the women in lower castes work on fields to support their family. Both the castes have a sense of
belongingness, they cook on one chula, they eat together, they pray together and stay together.
(c) differences among religion
A third kind of variation in family style is religion, certain differences among linguistic-cultural
regions can be noted.
18
In northern parts, wives are usually taken from beyond the village and
beyond the closer kin whereas in southern parts, a man is expected to marry a girl from among
his cliser kin. In southern jatis there is preference for marriage to a mothers brothers daughter
or an elder sisters daughter.
19
These differences in the religions often forms the basis of
changing family functions. What may be considered as a good way of performing a task in one

16
Mandelbaum, David G., Society in India, Part II Family and Kinship Relations, edn. 2010, Popular Prakashan,
Mumbai.
17
Deva, Indra and Shrirama, Society and Culture in India, Rawat Publications (New Delhi and Jaipur)
18
Atal, Yogesh, Changing Indian Society, edn. 2008, Rawat Publications
19
Mandelbaum, David G., Society in India, Part II Family and Kinship Relations, edn. 2010, Popular Prakashan,
Mumbai
21

religion may be considered as the right way to perform the task.
The framework of assumptions and expectations about family lifes includes the ideal of filial-
fraternal solidarity, the emphasis on hierarchy, the pervasive scope of family functions, and the
right identification of person with family.
20

With the changing of time various external and internal forces have acted upon family and
brought a great change both in the structure and functions of family. The changes particularly in
the functions of family have reduced the importance of family considerably and also have drawn
a line between traditional family and modern family. The changes which have occurred in the
functions of family in modern times are examined below:
A. Changes in the primary functions:
Modern Family in most of the societies fails to exercise its traditional control in regulating
sexual behaviour. With the development of science and more particularly genetic engineering
test tubes babies are born as a result bringing changes in the traditional reproduction function of
family.
21
The childcare functions of the family have been shifted to certain external agencies like
hospital, maternity homes, nurseries, kindergartens etc. The modern family fails to give
traditional protection for the aged, diseased, mentally retarded, physically handicapped etc. The
modern family is gaining increased attention in socialization of its newly members. It is giving
more attention to the all round development of child personality. Modern youngsters prefer to
establish their own house for independent living.
B. Changes in the Secondary functions:
Now-a-days, family is no longer self-sufficient. It is more a consumer unit than a producing
centre. Whatever functions the family was performing as an economic unit have been shifted to
market economy. Many external agencies are performing the economic functions, which the
family used to perform in the past.

20
Ibid at 56-57
21
Atal, Yogesh, Changing Indian Society, edn. 2008, Rawat Publications
22

The religious functions of the family have also undergone a great change. The religious practices
have lost their traditional importance. More secular attitude and outlook is spreading day by day.
This secular outlook has considerably reduced the importance of religious function family.
22

The recreational functions of the family have been shared by the external agencies like movies,
hotels, parks clubs, youth organisations and other centres of recreation. These recreation centres
are highly commercialised. Thus, the recreational function which was considered as one of the
thread of cohesion has lost its significance.
23

In spite of the above changes that have occurred in the functions of family in modern time the
family is still persisting as one of the most important social institutions. This is because the
traditional functions of family have been modified than lost. In this connection A.W. Green has
rightly remarked, "Over the centuries, no permanent direction of change has ever been
maintained. At some time in the future, the present forces of change may reach out in an
unforeseen direction permitting family to regain its old strength and renew its old functions".











