FAMILY
- The basic social institution; primary group in
a society.
- Is conceived of as composed by parents
and children, with or without relatives,
united by bond and love and affection who
share common social activities.
- The members interact with each other in
their reciprocal roles, supported by a set of
norms, attitudes and values drawn mostly
from the larger society.
- Plays a potent role in the personality
development of the individual and is an
influential factor in determining the social
organization of the entire society.
- Is regulated by custom and law; gives
continuity to the society through its
reproductive function.
Marriage – an important institutional element of the
family; also an institution which is a cluster of
mores and folkways, of attitudes, ideas, and ideals,
of social definitions and legal restrictions.
Why do people marry?
- Sex or sexual attraction
- Love
- Economic security
- Emotional security
- Parents’ wishes
- Escape from loneliness or an unhappy
home situation
- Money
- Companionship
- Protection
- Adventure
- Common interests
 Marriage patterns vary from society to
society.
Familial Structures
• Some societies observe the levirate and the
sorority norms.
o Levirate: prescribes that a widow should
marry the brother or nearest kin of the
deceased husband.
o Sororate: prescribes that a widower should
marry the sister or nearest kin of the
deceased wife.
Functions of the Family
1. Regulates sexual behavior and is the unit
for reproduction.
2. Performs the function of biological
maintenance.
3. The chief agency for socializing the child.
4. Gives its members status.
5. An important mechanism for social control.
6. Educational, economic recreational,
religious and political functions.
Structural Characteristics of the Filipino Family
• Nuclear Family – includes the father,
mother, and children
• Extended Family – embraces all the
relatives of the father and mother
• Other important relationships are those of
the siblings and the cousins and of the
grandparents and the grandchildren.
 The Christian Filipino family has often been
described as a large family group, often
including three generations in the same home,
that is, “extended” in terms of membership.
 Among the Moslems the more frequent type
of family is the joint family.
 Blood kin – play an important role in the
Filipino family so that the family may be
considered consanguineal. [rural areas –
compadre or compadrazgo system; ritual
kinsmen]
 The Filipino family is frequently said to be a
patriarchal in authority.
o Husband – bread earner; the court of last
resort on disciplinary problems; turns over
the salary
o Wife – shares in the struggle for a living;
has domain over the household and the
rearing of children; treasurer of the family
o They share in decision-making
Jocano: “…Filipino social organization is based on
the principles of generation and seniority.
 In terms of residence, the Filipino family
may be said to be bilocal and neolocal.
o Bilocal - when the couple alternates
between the wife’s group and the husband’s
group, their household arrangements
o Neolocal – living together at a new
residence
 The residence of the more influential and
affluent family is likely to be the place of
residence of the newly married couple.
 Filipinos practice endogamy.
o One is likely to marry within one’s locality
grouping, social class, religion, or nationality
grouping.
  In marriage, monogamy is the norm
although polygyny is allowed among the
Moslems and other cultural communities.
Courtship and Marriage
Courtship – the stage preparatory to marriage and
may include all forms of behavior by which an
individual seeks to win the consent of another to a
marriage.
o Taboos: incest, premarital relationship
 Criteria young people go by in the choice of a
marriage partner: physical attraction,
congeniality, economic status, intelligence, or
similarity in interests, ideas, or likes, parental
influence
 Chaperonage characterize the relationship
between the unmarried man and the unmarried
woman in the rural areas.
 Church wedding is the accepted practice.
Socialization for Sex Roles
 An important function of the family is to
socialize the child to learn the behavior patterns
which the society expects him to assume when
they become an adult.
 blue for boys, pink for girls; dolls and
kitchens for girls and guns and cars for boys;
war games for boys and bahay-bahayan for
girls
 The parents train their children for work
appropriate for their sex.
 Pubescent stage: assigned different
sleeping quarters; limited activities outside for
girls and free to go out for boys
 Puberty: girls are expected to be modest,
soft-spoken, and gentle in manners; boys are
expected to be assertive and aggressive
 “feminismo” – characterized by “a desire to
get married to have children, to be subordinate
yet equal to her husband, to be seductive
without being aggressive, to be beautiful, to be
educated, to be a companion to her husband,
and a mother to her children.
 “machismo” – showing sexual prowess
and being dominant, showing virility, strength,
courage, and being adventurous, expected to
be good providers and bread winners the head,
and guardian of the family.
Social Change and the Filipino Family
 Factors causing social changes:
o Geographical mobility
o Increasing population
o Increasing industrialization and
urbanization
o The idea of universal education
o The changed status and role of the
Filipino woman
o Diffusion of the mass media
Coller: “…the family patterns in the Philippines
have been moving away from what may termed as
sacred familism to secular familism.”
o Sacred familism – characterized by
adherence to traditional moral values, the
presence of an authoritarian figure who is
status-dominated, Gemeinschaft interaction,
and a traditionalistic, simple technology with
a peasant type of economy.
o Secular familism – epitomized by
members of the family who still claim
success of the family as their goal but
whose definition of success has changed to
mean a secular, material sort.
Family Planning
 1965 – the nationwide movement for the
open advocacy of family planning was
launched by the newly organized Family
Planning Association of the Philippines
 It has been launched to raise the quality of
life and curb the rapid population growth.
 Family planning – a way of regulating and
spacing the births of children by married
couples and helping childless couples to find
out the cause of inability to have children.
 Values – enrichment of human health, the
right to decide family size, enhancement of
opportunities for self-fulfillment
 Methods:
o Folk methods – postcoital douche,
prolonged lactation
o Natural methods – rhythm method,
withdrawal
o Biological method – the use of thermometer
o Physiological method – the use of oral pills
o Mechanical method – the use of IUD or
intrauterine device, cervical cap, the
diaphragm or condom
o Chemical methods – the use of jellies,
creams, foaming, tablets, suppositories
o Surgical methods – involves tubal ligation
for women and vasectomy for men