SOC244H5 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Sexual Intercourse, Exogamy, Bilateral Descent
Document Summary
Sociology of family is the study of the family unit from a sociological viewpoint. The examination is dominated by social class, gender and ethnicity analysis. Further sociology of the family views the effect of social change on the family. Its is a branch of sociology studying the construction and role of families, as well as the relations both within the domestic sphere and outward into the work sphere. Among all the changes going on today, none are more important than those happening in our personal lives, in sexuality, relationships, marriage and the family. The word family originally meant a band of slaves. Even after the word came to apply to people affiliated by blood and marriage, for many centuries the notion of family referred to authority relations rather than love ones. There are legal definitions, social definitions and idiosyncratic definitions: legal. A variety of legal definitions exist, but there is no fixed legal definition, as the definition often changes.
