Like Family

Like Family
Author: Margaret K. Nelson
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2020-04-17
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 0813573920

For decades, social scientists have assumed that “fictive kinship” is a phenomenon associated only with marginal peoples and people of color in the United States. In this innovative book, Nelson reveals the frequency, texture and dynamics of relationships which are felt to be “like family” among the white middle-class. Drawing on extensive, in-depth interviews, Nelson describes the quandaries and contradictions, delight and anxiety, benefits and costs, choice and obligation in these relationships. She shows the ways these fictive kinships are similar to one another as well as the ways they vary—whether around age or generation, co-residence, or the possibility of becoming “real” families. Moreover she shows that different parties to the same relationship understand them in some similar – and some very different – ways. Theoretically rich and beautifully written, the book is accessible to the general public while breaking new ground for scholars in the field of family studies.

Families in the U.S.

Families in the U.S.
Author: Karen V. Hansen
Publisher: Temple University Press
Total Pages: 930
Release: 1998
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9781566395908

Attempts to do justice to the complexity of contemporary families and to situate them in their economic, political, and cultural contexts. This book explores the ways in which family life is gendered and reflects on the work of maintaining family and kin relationships, especially as social and family power structures change over time.

Families in Asia

Families in Asia
Author: Stella Quah
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2008-09-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134050011

Families in Asia provides a unique sociological analysis of family trends in Asia. Stella R. Quah uses demographic and survey data, personal interviews and case studies from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to provide a wide-ranging comparative analysis of family trends and the role of the state and social policy. Focusing on the most relevant and significant aspects of family and kin, chapters include: Concepts and research trends Family forming Parenthood Grandparenthood Gender roles in families Marriage breakdown The impact of Socio-economic development This new edition has been updated and expanded throughout and includes new material on dowry, singlehood, adoption, the transformation of the senior generation, changes in family courts and the role of the state in family wellbeing. Families in Asia will be the perfect companion for students and scholars alike who are interested in family sociology, public and social policy, and Asian society and culture more broadly.

Archaeology of Households, Kinship, and Social Change

Archaeology of Households, Kinship, and Social Change
Author: Lacey B. Carpenter
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2021-11-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000464946

Archaeology of Households, Kinship, and Social Change offers new perspectives on the processes of social change from the standpoint of household archaeology. This volume develops new theoretical and methodological approaches to the archaeology of households pursuing three critical themes: household diversity in human residential communities with and without archaeologically identifiable houses, interactions within and between households that explicitly considers impacts of kin and non-kin relationships, and lastly change as a process that involves the choices made by members of households in the context of larger societal constraints. Encompassing these themes, authors explore the role of social ties and their material manifestations (within the house, dwelling, or other constructed space), how the household relates to other social units, how households consolidate power and control over resources, and how these changes manifest at multiple scales. The case studies presented in this volume have broader implications for understanding the drivers of change, the ways households create the contexts for change, and how households serve as spaces for invention, reaction, and/or resistance. Understanding the nature of relationships within households is necessary for a more complete understanding of communities and regions as these ties are vital to explaining how and why societies change. Taking a comparative outlook, with case studies from around the world, this volume will inform students and professionals researching household archaeology and be of interest to other disciplines concerned with the relationship between social networks and societal change.

Kinship and Family in Ancient Egypt

Kinship and Family in Ancient Egypt
Author: Leire Olabarria
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2020-02-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1108584918

In this interdisciplinary study, Leire Olabarria examines ancient Egyptian society through the notion of kinship. Drawing on methods from archaeology and sociocultural anthropology, she provides an emic characterisation of ancient kinship that relies on performative aspects of social interaction. Olabarria uses memorial stelae of the First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom (ca.2150–1650 BCE) as her primary evidence. Contextualising these monuments within their social and physical landscapes, she proposes a dynamic way to explore kin groups through sources that have been considered static. The volume offers three case studies of kin groups at the beginning, peak, and decline of their developmental cycles respectively. They demonstrate how ancient Egyptian evidence can be used for cross-cultural comparison of key anthropological topics, such as group formation, patronage, and rites of passage.

All Our Kin

All Our Kin
Author: Carol B Stack
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2008-08-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0786722665

"This landmark study debunked the misconception that poor families were unstable and disorganized. Here is the chronicle of a young white woman's sojourn into The Flats, an African-American ghetto comm"

Negotiating Family Responsibilities

Negotiating Family Responsibilities
Author: Janet Finch
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2003-09-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1134888260

Negotiating Family Responsibilities provides a major new insight into contemporary family life, particularly kin relationships outside the nuclear family. While many people believe that the real meaning of 'family' has shrunk to the nuclear family household, there is considerable evidence to suggest that relationships with the wider kin group remain an important part of most people's lives. Based on the findings of a major study of kinship, and including lively verbatim accounts of conversations with family members concepts of responsibility and obligation within family life are examined and the authors expand theories on the nature of assistance within families and argue that it is negotiated over time rather than given automatically.

Families and Kinship in Contemporary Europe

Families and Kinship in Contemporary Europe
Author: Riitta Jallinoja
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011-02-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780230284289

Instead of seeing the family as a 'monolithic' entity, as though separate from its surroundings, this new approach draws attention to assemblages of various types that in different constellations and through different transactions relate people to each other as families and kin.

Emile Durkheim on the Family

Emile Durkheim on the Family
Author: Mary Ann Lamanna
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2001-10-24
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9780761912071

This book looks at this classical sociologist's work on the family. Durkheim's writings in this area are little known, but the family was nevertheless one of his primary interests. It brings together Durkheim's ideas on the family from diverse sources and presents his family and sociology systematically and comprehensively. Chapter topics include: * Durkheim's life and times * his evolutionary theory of the family * methodologies for studying the family * the changing relationship of kin * conjugal family and the state * the interior of the family * family policy * gender * sexuality His work is situated in it's historical context and comparisons are drawn to present-day sociology of the family and family issues.

The World of Odysseus

The World of Odysseus
Author: M. I. Finley
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2002-09-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1590170172

The World of Odysseus is a concise and penetrating account of the society that gave birth to the Iliad and the Odyssey--a book that provides a vivid picture of the Greek Dark Ages, its men and women, works and days, morals and values. Long celebrated as a pathbreaking achievement in the social history of the ancient world, M.I. Finley's brilliant study remains, as classicist Bernard Knox notes in his introduction to this new edition, "as indispensable to the professional as it is accessible to the general reader"--a fundamental companion for students of Homer and Homeric Greece.