Home and Family: Concept, Functions, Types and Changing Roles
Home Science Paper I opens with the family because every other domain - food, clothing, money, housing - is managed inside it. Expect direct questions on definitions, the listed functions of a family, identifying a family type from a description, and the effect of social change on roles.
Home and family defined
A house is a physical structure of walls and roof; a home is the emotional and social unit living in it. A family is a group of persons related by blood, marriage or adoption, living together and sharing resources and responsibilities.
Functions
- Biological - reproduction and physical care of members.
- Economic - earning, budgeting, consuming, division of labour.
- Socialisation - teaching language, values, manners and roles.
- Emotional - security, affection, belonging.
- Protective - shelter, health care, care of the old and disabled.
- Educational, religious and recreational functions.
Types
Nuclear (parents plus unmarried children) versus joint (two or more generations sharing a kitchen and property). Residence: patrilocal (wife moves to the husband's home) or matrilocal. Authority: patriarchal or matriarchal. Marriage: monogamous or polygamous. The family of orientation is the one you are born into; the family of procreation is the one you create.
Changing roles
Urbanisation, female employment, migration for jobs, smaller families, schooling and mass media have moved women into paid work and men into shared cooking and child care; decisions have become more joint, and the generation gap and elder care have become live issues.
Worked example
Suresh lives in Kanpur with his wife, two children and his parents; his father controls the property and decisions are taken jointly. Type: joint, patrilocal, patriarchal, monogamous; for the children it is also their family of orientation. Reasoning: three generations under one roof with shared property make it joint; the couple living in the husband's parental home makes it patrilocal.
Traps
House and home are not synonyms; a joint family is defined by shared residence and property, not by the number of members; family of procreation is not family of orientation; a nuclear family is not necessarily emotionally isolated.