The one-third to one-half of children who outlived at least one of their parents lived in stepfamilies or with just their surviving parent. Many European parents of colonial children died because average life expectancy was only 45 years. Because nuclear families among African Americans slaves were difficult to achieve, slaves adapted by developing extended families, adopting orphans, and taking in other people not related by blood or marriage. Nomadic Native American groups had relatively small nuclear families, while nonnomadic groups had larger extended families. One consequence of early mortality was that many children could expect to outlive at least one of their parents and thus essentially were raised in one-parent families or in stepfamilies (Gottlieb, 1993).ĭuring the American colonial period, different family types abounded, and the nuclear family was by no means the only type (Coontz, 1995). In medieval Europe, for example, people died early from disease, malnutrition, and other problems. In fact, although nuclear families remain the norm in most societies, in practice they are something of a historical rarity: Until about a century ago, many spouses died by their mid-forties, and many babies were born out of wedlock. Rather, it is meant simply to indicate that the nuclear family is not the only viable form of family organization (Seccombe, 2012). To say this is meant neither to extol divorce, births out of wedlock, and fatherless families nor to minimize the problems they may involve. As indicated by the examples just given, children can and do thrive without two parents. If that is true, perhaps the oft-cited concern over the “breakdown” of the 1950s-style nuclear family in modern America is at least somewhat undeserved. But they do indicate that the functions of the nuclear family can be achieved through other family arrangements. These examples do not invalidate the fact that nuclear families are almost universal. In particular, children are cared for and grow up to be productive members of their societies (Smith, 1996). Despite the absence of a father and the lack of a nuclear family, this type of family arrangement seems to have worked well in these societies. In these societies, a father does not live with a woman after she has his child and sees them either irregularly or not at all. In recent decades, one-parent families have become more common in the United States because of divorce and births out of wedlock, but they were actually very common throughout most of human history because many spouses died early in life and because many babies were born out of wedlock.Īlthough many prehistoric societies featured nuclear families, a few societies studied by anthropologists have not had them. Many one-parent families begin as (two-parent) nuclear families that dissolve upon divorce or separation or, more rarely, the death of one of the parents. An extended family, which consists of parents, their children, and other relatives, has a nuclear family at its core and was quite common in prehistoric societies. The nuclear family has existed in most societies with which scholars are familiar. It is important to keep this last statement in mind, because Americans until the last few decades thought of only one type of family, and that is the nuclear family: A married heterosexual couple and their young children living by themselves under one roof. Yet it is also true that many types of families have existed, and the cross-cultural and historical record indicates that these different forms of the family can all “work”: They provide practical and emotional support for their members and they socialize their children. Defined in this way, the family is universal or nearly universal: Some form of the family has existed in every society, or nearly every society, that we know about (Starbuck, 2010). Describe the major marriage and family arrangements in the United States today.Ī family is a group of two or more people who are related by blood, marriage, adoption, or a mutual commitment and who care for one another.Understand the status of the nuclear family in the United States since the colonial period.Describe why many children throughout history have not lived in a nuclear family.
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