22
Atal, Yogesh, Changing Indian Society, edn. 2008, Rawat Publications
23
Ibid at 173
23

Chapter-5
Family: Formation and Growth
The characteristic stages of the family cycle in India is different from that of industrialized
societies. The American cycles begins with two relatively short phases, one from marriage to
first birth and the second comprising the child rearing period. Among Indian families there is
much greater overlap of successive stages. The marriages of the children are the great event for
the family.
Males come into the family at birth and remain until separated by death or partition.
24
If the
husband and wife find themselves unable to bring forth a son biologically, or if no son survives
childhood, they may bring one into the family socially through adoption. Adoption is firmly
rooted in formal law and customary practice. A adopting father takes a boy from his own jati.
Another alternative, less commonly taken because of considerations of cost and temperament, is
that the husband take another wife, or several, I order to beget a son.
25
Still there is another
alternative to a prosperous person who has a daughter and no son. He can arrange for marriage of
his daughter to a man who will join his family.
While on the other hand, marriage is the transfer of female from one family to another. It cannot
be avoided because the person of a pubescent daughter in the household, unwed and unclaimed ,
is uncomfortable, even ritually dangerous for other members of the family. It can be dangerous
because it may bring disgrace to the family.
Marriage is seen as a test of status of family. Then more than at any other time a familys
alliances attend forth proven and personified by gifts and attendance; its status hinges on its

24
Mandelbaum, David G., Society in India, Part II Family and Kinship Relations, edn. 2010, Popular Prakashan,
Mumbai
25
Ibid at 97
24

strength in allies and clients.
26
Two rules are followed in marriage negotiations, explicit
structural rules such as those of exogamy and endogamy, and the implicit rules of the game of
maneuvering for family advantages. So momentous is the occasion of marriage that several kind
of precautions are taken to minimize the uncertainties involved in the decision. Astrology, is one
such means; arranging pre puberty marriage is another.
27

A family with both ambition and means is likely to search as far afield for a prospective spouse
as it can, because a wider range of search produces more alternatives from which to select the
best alliance.
28
After the negotiations are completed, the wedding is solemnized. A wedding not
only confirms a particular couples union and the alliance of families , it also confirms the
centrality or marital union in the universe of man and God.
29

The bride settles in and intime bringd forth her child, the familys child. Within the family circle
the child earns the fundamentals of his culture and society; he is taught to become the kind of
person who will, in his turn, fulfill the appropriate roles of family and society.
30
The whole
constellation of family relations shifts in character as children grow up. There comes a time
when the daughter must be married off and the son must receive a wife.
31

Relations within family are in a certain ways similar to relations within a jati or in a community.
What a person does in his role as family member underlies his behaviour as a jati member. His
family serves as both as model and module for his jati relations.
32

Family battles there are in plenty, but their very intensity and the interest they elicit testifies to

26
Ibid at 98
27
Ibid at 110
28
Bhushan, Vidya and D.R. Sachdev, An Introduction to Sociology, pp. 304, edn. 2010, Kitab Mahal
29
Bhushan, Vidya and D.R. Sachdev, An Introduction to Sociology, pp. 304, edn. 2010, Kitab Mahal
30
Mandelbaum, David G., Society in India, Part II Family and Kinship Relations, edn. 2010, Popular Prakashan,
Mumbai
31
Ibid at 125
32
Deva, Indra and Shrirama, Society and Culture in India, Rawat Publications (New Delhi and Jaipur)
25

the importance of family to the importance of family to the individual society. For the family is
at the core of a mans allegiance, of his loyalty, his identification. It is his own guage of his
success in life, it is a main standard used by others to measure his earthly achievements. All the
more is so for a woman. A man may have outside interests and achievements, a village woman
cradles them all in her family.
33





33
Mandelbaum, David G., Society in India, Part II Family and Kinship Relations, edn. 2010, Popular Prakashan,
Mumbai
26

Chapter-6
Dysfunctions of Family
Although the joint family has a number of functions, it is not free from criticism. The main
disadvantages of joint family are that it hinders the development of personality, causes miserable
condition of women, makes home for idlers, becomes a center of quarrels, lacks privacy, causes
uncontrolled reproduction, and brings down the standard of living and son. These demerits of
joint family may briefly be stated below:

1. Hinders the development of personality:
The 'Karta' or the head of the joint family is the sole authority in taking decisions in family
affairs. He is all in all in the family and his decision is trust on all other members. Such an
authoritarian pattern arrests the scope for developing the personality of the juniors through
independent thinking.

