Family-"A Social Institution"

The family is the most important primary group in society. It is the simplest and the most elementary form of society. The family, as a social institution is universal. It is the most pervasive and the most permanent of all social institutions. The family, in general, is a small group consisting ordinarily of father, mother, one or more children and sometimes near or distant relatives.

Many sociologists have regarded the family as the cornerstone of society and it forms the basic unit of social organization. In the most primitive societies the family is the only social institution. Among the Polar Eskimos, there were no other institutions – no chiefs or formal laws, no priests or medicine men, no specialized occupations. More clearly, most primitive societies experienced no physical or social needs of any other social institution beyond the family. That is, in those societies, order is maintained with no formal laws, police, or courts. The only authority known in many simple societies is family authority. With increasing tribal size and growing cultural complexity, more formal political organization is needed. Family heads are joined intro tribal councils, tribes combine into confederation and bureaucracies begin to develop. The family, therefore, is the basic social institution from which other institutions have grown as increasing cultural complexity made them necessary.

                  Maciver and Page defines family as, “a group defined by sex relationship sufficiently precise and enduring to provide for procreation and upbringing of children.”

      

  Types of Family:

 Sociologists have discussed about the various types of family, important of which have described or mentioned as below:

• On the basis of marriage family can be divided into: Polygynous, Polyandrous, and Monogamous. 
• On the basis of nature of residence marriage can be divided into three types: Matrilocal, Patrilocal and          Changing residence 
• On the basis of ancestry or descent family can be divided into two main types: Matrilineal, Patrilineal 
• On the basis of size or structure: The Nuclear family, The Joint family.

The changing pattern of family in Nepalese society is pointed as follows:

• The sexual regulation function: In most of the urban societies of Nepal the pre- marital and extra marital    sex relations are on increase.
• The formation of nuclear family is on rise. Because of the increasing urbanization process and rise on foreign employment, a part of the rural population is deviating from their old traditional agriculture occupation resulting in holding a non agriculture profession.