2. Causes miserable position of woman:
The status of woman is extremely low in the joint family system. The condition of the girl child
is deplorable. The daughter-in-law finds it very difficult to adjust in the joint family
environment. She not only works day and night but also faces the ill treatment by the mother- in-
law and sister-in-laws. She is treated like a slave. In many a case, the daughter-in-law takes
resort to suicide due to unbearable ill-treatment.

3. Makes Home for Idlers:
Due to collective responsibility in the joint family, the active members work harder, but the lazy
members become lazier because without doing the productive work, they are not deprived of
getting equal amount of food from the common kitchen. Instead of competing for work, the lazy
27

members compete in eating and sleeping.

4. Becomes a center of quarrels:
Because of the presence of many women in the joint family quarrels become the everyday affair.
Quarrels are common between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law and sister-in-laws. At
times the male members may also quarrel over the partition issue.

5. Lacks of privacy:
Privacy is denied in a joint family. Even the newly married couples do not get scope to discuss
their problems in the presence of their elders. During the day time meeting the husband by the
wife is causality. The married couples do not find the joint family atmosphere congenial to enjoy
their married life in full on account of several restrictions placed on their conjugal life. As such
the development of their personality is hampered.

6. Uncontrolled Reproduction:
It is the responsibility of the joint family to bring up the children and provide them education as
they grow up. Therefore, no member feels the necessity of restricting the of children. Hence, the
responsibilities of the joint family as a collectivity in respect of reproduce is just the reverse in
case the individual members.

7. Declining Standard of Living:
The constant litigation, low position of women, absolute rule of the head, unrestricted
reproduction, irresponsibility on the part of the members and lack of proper care of common
property result in poor economic condition and the declining standard of living.

8. Other Dysfunctions:

In addition to the dysfunction already discussed above, some other minor dysfunctions of the
28

joint family are also visualized. For example, absolute authority of the head who is orthodox

fellow hinders the introduction of new ideas and encourages the persistence of practices, customs

and traditions, etc. in the family. Another dysfunction is extravagant the members of joint family.

Suspicion and doubt against each nuclear unit within the j family system also pollutes the family

sphere.
If a comparison is made between the functions and dysfunctions of the joint family will be
apparently clear that the dysfunctions have become instrumental in causing disintegration of the
joint family system.
34
















34
http://www.preservearticles.com/201104296048/8-most-important-dysfunctions-of-joint-family.html
29

Major Findings
The study of Family and its Functional Aspects has revealed that all the persons are some how
related to a family. They socialize themselves through a family and learn all their basic
characteristics and attitudes from the family. All the roles in the family are related to others. The
members take care of each other and support them in every form they can, in every way they can
whether it may be monetary support or just moral support.

Quarrels often takes place in the families but they get resolved as easily as it started. Every
member fulfills his/her own responsibilities and duties and no matter what happens they do not
deviate from the prescribed forms or roles. All that matters in a family is that they stay together
and live happily, taking care of each other.











30

Conclusion
It is concluded from the research that family stay together in all happy and bad times. They
support, help and hold each other. The role which emerges from that analysis of this old
institution of our social life is familiar. Any variety of the family the Society may chose to
support should, in its form and function, display and personify a commitment to the survival and
commonalty of humanity by and through a structure of mutual care and support of children, and
be built around a core value, but not necessarily practice, of stable heterosexuality. That surely,
is the minimum requirement for its acceptance and approval in the era of the Society of
HumanKind. Variations in family form and process are extremely prevalent but must also
acknowledge the dominant structures by which cultures define family.











31

Bibliography & Webliography
1. Mandelbaum, David G., Society in India, edn. 2010, Popular Prakashan, Mumbai
2. Deva, Indra and Shrirama, Society and Culture in India, Rawat Publications (New Delhi
and Jaipur)
3. Bhushan, Vidya and D.R. Sachdev, An Introduction to Sociology, pp. 304, edn. 2010,
Kitab Mahal
4. Giddens, Anthony, Sociology, fourth edition, Polity Press
5. Atal, Yogesh, Changing Indian Society, edn. 2008, Rawat Publications
6. wiki.answers.com\WikiAnswers\Categories\Technology
7. http://www.trinity.edu/mkearl/family.html
8. www.preservearticles.com
















32
























33